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PORTLAND, OREGON, : . SUNDAY HORNING, NOVEMBER '.8. : 1903
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THE COSTLY-LESSQNlfi A'-fifei '"SV:5.''v V1
TAUGHT-BV SWEEPING'' 111 , :'X 5-"'. X 'X
BLAMES THIS YEAR -'H' X Mr j;-; ?' .f: X
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r7lHAT dense fall of smoke which :
" overhung vast areas of the United
Atf ar(y autumn, and spread far out to sea',
has cost the country close to $iootOOO,ooo,
it is estimated. X. -
; -7 A?f aWr wjVw o fta; friendly -soil
the ally that is our ultimate depend
ence and must forever be our dependence .
after all others shall fail, barren of hope
of resurrection for long years to come.
It robbed us of the waters that are- our
other indispensable aid, and prepared the
torrents which are pur overwhelming foes.
opened the million paths by "which ,
those numberless' torrents of, the near fix
ture': shall rob of their riches enormous -
areas destined by nature to support whole y
populations.' It set back 'civilization; withy
all -itsimiiltiplyingwealthsp indefinitely
over territories eaual to foreign kinrdomt;
What has the nation to,learn from;
this latest, most terrible consequence aty
tending its Belshazzas feast, in which it .
so riotously wastes its resources? t '
J
i
'r.-, 1
Tririal ."appropriations, for .which the few
J far-seeing tadyoca'tes .of proper
tion' are , atrmng, would be f
forest conserra-
forthcoming with
scarcely a day VdelavX '
, The careless tamper, the heedless farmer
. burning ; brush, ' the- director of the railroad
refusing, td provide 'due safeguards against en
i gine sparks.'-the whole selfish leirion' of criini-
' nallj" negligent ; would be as , instantly f classed
project could have been launched into practical
utility, with its watersheds infinitely, better, con
trolled than they can be after so many" million
acres have been denuded of their forest nrotec'
tion. ' - " ' ' , ' X
Those, are estimates of the kind that Jeave
their reader sitting as , calm and unmoved as
when he learned that the Argentine is. produc
ing more, cattle this year than- last.
withXthe fewXwilful incendiaries ; whose actiri- ." But when it is tooted that this loss of il00
';n .......1 ui-k - rinrrftnn ia thn Atreft loss of evprv mnn. wnman
ties, in several. districts, have started fires , which.
generations' of -care must go to make amends
for.i
and child in the land to be, felt now;, with butX
: : little interval
.X.X; . ) ' . .. .. - -, .
put suffer a setback beyond repair; all construc
tions into which lumber enters, frou rocking
chairs to dwellings, cost ' more for occupancy
and ownership. Onr very food supplies feel the
costly effects of the long-protracted series of
disasters. - t
' Officers of the United States Forest Serrwe,
which has had its most able experts, on" the
. ground, are agreed that it is doubtful whether
'the actual losses of this feapfully expensive
yt:BLT will ever be known. But it is ajireftdy ap- '
' p'awjnt that no part of the country escaped the
devastation of the flames. ' '
Disasters which occurred ; in . Minnesota,
Michigan and Wisconsin proved to be the worst
that befell the lake states during the whole
year. All the way from the" Pacific; coasand
the Eocky mountain districts to the New Eng
' land states and Canada spring, summer and
"early fall brought on a growing seriea of forest
fires that culminated in what was really close
to the conflagration of a continent.
The estimate of Dr. W. J. McOee; - the
' erosion expert of the United s States ,Depart
ment of Agriculture an estimate considered
conservative by the . Forestry . . Bureau--place .
the aggregate loss, in all parts of the 'country 1
during '-the months - of this year's conflagrations, , t
at $1,000,OOQ a day. ' . X ' ' '
But the Forestry Service, as the fires of ibis
fall were drawing to their destructive - close,
estimated that the loss to the new growth alone
was very nearly as much more, if the iotal ,
original losses were rated at $100,000,000.
If it were not for the forest fires we could .
expect an additional growth of twenty cubio
feet per acre every year,- which, for a( ' total
"forest area of approximately 500,000,000. acres,; '
would amount to 10,000,000,000 cubic feet That .:'
equals 45,000,000,000 feet, board measure more ,X
than the total consumption of saw timber- in
the United States. ' X
PERMANENT YEARLY LOSS ,
At $2 per 1000 feet, the new growth of '
timber not merely checked, hut utterly de
stroyed for an indefinite period represents a -.
permanent yearly loss of national income
amounting to $90,000,000.
For this year it is as yet impossible to
count up accurately the" number of lives that
have been sacrificed. The official count for the
thirty years preceding this shows 195C victims, ,
or sixty-five lives annually. X The year 1903 will -bring,
the average up appreciably.- . X
The whole history of the nation has been
one of a series, never really interrupted, of an- '
nual conflagrations in its forests. The census
figures for 1880 gave the area burned per year of
, 10,000,000 acres; but the Division of Forestry, .
in 1891, ' collected records of 12.000,000 " acres
burned over in a single year, with an estimate X
of timber actually destroyed as amounting to V
from $25,000,000. to $50,000,000. !1; ,
" Since then the value of "stumpage hat
.. tiulti plied itself fivefold. " However much the '
yeirly waste of our woodlands may have been
'reduced in " board measure, the loss , in . values
has enormously-increased, for, at the price of
lumber today, 2,000,000 acres burned over how -.
cost as much as 0,000,000 were worth in 1S80,
"We have," sayiB. S. Kellogg, of the forest ""
service,, "a forest area in. the United States
that has been variously estimated at from 500,
000,000 to 700,000,000 acres. We are not sure
.'which is correct, but it is probably the smaller
estimate. The board foot measure of the tim
ber standing onrthia acreage may range fro m
1,400,000,000,000 to 2,000,000,000,000 and agai a
the smaller estiinate is probably. th; right -onw. '
We are using, annuajly, in ' the . torm , o t
.T-FCTHfi XgreatlyX: preponderant. " irreatlv V.
, I r iapatnetic majority ofl those 80,000,000 of' .'their neat two-story. homes-in the cities if all
JL ur population, woo., saw noting of those . Iheee;, cheerfully indifferent -aouls, in company , . With; the - miffibns jso' wantonly eJWed to coraes-ut
Ttemflofore.s1firexcept.th
ness rnev mnaiv irrumDiea over, conici rm tmni. t . . ' . . - , i. v.. i n , . ' , i - v. - a
ftorti frnm nWr 88?l ai,a "?ie 78lo'V C0J"? X C,B" mps couiu -nave wen pvem w.. - -1 lAlLJtXl'. all ihe other iten together..
sr - - - - w . a x wue ' iim run an iahwm e v. a o n a1 on(vi ni -- ti an nn n a jn m' a a ttma - niin mn lavira ' r iir i i i iNniius ui liirii. ur Livnu til wuiii
?eireleg?nt.e.d
dweUings; from.ijew into a year foredoomed tOA bo ' equipped Wi th gullies instead -M"n: ' U of
tnent auitei. and, from their-bigjactonca and . il!v be - (continued Ox insids pao;:. .
i.. v- -i - . u.t Jf Ar.n mm rrn . j
r-?? ihinvU -and lath. 3.000.000.000' feet:' la. cross
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