DEBTRUCTION OF FORESTS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13575, 5 December 1907, Page 7

DEBTRUCTION OF FORESTS.

THE COMING PINCH. A disaster which' happened not long ago in the Pyrenees has an interest' for most countries. The village* of Ouzons j was dominated by the mountain of Segus, once covered by a forest.' The forest disappeared and was replaced by small shrubs on which sheep fed. A violent storm occurred, and the, soil of the slope above the village, being no longer held in place by the powerful root system of the forest, was detached and fell on the village, which was buried under 400,000 cubic yards of matter. The disaster is said' to have been wholly due to the improvidence of the inhabitants of Ouzons. The American weekly which reports this case also prints extracts from a remarkable article by Gifford Pinchot, Chief of the Federal Forest Service, who, although reported to be a millionaire, devotes all his energy to the cause of forestation. He declares — and he is backed up by the President — that "the United States has already crossed the verge of a timber famine so severe that its blighting effects will be felt in every household in the land." He estimates that, at the" present rate of consumption, the supply of timber in the United States will be exhausted in thirty-three years. The lumber business, now the fourth greatest industry in the country, will disappear. All forms of building industries will suffer. Mining will become vastly more expensi/e, and there will be a corresponding rise in coal and iron. The railways, unless a substitute for the wooden sleeper is found, will be profoundly affected, and the cost of transportation will rise. " Farming will be more expensive. Water power for lighting, manufacturing, and transportation will be affected. "Irrigated agriculture will suffer most of all, for the destruction of the forests means the loss of the water as surely as night follows day. With the rise in the cost of producing food, the cost-of food itself will rise. Commerce in general will necessarily be affected by the difficulties of the primary industries upon which it depends. In a word, when the forests fail, the daily life of the average citizen will inevitably feel the pinch on every side, and the forests have already begun to fail, as tho direct result of the suicidal policy of forest destruction , which tho people of the United States have allowed themselves to pursue." Only 20 per cent, of the country's timber land remains in tho possession of the nation.