Oklahoma Arbor and Bird Day, Friday, March Twelfth, 1909/Part One: Arbor Day/Why We Should Encourage Tree Planting

WHY WE SHOULD ENCOURAGE TREE PLANTING.

"The civilized nations of the world strike three million matches every minute of the twenty-four hours. Nearly one-half of these are ignited in this country. Americans use up the enormous total of seven hundred billion a year, and have a larger match bill than any other nation in the world.

Hundreds of factories over the country are engaged in this industry, about which the general public knows but little. Some of the plants are very large; one on the Pacific Coat covers 240 acres, and has thirty-two miles of railroad to supply the match machines with 200,000 feet of sugar pine and yellow pine logs a day.

The rejected timber from the match factories is good enough to be made into many articles of a larger size; and the by product end of the match business becomes the largest end, so far as bulk is concerned. Among the by-products turned out by a large Pacific Coast factory are 1,000 doors and 800 sashes daily.

As a matter of fact, it would be impossible to carry on the match business at all, at present prices, if the rejected lumber were not worked into something else. The room where matches are made is frequently the smallest department of a match factory. The larger portions contain the sawmills and planing mills where doors, sash, shingles, lath, siding, posts, cordwood, and many other salable commodities are made ready for market.

Wood for matches is a much more serious problem in some of the European countries than it is as yet in the United States. The most suitable match timbers, are, pine, linden, aspen, white cedar, poplar, birch and willow. Others, however, are occasionally used. Germany imports willow and aspen from Russia. Some time ago the Germany match manufacturers petitioned the minister of agriculture to cause the foresters to plant aspen in the state forests to supply wood for matches without importing."—Forestry and Irrigation.

"In the United States, as well as in Canada, a diligent search for choice forests is maintained, and very large tracts have been bought by companies in the match business, not only to meet present demands, but to provide for years to come. In a single year one match company cut 225 million board feet of pine in the Lake region. The cut in that instance was exceptionally large, however, in order to save timber which was threatened by the ravages of a bark beetle. There are more than 150 match manufacturers in the United States, and about half that number in Canada.

In common with other industries of the United States which depend upon existing forests, the match-makers are within sight of a shortage in the wood supply. When present timber holdings have been depleted, they cannot be duplicated. If forced to economize, the people of this country might get along with fewer than twenty-five or thirty matches a day per capita as at present; but they will probably insist on having them, and will demand, as in Germany and France, that foresters plant and grow timber especially for matches. This could readily be done if forests were placed under competent management and not left to run wild, producing cordwood and brush when they ought to grow merchantable timber."—Forestry and Irrigation.