154 



CONSERVATION 



PROFIT IN FORESTS 



Can private owners afford to hold 

 and improve forests ? Light was thrown 

 on this question by the following state- 

 ment and colloquy : 



Dr. J. T. Rothrock: 



A few years ago we purchased from the 

 lumbermen of Pennsylvania 14,000 acres of 

 land, at a price, I think, of $2 an acre. 

 These same gentlemen came to our office a 

 short time ago and made a formal offer to 

 us of five times as much money as they had 

 received from the state, merely for permis- 

 sion to go on that land again and re-timber 

 it- — cut the timber off. It was stripped land 

 when we got it. The price of lumber has 

 gone up to such an extent that they were 

 willing to give us five times as much as 

 they had received for the land, and give us 

 the land back, they only taking the timber. 



I am free to say here that if the state of 

 Pennsylvania, by legislative enactment, were 



to offer all the land it has in a block, a 

 syndicate would be formed inside of a 

 month that would take the whole of the 

 state's holdings off its hands at twice what 

 it paid for them. 



Mr. William Canfield Lee: 



Dr. Rothrock, if, as you say, these lands 

 have advanced so in value that ihey could 

 all be sold readily at a much advanced price, 

 what becomes of the argument that private 

 owners cannot afford to maintain and im- 

 prove the forests? 



Dr. Rothrock : 



I do not think there is very much in that, 

 except that they have to wait so long before 

 there is any profit. My own belief is that 

 any man who owns forest land can afford 

 to take care of it, and he will get a good 

 return in his lifetime. That is my belief, 

 but you cannot get the majority of men to 

 believe that. 



View Showing llie Remaining Portion of the Arizona Dam, Wliich Was Washed Away by Flood 



