893. North Carolina Tar.—Eight million dollars is the sum earned annually by the people of North Carolina from the making of tar. The pine forests that yield tar are not costly, but a large amount of acreage is required.
894. Vermont Maple Sugar.—The people of Vermont last year earned more than $12,000,000 by making maple sugar. It is one of the surest sources of revenue. The work is light, pleasant and romantic.
895. Alabama Chestnuts.—Thousands of acres of chestnut timber are wasted in Alabama because its worth is not known. The timber is felled for the tanbark, but the Commissioner of Forests estimates that in a single region $50,000 could be made annually by cutting this waste wood into railroad ties.
896. Idaho Cedar.—The finest body of red cedar on the continent exists in the State of Idaho. Red cedar is one of the most valuable of woods. Endless tracts can be purchased now for $10 an acre. It is probable that in ten or fifteen years, with better railroad facilities, the standing wood alone without the land cannot be purchased for $100 per acre.
897. Maine Birch Wood.—Nearly all the wood used in making spools for thread in this country and in Great Britain is supplied by the Maine forests. So great is the demand, and so profitable the work of felling the trees that the birch wood of this State is being rapidly consumed. A good, though long-time investment can be found in the setting out of birch trees on the waste lands of New England. A thousand acres of land, not worth $10 an acre at present, may be stocked with birch trees, which can be sold in from twenty-five to thirty years for $40 per acre. Profits, less taxes, $30,000.
898. Southern Canes.—One of the most important factors of modern civilization is paper. The United States consumes yearly about $75,000,000 worth of paper. From rags, which once afforded all the material for paper making, but which are now entirely insufficient, manufacturers are experimenting with all kinds of vegetable growth in search of the best paper pulp. Paper is now being made of the fiber of trees. In the Southern States there is a kind of coarse cane which affords an inexhaustible supply, with a peculiar adaptation for the purposes of paper making. Here is a hint for the benefit of the one first to seize it. A buyer who should purchase a thousand acres, or even ten thousand acres, of paper cane would soon find a profitable market.
CHAPTER XXVII.
MONEY IN THE SEA.
The Magician who Makes Gold Swim—$30,000,000 in a Shoal of Cod—200 per cent. Profits in Salmon—How French Sardines are Made in Maine—Vast Money in Bivalves—John Bull, Brother Jonathan, and the Seal Fisheries—Chasing a Greenland Whale—Old Salts who Have Made their “Pile”—Why Salt Fish is Worth More than Fresh—The Greatest Reservoir of Wealth—A Leaf from a Business Ledger.
Gold floats in the air, swims in the sea, springs up out of the earth, and lies deep hid in the mountain bed. How can gold swim? In the form of millions upon millions of tiny creatures whose destruction brings gold into the pockets of their captors. Literally, the ocean is the biggest field of revenue on the planet. It is a reservoir of wealth which all the ages are not likely to exhaust. Further, the ocean, unlike the land, has not been and cannot be partitioned out among individual owners. Any man can enter upon any body of water not actually occupied by another, and appropriate all that he finds there. The following are among the most profitable of the fisheries:
899. Oregon Salmon.—The female salmon lays a thousand eggs for every pound of her weight. For salmon profits go to Oregon. Immense factories, making enormous profits, are already in the field, but there is room for more.