Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 November 1877 — How Long Will the Forests Last? [ARTICLE]

How Long Will the Forests Last?

Under such a tremendous yearly drain, the question naturally comes up, How long will our forests hold out at the present rate of manufacture? It is really an important question, upon wKicn unib'ws ’ fift* ihquh vWTiJ what we are to do for building material when this magnificent wood—pine—is exhausted. One authority after another has entered formally upon its solution, with satisfactory results in focal instances, but very vague ones as to the field at large. At the rate we~afecutting it to-day, from thirty to fifty years seem to be agreed upon as about the limit. Twenty years ago there was apparently no limit, for the consumption was not only less, but the means for its manufacture were primitive, and accomplished much smaller results than now. It seems as if it were impossible to further improve the machinery of saw-mills; but the near future may, for all that, see sawing machinery in comparison to which that of the present will be contemptible. So, although twenty years ago there was no foreseeing the end of the timber, now, with the modern mills and myriads of them, we are beginning to calculate with dire certainty as to the time when the “Wooden Age” will be a thing of the past.— Charles D. Robinson, in Scribner for December. —“ Curious thing about that statue ’of W ash in gton, ” saidoldSmashpipes, in a musing sort of tone, as he sauntered past Independence Hall with .Starlight. “Curious thing, always shrinks when it rains, you know.” say so?” said Starlight. “ Fact!” muttered the oilman. “Every time it rains it becomes a mere statue-wet!” And the old man's left thumb went under Starlight’s fifth rib with tremendous violence.—Philadelphia Bulletin.