Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 23, 1902)
Plans for Preservation of the Forests f - IN ATTEMPT to Induce legislation I itX I which will provide moans I I whereby the number of forest $$$&&J fires may be reduced will shortly be made by the Bureau of Forestry, writes the Washington cor respondent of the New York Times. One of the means by which the at tention of legislators will be drawn to this Important question will be the cir culation of a bulletin entitled "Forest Fires," which has been prepared by Alfred RasklU. It will be shown that, In addition to the enormous loss of property which oc curs every year by reason of these fires, an annual average of sixty human lives hist may be ascribed to the same cause. Travelers say that when a tree Is cut down In Japan another tree must be planted In Its place. In the United States no serious attempt to protect the forests has been made, though the woodlands were being destroyed In the year 1000 at the rate of 50,000 square miles per annum, or one twentieth of the entire timber area of the United States. If the present pace could be continued for twenty years there would not be any forest area available in 1020, or, if the stripping now going on could b; concentrated upon the 82,000 square miles comprising government forest reservations, national parks and state reservations, there would not be a vestige of forest on them at the end of two years, or, to be precise, within twenty months. The methods by which this destruction of national treasures has been brought about may be summarized as follows: Square Miles. To provide sawed lumber 10,590 To provide pulp wood for paper manu facturers 600 To provide telegraph poles, ties, posts, piles, laths, shingles, headings 2,000 To provide Hrewood 21.000 Result of forest tires 16,050 Total 50.140 The sawed lumber figures are compiled from the census publication for 1900. The report of Henry Gannett, geographer of the geological survey, covered all the product of sawed lumber. The pulp wood figures were based on the report of Charles W. Hantoul, Jr., of New York City, the census agent, and disclosed a consumption of 1,618,000 cords of domestic lumber. In ad dition to this evidence of wholesale de struction of forests, the compilation in 1899 by Mr. Gannett in the nineteenth annual report of the geological survey, part V, establishes the fact that the output of tele graph poles, fence posts, ties, logs, staves, laths, Bhingles and headings were about 20 per cent of the sawed lumber measure, or a product of about 2,000 square miles of for ests. The same authority In 1899 showed (page 20) "that we burned, for heating and manufacturing purposes, not less than 180, 000,000,000 feet of board measure," an amount seven times as great as that used in the sawmills, and four times as great as is used for all other purposes. In view of this estimate that the fire wood stripping was seven times that of the sawed lumber stripping, it is conservative to place the area stripped at twice that of the sawed lumber, c.r 21,000 square miles. The total wooded area of the country Is 1,094,496 square miles, and of this territory more than 5 per cent, or one-twentieth, Is an nually stripped, destroying a section greater than the wooded area of any state in the union, except, possibly, Texas, and prac tically blotting out every year the wooded area of tracts as large as Oregon and Min nesota. This area annually stripped is 10, 000 miles in excess of the woodlands of all the New England states. It Is 3,000 square miles In excess of the woodland area of the four middle states, and is greater than the combined timber area of fourteen states of the union. The indifference of the public to this question and the recklessness wlt!j which our forests are laid waste are duo to lack of Information or to erroneous cal culations about the inexhaustibility of our timber supply. It is forgotten that the de cay of overripe timber supplements the work of fire and acts In offsetting natural growth. If our timber crops require thirty three years to mature, or 3 per cent per annum, it is certain that the annual de struction of more than 5 per cent of our wooded area will soon produce extinction. Our forests are diminishing at an alarming rate, and unless protected will, in the course of the next generation, become so limited as to be barely sufficient for local consumption. Startling as are the figures represented by the work of the ax. they are insignifi cant in comparison with the wholesale de struction of forests by fire. The only attempt to estimate the damage done by forest fires within the United States was made In 1880, and the results were published in Vol. IX of the Tenth census. The returns were Incomplete, yet the figures show that in one year 10,274,089 acres (16,050 square miles) were burned over, and that property valued at $25,462, 250 was destroved. There was no means of determining the exact areas of forest or other land which was burned, consequently the money loss stated includes buildings, fences, lumber and standing timber. A few of the states have sought within the last rix or eight years to determine the annual losses by forest fires within their borders, and though. the reports are frag mentary and incomplete, they indicate a rate of destruction not leBS than that shown by the census of 1880. During the four years 1896 to 1899, the fires reported In Pennsylvania destroyed $1,411,309 worth of property, and in Minne sota very partial reports extending from 1S95 to 1900 show a loss of $357,570. For I he far west, where the destruction Is at present greatest, no statistics exist. Henry Gannett snyr, in a recent pub lished report of th- United States Geolog ical survey of the losses by fire In the state of Washington: "Within nineteen counties an area of 3,14 square miles of merchant able timber has been burned, besides 700 squire miles in the mountains not contain ing merchantable lumber." A paper trade publication says: "An nrea as large as Rhode Island Is stripped of its spruce every year to supply the mills that make news paper alone, ami many of the manufacturers think it is none loo early to begin experimenting with Other material for paper making to supplement the spruce sup plies and even to take their place if we cannot grow crops of spruce fust enough to meet the demand." The United States produced In 1900, In 76:! mills, with a capital of $167,000,000, with 52,500 workmen and employes earning $25,247,337, over 2.000,000 tons of paper and pulp, using for the pur pose 765,000-horse power. The United States Paper Maker says: "When the army of axmen that was sent Into the woods of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont and the provinces of New Hrunswick and Nova Scotia last fall ceased their attack on (he spruces and other tim ber trees this spring the result was the biggest crop of logs that has been provided for the pulp mills of the northeast In recent years. "The axmen numbered 65,000, they were assisted by 21.750 horses and they have re ceived In wages nearly $10,000,000. Two things have operated to make all these figures very large this year, the general Improvement In business and the vast ex I aiwion of the wood pulp Industry. "A few years ngo, when business was slow, and the pulp mills had not begun to eat up hundreds of millions of feet of logs. there was not a very brisk demand for the services of woodsmen, and the lumber In dustry was generally in a bad way. Now. however, the operators find it dirtlcult to get enjugh men, even at advanced wages, to cut all the logs wanted; timber lands are Jumping in value, prices of logs are high and everything that can be made from the log, either In sawmill or In pulp mill, Is in quick demand at values that remind old timers of the flush days that followed the civil war." There are over 33,000 mills and factories where lumber Is the staple, employing something like 300,000 people ami capital ized for over $i;oo. ooo, ooo. More than a sixth of this sum Is paid as a yearly wage, more than $300,000,000 Is paid for wood and materials, and the manufactured products are worth $567,000,000. Each mill produces an average of more than 1, 000,000 feet of lumber, board measure. An industry so large and gainful Is worth protecting. Yet there Is none la America that Is so shamefully lacking in protection. Our woods have been stripped from the hills, eagerly, rashly, selfishly, and trees have not been planted to take their places. Rivers have been dried at the source. In consequence of the deforesting, so that saw mills, dependent on water power, have driven themselves out of business, and have also injured the other manufacturing interests of their districts. Men employed In chopping and converting lumber nre cbliged to seek new employments when they have destroyed Ihelr home forests. Farms have been given up in regions thus de prived of moisture, because there was no longer enough water for stock or for home use. So In considering the gains in this business we must also consid r how much greater they might have been and how often they are obtained at a cost to others. The telegraph lines of the country require nearly 600,000 poles annually at a cost of not less than $1,000,000, and the telephone and electric car lines and light systems use as many more. The price of poloB for such BEAUTY HINTS. ew nnl l'i-tn-1ntf lilenn. Hint nnil uses varies immensely, ranging from $1 to 150 ench. If an advance In the price of post timbers Is to bo expected In the next fifteen years, a much greater advance may be expected In timbers of this class. A nosl may be grown comparatively quickly, and In ,111 exigency almost anything can be used, but .1 telegraph pole must be long, straight and of good quality. Timber that fulfill these conditions are few and a number of years nre required to grow them. Six hun dred and twenty million cross ties are in use In the railroads of the country and 90, 000,000 are required annually for renewals, taking the timber from an estimated area of 200,000 acres. Railroad officials realize that tie timber Is becoming scarce and assert that prices are rising rapidly, street car and suburban lines are now using many million feet of lumber for cross ties. il tier, 4 limit Mi I it mi il hc 'frc of 4 niiilelon. t lie a. In each pound package of Lion Coffee from now until Christmas will be found a free game, amusing and instructive 50 different kinds. Get Lion Coffee and a Free Game at Your Grocers. lie Xioat l:ienl c. I'.iilnltc IVrtVol Ttitlrt I'rpiinrntlonn In the World. They consist of A CREAM which is a perfect tissue builder, restoring the skin to Its natural healthy condition, $2. A SKIN TONIC, something entirely new, to be used externally, put up in tablet form. One tablet dissolved III ft bowl of water, not only medicates It. hut perfumes It with a delightful odor, converting It in'o a cool ing, healing nnd beneficial toiile, $1.50. A POWDER for the face which contains n hurtful Ingredients, and Is t hi' finest pow der ever manufactured. $1. A COMPLEX ION MRUSH made In the form of a wedge, the pointed part of the brush being more penetrating as the bristles nre stlffer and of unequal length, a new and good Idei, $1 .25. A MEDICATED SOAP made of the purest, best and most expensive materials ever put Into a soap, equally good In either bard or soft, hot or cold water, 25 cents. All of the preparations are packed In a box called "THE VALIION I1EAUTY HOX." price $5. With this box only are given the Instructions of lionise Vanbonne's physician the most distinguished phys'clan In France. His Instructions nre worth several times ' the price charged for nil the preparations. I SPECIAL SAMPLES AND HOOK. To prove that the Valbon Preparations are "THE FINEST IN THE WORLIV we mall for ten cents a sample of the Soap, Cream, Powder, Skin Tonic Tablets ami our book, one of the daintiest, prettiest books ever printed, full of up to date Ideas about the care of tho complexion, the hands and finger nails, the teeth and hair, etc. Its Illustrations are works of art. VALIION CO. 156 Fifth Ave.. New York. Dogs for sale or nil kinds. Kancv pig eons, Kclglnn bares and ferrets. Send C cents for catalogue. I ..AND! 8, Hox O. Mowers Station. Merks Co.. I'll. If-- :ff w mv'.fy t arts A I Iter., - - -v, - - -J! u r, , . '..- . ?v r . , " ' .'7 r.-: w , r: ; ...... - -- r. 'If) ' f. '"'- i MINUSTEKE DU COMMENCE. UE L' INUUSTUIE. PES I'OSTES ET I)ES TELfitAHIKS fj " , . - I t if si?? j-l EXPOSmOH URIVEipELLE BE Igoo' 1',. ' 1 : SA 1 xP"i,irt" ""live i.-s jtmiNAi x 1,1 i'i hmc.vtidns i'i:iiU)DKi i.s iv)- ' " . l fc I : X - KJL4 ;Ai:n,c.v,Ns ' . ji. f a.) t'li '- i . , n n ii mj-miv. t.,j-M. . r i,Ai Miinv "j - " 4k- Tvt - '' '" -l;i .m-ms . f'ff Xt fa u .w.s.u,, (,.. . ,,.,., rt ' i;i 4 ' V ;.V Y'A r '-ti : l ' jlisn.i LI l ltut.t:unt.s J' i i YV ! ;C C . v if ," " ... in m ah rili""i ' l( ' V'.. "V 1 . v.. 1 ' i i - '- i-1 1 - ' '-i. l ; v Reproduction of the diploma awarded by the Paris Exposition, lt)()(), to National Printing Co., Omaha There were only sixteen printing firms that were awarded drand I'rlx diplomas at the World's Exposition held at Paris in 1H00, and we are proud to say that cue Omaha firm has thus been honored. It is the National Printing company, which is recognized as one of the leading institutions of Omaha. The plant of the company was established In 18S9 by Mr. John Roslcky, the presidi nt and general manager, who, however, has been In the publishing and printiio; business In this city eince 1S76. The National Printing company is located in the three-story and basement building, 50f! - 511 South Twilfih street, right In the heart of the wholesale and business district. The front part of the first floor Is occupied by well appointed ollli es and counting rom. all furnished in massive black walnut. The rear part of the building forms a well lighted Job room, supplied with all tin- latest type faces and printing material, in charge 0f Mr. F. L. Brandt. The press room can he reached from the composing room, being located in the bas in nt. Th" same Is in charge of Mr. J. Harry Minds and contains three cylinders and as many small Job presses, all driven by electric power. The bindery mi l blank-bo k manufacturing department is located on the sec nd flo' r and Is under the supervision of Mr. Henry Hofmelster. who has had a score of yea's of exneriein e. bavin b arned the irad- and has by his many years' residence here established a reputation in that line second to none. This department has but recently been with the latest machinery and appliances. A well-aoDointed riailini; room, where all th naners i,rlnt..,i i,v il.w firm nr.. t,,i,n..,i i uh The third floor contains the linotype room, where machine composition for the various publications in several languages is being set ui. floor is occupied by large editorial rooms, for both the agricultural bi-weekly Hohim dar and the family weekly. Kvety Americke. Mr. Fred superintendent of the plant he Is a thorough printer, with first-class business abilities, and makes friends with all who come in contact who has been In business here for twenty ytars or more, U the becitlary of the company. A force of forty to in the old country years ago, established and is supplied located on the second floor. The front part of the third W. Wallwey is the general with him. Mr. K. W. Ilartoa, an old resident of the city, fifty people is employed by this concern all the time.
