414 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



give us a correct basis to start with, and 

 from which intelligent statements could be 

 made in the future. 



The owner of a given piece of property is 

 controlled, as to retention or disposition, 

 largely by the net results that may be ob- 

 tained at different periods. Carrying charges, 

 or the expense incident to holding a commod- 

 ity or article of commerce, enter very large- 

 ly into such calcualations. Taxes constitute 

 a large part of such charges, and have no 

 little laearing on the subject under consider- 

 ation. Instead of timber lands being favored 

 in order to encourage their conservation, not 

 only for the benefit of the owner, but for the 

 use of generations yet unborn, they are not 

 given an even chance with other properties. 



The crop of the farmer is taxed when it 

 is ready for the market, and no crop is taxed 

 more than once. A crop of timber is taxed 

 continuously and annually until disposed of. 

 The farmer's crop matures yearly ; the crop 

 of the timber owner matures once in about 

 a hundred years. 



Let us illustrate: As the value of the tim- 

 ber is less in its earlier years than when ma- 

 tured, we will use fifty 'years as the average 

 life, basing the value on the matured prod- 

 uct. Rice, cotton, and sugar lands in some 

 sections of the South, in close proximity to 

 timber lands, are assessed at about the same 

 prices as timber lands. The rice, cotton, and 

 sugar lands net the owner at least $7.50 an 

 acre annually after paying taxes and all other 

 expenses. In fifty years the owner would get 

 $375 off of each acre of his land, besides ob- 

 taining enough annually to pay his taxes ; the 

 land itself being worth $50 per acre, niaking 

 a total of $425, plus the interest on the 

 money made annually, while the timber 

 owner could not get more than $120 per acre 

 in the gathering of his entire matured crop, 

 after spending a goodly fortune in building 

 a plant preparatory to its harvest. Again, 

 the cut-over lands are ta.xed practically their 

 full value, thereby making it burdensome to 

 carry them, much less to spend anything on 

 them for the purpose of reforestation. 



The effect of such laws is shown in the 

 state of Michigan, where over six million 

 acres have reverted to the state. A like con- 

 dition, to a lesser extent, exists in other 

 states. I find the constitutions of several 

 states permit them to exempt such properties 

 from taxation ; others permit them to class- 

 ify; others to either exempt or classify. 



And now we come to the vital point of the 

 subject, namely: the conservation and per- 

 petuation of this great resource. In dealing 

 with this subject as it now presents itself to 

 us, it become necessary to dwell on some 

 features that directly and immediately affect 

 the interests of the timber owners. Belong- 

 ing to that class, we would refer to these 

 features with some embarrassment, did we 

 not feel it had been our purpose, in prepar- 

 ing these thoughts for your consideration, to 

 treat them on broader and more patriotic 

 lines than any exclusively selfish idea would 



permit; besides, we believe the thoughts pre- 

 sented will appeal to you as eminently fair 

 and correct, and will of themselves prevent 

 your ascribing to us a selfish motive. 



I want to give especial emphasis to the 

 statement that conservation and perpetuation 

 of our forests and unremunerative prices for 

 lumber cannot travel the same road, for con- 

 servation means to handle, to treat, to take 

 care of, and save in such manner as to re- 

 tain the use or benefit of a given product as 

 long as possible. Perpetuation of forests 

 means to so exploit the forests as to make 

 them continuous and perpetual, which can 

 only be done by spending money continuous- 

 ly in planting, seeding, protecting, etc., while 

 low prices of any commodity means neglect 

 and waste. This cannot be more forcibly 

 illustrated than by the conditions existing to- 

 day, as applied to lumber; on account of the 

 low prices now prevailing, the logs making 

 low grade lumber, secured principally from 

 that portion of the tree approaching the 

 limbs, and constituting at least twenty per 

 cent, of the forests, are left in the woods 

 to rot or be burned, because the lumbermen 

 would no more think of using the raw ma- 

 terial out of which he could not obtain cost, 

 than the farmer would harvest a crop of 

 faulty corn out of which he could not obtain 

 the cost of gathering. 



This leaving of twenty per cent, of our 

 logs in the woods — as applied to the yellow 

 pine industry alone — if we market as much 

 lumber this year as last, means that we will 

 have wasted over three hundred thousand 

 acres of forest land, and so, in order that the 

 product of these low grade logs may take 

 their place in the lumber supply of the world, 

 and our timber saved or conserved, the man- 

 ufacturer must at least have cost for his low 

 grade lumber, which means a comparatively 

 better price for the better grade ; and this 

 need not necessarily mean high priced lum- 

 ber, but the price must be removed material- 

 ly from the prices now prevailing, and such 

 as we touch periodically, even in normally 

 good times ; for lumber is like every other 

 product, controlled by supply and demand, 

 and if we build mills with sufficient capacity 

 to supply the demand of the country in 

 times of extreme activity, such as we had in 

 1906 and the first two-thirds of 1907, we will 

 have capacity bej^ond our requirements in 

 normal times, and under such cond/tions 

 down go the prices. 



On account of such varying and unstable 

 conditions, it will be found difficult, if not 

 impossible, to get the timber owner to enter 

 actively into the methods required for the 

 perpetuation of the forests by spending even 

 the minimum required, which I understand 

 to be about fifty cents per thousand. While 

 this does not seem a large amount, there are 

 concerns making as much as two hundred 

 fifty million feet of lumber per annum, and 

 hence to these, the cost of this item would be 

 $125,000 per annum. If his or its competitor 

 was pursuing the same practice, all would be 



