36o 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



lated, illustrates the national incidence 

 of this whole question, because all sec- 

 tions alike have to use the forest prod- 

 ucts which not all may profitably pro- 

 duce. 



Lumbermen, Captain White urged, 

 should be as diligent in conserving for- 

 ests and making their land produce a 

 paying crop as farmers in studying the 

 production of agricultural crops and 

 the maintenance of soil fertility. We 

 quote the following particularly sug- 

 gestive statement: 



In the south we are cutting over two and 

 a quarter million acres of yellow pine every 

 year, or about 7,500 acres every day, pro- 

 ducing 13,000,000,000 feet of lumber each 

 year, and twenty per cent waste makes the 

 enormous sum of 2,600,000,000 feet of lumber. 

 This means loss to the transportation com- 

 panies in freight of 173,000 carloads each 

 year, and at $7 a thousand means an annual 

 loss to labor of $18,200,000. And in the 

 entire Nation we are cutting 40,000,000,000 

 feet annually, leaving 8,000,000 acres a year of 

 cut-over lands, and a total waste from un- 

 salable low grades of at least 6,000,000,000 

 feet, or half a million carloads annually lost 

 to the country. Add to this the estimated 

 loss of $50,000,000 by fires every year, and 

 we have a total loss to the Nation and to 

 the world of over $100,000,000 per annum. 



At this rapid rate of forest cutting, some- 

 body will soon have to plant trees, and it is 

 best that we should begin soon. There are 

 doubtless localities in each state where some 

 variety of trees can be produced more eco- 

 nomically and profitably than other crops. 

 Trees do not exhaust the soil, and they thrive 

 on soil that has been exhausted by other 

 crops. It is our duty to study forestry, our 

 greatest prosperity is coming through the 

 practice of wise methods, and it is the great 

 privilege and duty of lumbermen to help lead 

 in this great work, and not leave it to mere 

 theorists and to impractical and unwise poli- 

 ticians to pass laws that will not only injure 

 lumber manufacturers, but will injure the 

 cause of forestry. 



Referring to the prohibition of pulp 

 wood exports from Canada, Captain 

 White found this a text, also, for he 

 held that we must meet such limita- 

 tions.of our supply by learning to utilize 

 the waste of cottonwood, yellow pine, 

 fir, hemlock, and other woods to make 

 paper. In this connection there is an 

 illustration given by the writer of the 

 article in System, to which we have al- 

 ready referred. The New York and 

 Pennsylvania company, which is pri- 



marily a paper company, sends all its 

 clear logs to the sawmill, making pulp 

 from slabs, tops, and imperfect trunks. 

 This problem of saving of waste is 

 many-sided, as will be seen. While its 

 fundamental principle is simple, it has 

 an infinite variety of applications. 



We can by reforestation and intensive 

 forest cultivation make two trees grow 

 where one grew before. This is a great 

 work and must be done to supply the 

 ever-growing demand. Moreover, it 

 appeals to the sentiment and the imag- 

 ination. But there is the other method 

 of saving that we must also learn to 

 practice of making one tree do the work 

 that we have been accustomed to use 

 two for. This is a homely method and 

 does not appeal to the imagination at 

 all, but it is a good practice and quite 

 as necessary as the other. We must 

 work at this thing from both ends. The 

 first is the task of the state, the capi- 

 talist, and the land owner in varying 

 degrees. The second is the task of 

 every one who uses wood, and espe- 

 cially of the manufacturer, who handles 

 it in considerable quantities. It in- 

 volves the application of science, care, 

 and industry. 



«? &' «? 



The Forest Products Laboratory 



WE PUBLISH this month the full- 

 est stateinent that has yet ap- 

 peared of the plans and purposes of 

 the new Forest Products Laboratory at 

 Madison, Wis. It was the coming 

 opening of this institution that sug- 

 gested the thought which is prominent 

 in this number of American Forestry 

 — the prevention of waste — for it is 

 that which is the reason for being of 

 the new building and of the enlarged 

 activities of the Branch of Products of 

 the Forest Service, an enlargement 

 which means much to the wood-using 

 industries of this country. 



The establishment of a completely 

 equipped central station for testing and 

 experimentation with the properties of 

 wood gives such an opportunity as has 

 not existed before to really know our 

 wood resources "for all there is in 

 them." 



