730 



AAIERICAN FORESTRY 



able logs to the acre, we find a stump- 

 age cost of $50.00 a thousand for im- 

 mature timber grown to order in con- 

 trast with a present average stumpage 

 price of $5.00 per thousand now ob- 

 tained for giant forest trees that have 

 been seeded and nurtured in Nature's 

 forests since Columbus discovered 

 America. 



The above figures reveal the low esti- 

 mate we place on a natural resource 

 that is fast being exhausted. The con- 

 sumers of lumber complain at any ad- 

 vance in its price and saw mill owners 

 confronted with annually increasing 

 taxes on their reserves of standing tim- 

 ber, cannot limit their operations. Their 

 jtumpage must be cut into lumber and 

 sold at competitive prices to pay taxes, 

 deferred interest and principal on his 

 bonded raw material. Not one lumber 

 manufacturer in a hundred can afford 

 to conserv^e his forest resources by cut- 

 ting only the mature trees which would 

 double the cost of logging operations, 

 making his product thus obtained so 

 expensive that no profit would result. 



Stumpage values in recent years have 

 steadily increased in value, but even at 

 present prices, forest trees are the 

 cheapest crop that grows out of the 

 ground ; cheaper than cotton at two 

 cents a pound or corn at five cents a 

 bushel. Suppose wheat or corn were 

 century plants like pine and oak trees ; 

 it would require an adding machine to 

 compute the price of a loaf of bread. 



The American people do not realize 

 or fully appreciate the splendid quality 

 and low price at which they have been 

 buying their forest products, demand- 

 ing clear or high grade lumber for 

 many purposes, when lower grades 

 would economically have served their 

 purpose. Extreme cheapness in any 

 commodity always results in waste and 

 miprovidence in its use. 



Fifty years ago our western plains 

 were stocked with great herds of buf- 

 falo, a nature product, common prop- 

 erty, roaming the prairies unowned, 

 costing no man anything for shelter- 

 ing, care or pasturage, tempting the 

 cupidity of reckless pot hunters to pro- 

 ceed to their wholesale slaughter, the 

 hide and tongue being the only parts 



of this valuable animal resource of suf- 

 ficient value to be profitably transported 

 and sold in competition and substitu- 

 tion of domestic products for a like 

 use. It is hardly believable by the 

 present generation that fifty years ago 

 a full grown buffalo, in prime condi- 

 tion, weighing one thousand pounds, 

 had a less market value than a single 

 porterhouse steak served to-day in any 

 first-class hotel or restaurant. 



There is no immediate danger of a 

 serious shortage in our supply of lum- 

 ber products, but the time has come 

 when conservation of our forest re- 

 sources demands thoughtful considera- 

 tion. The National forest reserves 

 should be withdrawm from sale and 

 lield in cold storage just as long as 

 privately owned stumpage is cheap and 

 abundant. The present sawmill owners 

 are financially unable to practice ef- 

 fective conservation of their stumpage 

 holdings. Increasing annual taxation 

 of forest lands, and the exceptional 

 nature of lumbering operations, requir- 

 ing the purchase of extensive timber 

 holdings to provide raw material suf- 

 ficient to keep their saw mills supplied 

 with logs long enough to justify the in- 

 vestment in building and equipping a 

 modern plant to manufacture lumber, 

 necessitating the owners of saw mills 

 to borrow large sums of money, or 

 bond their reserves of standing timber. 



The pressing interest charges, added 

 to the increasing annual taxes on his 

 stumpage holdings, force the continu- 

 ous operation of the saw mill, and the 

 sale of the product at whatever the 

 market price may be, to furnish means 

 to pay his imperative obligations. This 

 is not a theory but a condition govern- 

 ing the lumber industry, making con- 

 servation of privately owned forests 

 impracticable except in rare cases 

 where ample capital enables the oper- 

 ator to cut only the mature trees, pre- 

 serving and protecting the younger 

 growth, hoping that advancing prices 

 of stumpage will repay him for present 

 loss through his more expensive log- 

 ging operations. 



Human nature shows very little 

 change since the days of Solomon; self 

 interest in large measure still controls 



