r4S 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



of public ownership, State and Federal, 

 and over three-fifths is in private hands. 



There is, however, a vast area of cut 

 and burned-over land, increasing yearly 

 and useless for any other purpose, 

 which might be growing a new crop. 

 On the Pacific Coast alone, which has 

 been called the nation's woodlot be- 

 cause of its combination of favorable 

 climate and rapid-growing species, 

 there are fully 20 million acres of such 

 deforested land which if encouraged to 

 do so should yield 500 billion feet in 

 60 years. And in the same region the 

 120 million acres or more of uncut 

 timber, if restocked as cut, would even- 

 tually produce as much as we now con- 

 sume. Adding obtainable reproduction 

 elsewhere in the United States, there 

 is no sound reason why we should not 

 be well provided in perpetuity. The 

 chief thing to fear is that these new 

 crops will not be started soon enough. 



Obviously what we want is such in- 

 ducements as shall eft'ect the use of all 

 this land, cut and uncut, regardless of 

 ownership, with the least waste of ex- 

 isting material, the most certain pro- 

 duction of future material, and the 

 lowest prices to consumer for which 

 such supply of his needs can be assured. 

 Older countries have learned the futility 

 of expecting this without sincere com- 

 munity support and the removal of 

 prohibitory conditions. Having ac- 

 corded these, they are in position to 

 require the industry to reciprocate. It 

 would reciprocate even more gladly 

 here, for it has more involved. Our 

 attitude, however, is either of complete 

 indift'erence or that forestry is to be 

 spread by the sword, with occasional 

 defensive fortresses of public forests. 

 Even these many of us regard less as 

 business institutions than as points 

 from which to shout defiance and ex- 

 pect reprisal. Surely we also should 

 be intelligent enough to evolve a policy 

 which considers both private and public 

 forestry in their joint relations and 

 from the viewpoint of permanent in- 

 dustrial development. If so, what are 

 the conditions to be met ? 



Whatever may have been conditions 

 in the past ; when timberland was cheap, 

 market near at hand, and carrying costs 



negligible ; great financial, opportunity 

 in standing timber no longer exists. 

 Taxes, protection .cost and interest on 

 the investment are now compounding 

 far more rapidly than prices can be 

 advanced. Apparently home consump- 

 tion cannot use all our vast stored 

 supply until carrying costs have ex- 

 ceeded what the material is worth to 

 the consumer. Realization of this is 

 making the tendency sharply toward 

 competiti\e overproduction, not toward 

 monopolistic holding back of material. 

 Unfortunately, however, this does not 

 benefit the consumer. The mill accepts 

 less, but the ultimate retailer does not 

 sell for less. Differences are absorbed 

 enroute. The producer always gets the 

 least that he can possibly take and the 

 consumer pays the most he can possibly 

 pay. The net result of low mill prices 

 to the consumer is wasteful cutting and 

 forced foreign export, to hasten the day 

 when his question will be not what he 

 must pay for a board but whether he 

 can get a board at all. 



Insofar as this situation of the lum- 

 berman is due to his own overinvest- 

 ment, we may not sympathize with him. 

 It is hard for us to say whether he 

 hoped for an unearned increment or 

 thought he was prudently supplying his 

 mills. But it is discouraging to good 

 permanent management and we will 

 sufifer with him accordingly. And we 

 are certainly equally short-sighted when 

 we aggravate it more intolerably by 

 continually threatening the timber with 

 a carelessness with fire which has no 

 parallel in the civilized world and by 

 a confiscatory taxation system which 

 has been abandoned by every nation 

 that pretends to a forest policy. Our 

 tax system forces destruction, prohibits 

 conservation, and pays us less than 

 would a rational one. 



WHERE IS WASTE? 



We talk much of the appalling waste 

 of our forests when cut. The truth is 

 that every portion of the tree that can 

 be taken out of the woods without loss 

 is taken out, and more, for to some 

 extent the higher grades can be made 

 to pay for the loss on lower grades. 

 The reason for this waste is the same 



