LUMBERMEN AND LUMBER JOURNALS 



The Lumberman's Attitude Toward Forestry 



By JOHN E, RHODES, President Minnesota Forestry Association 

 Reprinted from the Minnesota Horticulturist 



I am interested in forestry in spite of the 

 fact that I am in the lumber business. I 

 might say I am interested in forestry be- 

 cause I am in the kimber business. The 

 lumbermen have looked upon the forester in 

 the past as a good deal of a crank. There 

 was considerable antagonism between the for- 

 ester and the lumbermen. It is the lumber- 

 man who blazes the path. While the theorist 

 looks around for danger, the practical man 

 has his gaze concentrated upon his own busi- 

 ness. There are on my grandfather's farm 

 in New York a good many stumps of black 

 walnut larger around than this desk. Those 

 trees were originally cut for firewood, because 

 at that time they had no value and could not 

 be cut for lumber ; hence they were used for 

 fuel. The same is true of lumber opera- 

 tions in this country. They cut the white 

 pine because it had the greatest value ; later 

 they cut the Norway ; and as the price of 

 lumber has advanced the log has decreased 

 in size, the available trees of highest value 

 have decreased, and they have taken one 

 species after another. The lumbermen are 

 taking increased interest in forestry simply 

 because the timber supply is getting to a 

 point where they can aflford to do so. 



There are two obstacles to the practice of 

 forestry. Lumbermen are confronted first by 

 the fire risk. There is more timber burned 

 in this country every year than is cut by the 

 lumbermen — a great deal more. The lum- 

 bermen feel they should not be criticized for 

 what is called "wanton destruction of the 

 forests." Lumbermen are engaged in the 

 cutting of the timber for the purpose of sup- 

 plying the demand that exists for it, and 

 the public generally is equally responsible and 

 should share that responsibility with the lum- 

 bermen. The great prairie sections tributary 

 to Minneapolis, the great state of Iowa, south- 

 ern Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Da- 

 kota, could not have been built up by the 

 people with the rapidity they have been had 

 it not been for the near and cheap supply of 

 lumber, and if these great forests had not 

 been sacrificed, the present development of 

 this great prairie country would have been 

 impossible. It would not only have meant 

 much to the development of this prairie sec- 

 tion, but it would have meant much to the 

 nation at large and to the world at large 

 if the sacrifice of these forests had not been 

 made. 



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As the lumber production has decreased 

 and the price of timber has increased from 

 50 cents to $5 and $10 per thousand feet, it 

 has become possible to consider the ex- 

 penditure of money for fire protection and 

 for other things relating to forestry. Some 

 reference has been made to the burning of 

 slashings, and by that is meant the refuse 

 left from logging operations. Lumbermen 

 having large interests found that their prop- 

 erty was menaced by timber in which the 

 "slashings" had not been burned, and they 

 favored the law which was passed by Min- 

 nesota requiring slashings to be burned. That 

 law is being generally complied with. The 

 lumbermen found it did not cost as much 

 as they thought it would, and they are now 

 taking care of the slashings at 25 cents to 50 

 cents per thousand on an average They are 

 sorry they did not do it years ago, and when 

 they add 25 cents to the present value of the 

 timber for fire protection it is a small per- 

 centage of the cost compared with what it 

 was when standing timber was worth $1 per 

 thousand. 



Lumbermen in the west are interested in 

 organizing extensive fire protection systems 

 and are cooperating with the nation and state 

 in an effort to establish a federal system of 

 control, putting in telephone lines, hiring ex- 

 tra men during the dangerous season, and 

 taking every possible precaution to protect 

 their timber from fire. The chief cause of 

 fires is railroads ; forty-five out of every hun- 

 dred fires are started by locomotives. Rail- 

 roads cooperate actively in keeping their 

 rights of way cleared of dead grass and 

 leaves because it is in that way that fires 

 usually start. Thirty-five out of every hundred 

 forest fires are started by settlers clearing land. 

 If the land is to be used for cultivation, the 

 settlers are anxious to clear it off as rapidly 

 as possible, and the quickest way to do this 

 is to burn the refuse, and they are not cau- 

 tious enough in taking care of these fires. 

 When there is a high wind and a dry season, 

 there is extreme danger. It was the settlers 

 who caused the fires in northern Minnesota 

 and Wisconsin two years ago. Those fires 

 worked such great destruction that the set- 

 tlers who were responsible for starting them 

 were arrested and taken before a justice of 

 the peace in the town, where they were fined 

 $5, and they said : "It is worth more to us 

 than that to have our land cleared." There 



