"What are we going to do?" repeated the boy.
"We can do one of two things," said Ralph sagely, "We can follow in the footsteps of China and let the land go to ruin; or we can follow the example of Germany, take care of our forests—or what is left of them—and plant new ones. It is one of the greatest questions in this country to-day, and you are going to hear a lot about it before you are twenty-one."
[LIII]
LUMBER: NO. 2
The lumber business ranks fourth in the great industries of the United States. The Department of Forestry at Washington estimates that we are using three times as much wood yearly as the annual growth of the forest.
A grand total of 150,000,000,000 board feet of lumber for all purposes, including firewood, is the estimated amount, a figure the mind can hardly grasp.
The railroads of our country rest on 1,200,000,000 ties. The average life of a tie is about ten years, so that we must replace one tenth, or 120,000,000, each year. As the average forest produces two hundred ties to the acre, this item alone calls for half a million acres of woods every year.
The tie is only one item in the great business of railroading, immense quantities of lumber being required for trestles, platforms, stations, bridges, etc., so that a full million of acres must be cut annually to keep our railroads operating.
Place this item against the fifteen million burned, and the statement may be made that we burn enough each year to supply the railroads for fifteen years. To offset this loss several railroad companies are now planting trees for a future supply, as the many attempts to supplant the wooden tie with a manufactured one have not been very successful.