American Forestry 



VOL. XVIII 



OCTOBER. 1912 



No. 10 



WHY DO LUMBER MEN NOT APPLY FORESTRY? 



iJv Dr. H. E. Fkrnow 

 Unk'crsitx of Toronto 



IT is precisely thirty years, a gen- 

 eration, since the forestry move- 

 ment was puhhcly started in the 

 United States by the Forestry Congress 

 meeting in Cincinnati. 



What success has it had in persuading 

 timbcrland owners to apply forestry 

 methods to their holdings? Outside 

 the Federal Government, which has 

 actually and on a large scale begun to 

 introduce forest management on its 

 tinil)erlands. outside of a few half- 

 hearted and small beginnings of some 

 of the States to bring their few acres of 

 timberland under some systematic treat- 

 ment, how many private owners and 

 on how many acres have they made even 

 such beginnings in changing their atti- 

 tude towards their timber properties 

 and cut-over lands, such as forestrv 

 implies ? 



When it is realized that the private 

 ownership represents about three-quar- 

 ters of the total timber supply and for- 

 est area of the country, the importance 

 of the attitude of the owners becomes 

 apparent. 



\\'hatever some hopeful enthusiasts 

 may think of the situation, to the cold- 

 blooded reasoner from facts, there is as 

 yet little cause for congratulation visi- 

 ble. There is, to be sure, little infor- 

 mation published on the subject, but we 

 may be quite sure that everything worth 

 noting is on record regarding private 

 endeavor in introducing forest manage- 

 ment, and in what is on record the most 

 ^comprehensive construction has been 

 X>g'ven as to what includes forest man- 

 ~*agement. 



The results of an incjuiry reported in 



g 



the second volume of the l\ept)rt of the 

 Commission of Conservation show that 

 out of around 600 firms, representing 

 not as much as 3% of the total privately 

 owned acreage, hardly one-fifth in num- 

 bers uses some conservative methods, 

 one-quarter is held for a future crop, 

 and only a little over one-third in acre- 

 age reports even measures taken for 

 protection against fires ! In another 

 inquiry, the acreage reported protected 

 against fire rises to as much as 50 per 

 cent of the reported ownership. If 

 these reported conditions were at all 

 representative, they would show, that 

 still most owners of timberland do not 

 even take precaution to protect their 

 ])roperty against fire. In this respect, 

 however, great strides for the better 

 have been made lately, and, if a new 

 inquiry should develop that really elTec- 

 tive measures are in operation on half 

 the acreage of cut-oz'er lands — the most 

 important part for the future — our 

 hopes for the eventual application of 

 forestry would rise one hundred per 

 cent. 



This leads us to the (|uestion : is pro- 

 tection against fire forestry? Is the 

 surveying and mapping, and more care- 

 ful estimating and locating of timber, 

 and systematic arrangement of lt»gging 

 operations, forestry? Is even, holding 

 for a future crop forestry? Indeed, 

 what is forestry? 



It seems rather late in the day to 

 raise this question, and yet even pro- 

 fessional foresters have hazy notions 

 as to how to answer the question ; the 

 incidents of forest management appear 

 to them principal issues ! Of course, 



613 



