ARBORICULTUilE 



259 



mill at Floriston, and easily $1,000,000 

 more in other mills throughout the 

 county, giving employment during the 

 summer months to more than 2,500 men, 

 and all these industries providing a year- 

 ly income to the county. We want more 

 mills and factories. We need the tim- 

 bers for our railroads and mines, and the 

 lumber for our flumes and mills and 

 buildings. 



"Lock up our forests and you will close 

 down our mines and deprive 2,500 men of 

 employment about our lumber camps, 

 and take from the county tens of thou- 

 sands of dollars' yearly in taxes. Cull out 

 the large timber that is ripe for the saw, 

 and give the new generation of pines 

 room to grow. Follow in the track of 

 the sawmills, if you will, as they have 

 traveled the county, and you will find 

 that every slope is green with the ver- 

 dure of the second growth, almost large 

 enough for lumber. 



"We have noticed no change in our 

 water supply since early days. The creeks 

 are no drier in the summer and no fuller 

 during the rainy season, for vegetation 

 is abundant on every hand. 



"If the creation of the temporary for- 

 est reserve in Nevada county becomes 

 permanent, besides being of incalculable 

 detriment to the prosperity of our inhab- 

 itants in general, it will aid only the own- 

 ers of present denuded timber tracts, 

 practically worthless for timber purposes, 

 for several years to come, to exchange 

 them for marketable timber lands. 



"The extent and value of our mineral 

 wealth is little appreciated, and we rely 

 upon the abundance of our timber to in- 

 duce the development of our thousands 

 of mines. Why uphold a proposed law 

 that, to benefit the few, will wreck a 

 county ?" 



Analyzed briefly, this opposition to a 

 reservation has no argument. 



(1) Eetard Development. 



Temnorarily this may be the case. To 

 put a big force in the timber and clear 

 it off rapidly, as Californians are doing, 

 creates a boom in labor, in export lum- 

 ber, in weekly pay rolls, and in big profits 

 for the brief period while the boom lasts. 

 Then comes the reaction; no labor; no 

 export: no timber for Americans. 



On the other hand, as a reservation 

 the timber will be held as a permanent 

 source of income for the Nation, contin- 

 uous employment for a moderate number 

 of men forever, employment for capital 

 in various industries so long as the Na- 

 tion lasts. To the State of California 

 and the County of Nevada there will be 

 a permanent source of income. 



(2) Miles of Barren Waste Included 



in the Eeserve. 

 If this be true, there can be no valid 

 objection to the creation of a reserve, 

 nothing being lost where nothing exists. 

 Something may be induced to grow un- 

 der judicious government control, while 

 in private hands, or open to public spoli- 

 ation, this will be impossible. 



(3) Land Belongs to Kailway, Which 



Will Eeceive Scrip in Echange. 



With one breath he denounces the rail- 

 way for wanting the reservation, while 

 in the next he is concerned lest the rail- 

 Avays suffer for want of timber which ex- 

 ists in this "barren waste." 



Well, if the railway can find any choice 

 unoccupied lands on which to file, it is 

 more than any one else can do. They 

 are not in existence. 



(4) Corporations Pay Taxes on 168,- 



000 Acres, Assessed at $1 to $5. 



An income of probably $21,000 in 

 taxation. Timber lands are worth a great 

 deal more money, and if economic meth- 

 ods are employed, a moderate quantity 

 of ripe timber removed each year, a 

 greater sum than $21,000 would be re- 

 ceived each year for centuries to come. 



(6) $4,000,000 Are Invested in Mills. 



This is no reason why the owners 

 should be permitted to clear and make 

 barren these forests, cutting all growths, 

 as is now being done. These forests 

 should be made permanent, and all tim- 

 ber lands now owned by the Nation 

 should be held in perpetuity for the ben- 

 efit of all Americans, and not given over 

 to speculators for devastation. 



The observation, or want of observa- 

 tion, of this Avriter in regard to change in 

 water supply is far from true, as shown 

 by Professor Hillgard and a host of au- 

 thorities, who have found the streams 

 much shrunken since the work of clear- 

 ins: has been so vigorous in California. 



