82 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



NO IMMEDUTE DANGER OF 

 SERIOUS LUMBER SHORTAGE 



you are here to consider. The effect on the cost of paper is 

 far-reaching, and of great economic consequence. 



Germany was well prepared for this World War, and 

 part of her economic preparation was seen in the fact that 

 she has been unequalled in the perfection and practice of 

 forestry. The care for years with which Germany has pro- 

 tected her timber, and her laws not only compelling in 

 effect the replanting but making replanting profitable and, 

 therefore, economically possible, are among the things that 

 stand out in clearrelicf from the viewpointof preparedness. 



There is no imme- 

 diate danger, if we 

 use our forests rightly, 

 of a serious shortage 

 in our lumber supply, but the time is here when theconserv- 

 ation of our forest resources demands more serious and 

 real economic consideration. It seems to me that the con- 

 servation of our privately-owned forest resources will never 

 really become effective on a sufficient scale, until there is 

 a prospective profit in practicing forest conservation. 



Our great National forests, now under Government ad- 

 ministration, should be supplemented to a greater extent 

 by State and Mimicipal forests, as only the Nation, State or 

 the Town can afford to hold forest lands in reservation, the 

 cost of tax exemption forest management, and protection 

 being a burden of all the peoijle, and these properties 

 thus free from the often heavy local taxation of pri\-ately- 

 owned forests should be largely held in reserve until logs at 

 the saw-mill are worth the cost of raising the crop. 



The official Government fig- 



CONSUMPTIONAND 

 PRICES OF LUMBER 



ures show that the lumber 

 manufacturer in 1915 received 

 10 per cent less per thousand 

 feet for his product than in 1906. The average of lumber 

 prices in 1916 at the saw-mills will average little more 

 than those of 1915, and at Southern pine mills not as 

 much as the prices of 1913; and this when the average 

 citizen of this country uses over 400 feet of Ivunber yearly 

 — more extravagant in the use of lumber than the people 

 of any other land. The best estimate of lumber used in 

 1916 in the United States was about 42 billion feet as 

 against 38 billion used in 1915. 



The forest and lumber industry is the greatest of our 



industries which has not greatly benefited by the World 

 War. There are no v/ar brides in the shares of Lumber 

 Companies. Such low prices for lumber at producing 

 points — away below the costs of reproduction through 

 forestry methods — are against the interests desiring the 

 conser\'ation of these resources. You can't continue to 

 have your cake and eat it too, when you buy your cake 

 at less than the cost of raising the grain and sugar. 



The values of the trees in the forest — stumpage values 

 we call them — have in recent years steadily increased, 

 but even at present prices forest trees at the source are 

 the most reasonable crop that grows — cheaper, I believe, 

 than wheat at 25 cents a bushel, or com at 10 cents a 

 bushel, or cotton at 5 cents a pound. Suppose that cotton 

 or grain were century plants, like large pine trees; it would 

 require a comptometer to compute the price of bread for 

 breakfast. 



You can't produce a dense population of men and a 

 large stand of pine, or hard wood, on the same land. We 

 raise a useful man in, say, twenty to twenty-five years. 

 It takes very much longer to raise a tree useful for wide 

 boards or timber. A boy usually produces little or noth- 

 ing until he becomes of age. This is equally true of the 

 tree raised for lumber of considerable dimensions. W^e 

 have been a happy people in consuming forests that were 

 here before we came, but now we must realize that timber 

 like other crops must be worth the cost of production. 



A striking indication of a 



A BETTER PUBLIC 

 UNDERSTANDING 



better understanding by the 

 public of the problems in forest 

 ownership and lumber produc- 

 tion is given by the report of the Special Committee on 

 Natural Resources of the Chamber of Commerce of the 

 United States, which, through Referendum No. 17 of 

 that organization, recommends legislation to permit 

 cooperative agreements under Federal supervision in 

 those industries wliich involve primary natural resources 

 on conditions that the agreements tend to conserve the 

 resources and promote the public interest. When trade 

 organizations representing every phase of American 

 industry vote in favor of these recommendations — as they 

 have done — it is a most hopeful sign for an ultimate con- 

 servation of our natural resources through wise use. 



THE announcement of the short practical courses in for- 

 estry and lumbering that will be given by the Univer- 

 sity of Washington, at Seattle, has just been sent out. 

 These courses extend from Jan. 3 to March 30. Dean Hugo 

 Winkenwerder, of the college of forestry, is in charge. 



As these are short practical courses and arranged 

 especially for young men who have not had a high school 

 education and who can not afford to spend a long time at 

 the university they offer an exceptionally good opportunity, 

 for men regularly engaged in some form of woods work, 

 and for those who intend to enter such work, to get a 

 practical education. 



* * * "This year we are increasing the wcrk in the 

 special course in ' Lumber and Its Uses.' This course 

 is outlined with special reference to presenting this 

 information for the use of persons engaged in office work 

 at the sawmiUs, lumber salesmen, architects, engineers, 

 builders and building inspectors." 



TESTS at the Forest Products Laboratory, at Madison, 

 Wisconsin, indicate that by the use of four additional 

 nails in each end an increase of 300 per cent in the 

 strength of canned food boxes is secured. 



APPROXIMATELY 10,390 acres of denuded lands 

 within the National Forests were reforested in the 

 fiscal year 1916. The total number of trees planted 

 was 6,146,637, while 8,280 pounds of tree seed were sown. 



THERE were 133,442 more cattle and horses, and 

 605,338 more sheep and goats using the National 

 Forests in 1916 than in 1915. This increase was in 

 spite of large eliminations of grazing lands from the 

 Forests. It is accounted for by improved methods of 

 handling the stock and by more intimate knowledge of 

 the forage on the ranges and their carrying capacity. 



