MANAGEMENT OF CUT-OVER LANDS 



701 



on the ground are in among that new 

 growth. 



We all know that many a fine fir or 

 cedar log is taken from down timber 

 that has lain in the woods for fifty 

 years ; so if sheltered, that is, kept 

 moist, as in the forest, that 6,000,000 to 

 8,000,000, or most of it, is still in ex- 

 istence. 



With brush, ferns, tops and vines to 

 protect the ground until the new tim- 

 ber springs up we know the forest con- 

 ditions of dampness and shade have 

 been maintained, except for a year 

 Vv^hile nature has rearranged her cos- 

 tume, and then maintained in good 

 part. 



Go then to your cutover lands, when 

 prices are high, for then low grades are 

 in demand, and you will find that which 

 you cut and left twenty years ago na- 

 ture has placed in cold storage and trees 

 you left standing will have increased 

 in size and will look good, and you will 

 say, "Great head ! to leave those trees." 

 You will also find a thick stand of 

 young timber, the largest of which can 

 be cut for lumber before another twenty 

 years. 



I will give you an illustration in ap- 

 proximate figures actually realized. 

 Eighty acres of timber on tide water, 

 cut in 1886 and logged with cattle, 

 yielded less than 3,000.000 feet of $4.50 

 logs, on which the stumpage returns 

 totaled less than $1,500. In 1906, just 

 after the San Franscisco disaster, the 

 land was sold to a logger for a home, 

 and one of the considerations was that 

 he should hold all merchantable timber, 

 for which he was to receive $4.50 a 

 thousand for logging. The land had 

 never been burned and there was about 

 500,000 feet of standing timber not up 

 to grade required twenty years ago. 

 He hauled and delivered over 2,000,000 

 feet of logs, worth that vear $10 a 

 thousand. No. i logs were selling for 

 $12. This left a stumpage of $5.50, or 

 net returns of $11,000, against $1,500 

 returns on first cutting. And still there 

 were logs left in the woods that some 

 day will be hauled, and there was a 

 forest half grown. 



Nature stands ready to repair the 

 damage to her forests by tornado, flood 

 or ax. She has on hand seed already 

 sown, young plants already started, 

 shade in reserve to keep moist the 

 ground while her pets are growing, nu- 

 triment for their tender roots, birds 

 and bees to fertilize, animals to dig 

 among them and plant seeds, seeds on 

 the tops of her fallen .giants ready to 

 perpetuate their species, and if allowed 

 she places all, in the least time possible, 

 in a condition of greatest safety from 

 her old enemy, the fire. But thwart 

 her efforts and apply the torch, and as 

 a man disheartened takes to drink so 

 nature turns to destroy that she sought 

 to protect. It is her wish to hide away 

 the tops and broken logs and down tim- 

 ber left, and if trusted she shades them 

 and keeps them always moist, and even 

 fifty vears hence fir and cedar will be 

 found but little the worse for their 

 years. But thwarted in her efforts and 

 fought by fire and man, she exposes 

 all to wet and dry and most rapid de- 

 cays. She also prepares all for more 

 fire, and fire again, as the drunkard de- 

 stroys his body and mind. 



But suppose, when you go back for 

 the 6,000,000 feet of logs you left on 

 the "quarter" you logged twenty years 

 ago, you find that it has been burned. 

 If burned but once nature may have 

 managed to save you something, but if 

 burned once the chances are many to 

 one that it has burned twice, and most 

 likely many times, for when the first 

 fire destroys nature's shade of leaves 

 and ferns and fallen tops and young 

 trees she leaves all naked to blister in 

 the sun. Then all things dry to pow- 

 der, and the second fire destroys seed 

 and soil. 



So if your claim proves to be one of 

 the many burned, instead of a timber 

 crop half grown and half a crop left 

 in storage, you will find dead, topless, 

 rotten stubs where you left standing 

 trees — charred, burned and rotten 

 brands where you left logs, and worth- 

 less land and baked clay where you 

 left soil. 



Did vou burn that chopping, and if 

 so, why? Did you think the trees 



