88 



ARBORICULTURE 



ing and the supply is being reduced every 

 year. This year the prices are better 

 than they were last. This has occasioned 

 surprise among some of the millers. It 

 should not. They have something that 

 the world must have, and will continue to 

 consume to the end of time. 



"All that we must look out for is keep- 

 ing the trees coming. The pine supply of 

 the North is very low. The majority of 

 the mills of the Mississippi Valley have 

 been abandoned. Those that are in oper- 

 ation mostly are located closer to the base 

 of supply at the headwater of the Missis- 

 sippi. There will he no second-grozuth 

 pine in that section. The soil zvill not 

 produce it. It has been attempted, and 

 the result has been silver leaf poplar or 

 scrub oak. Hence we can see that it is 

 only a question of time- when the North 

 will be denuded of its pine forests, and 

 they will never return again. We do 

 know that a second growth can be pro- 

 duced in the South, for here we have the 

 soil containing the necessary essentials. 

 I have been interested in the South for 

 thirty years, and the timber outlook is 

 brighter to-day than it ever has been." 



The expressed opinion that the white 

 pine of the North will not be reproduced 

 is true, but not for the reason given by 

 Mr. Underwood. It is a mistaken idea, 

 which should not go undisputed. The 

 soil of Wisconsin, Michigan and Minne- 

 sota, as well as that of New England, 

 which has produced such vast quantities 

 of white pine and maintained innumer- 

 able great saw milling industries until the 

 final end has come from exhaustion of the 

 supply of trees, will if practically and 

 earnestly replanted, grow as grand for- 

 ests as it ever did. The soil has not 

 changed. Trees do not exhaust the soil 

 of its fertility, but constantly increase it. 



It is simply this. The grasping, heart- 



less, thoughtless corporations, whose sole 

 object has been to destroy those great for- 

 ests as quickly as possible and get as 

 much money out of the timber as possible, 

 stripping away every tree which might 

 produce seed and reforest the land, have 

 destroyed the young growths, cutting 

 even baby sapplings which could be cut 

 into a 2 by 4 stick, which, if left for a 

 few years, would produce profitable saw- 

 ing timber. They have been so powerful, 

 politically, as to control both State and 

 National legislation, and have stripped 

 the land and made it forever barren. 



By proper distribution of seed and the 

 planting of pine tree seedlings systemati- 

 cally, the land will again become produc- 

 tive. But who is to do this? Certainly 

 not the men who made it barren. 



A similar situation exists in the South 

 in the yellow pine region. The saw mills 

 take the large trees, and turpentine opera- 

 tors ruin the small growths, while every 

 man feels it a part of his duty to burn 

 over the forest, killing the young seed- 

 lings and destroying the seed which falls. 



So long as legislators fail to take any 

 action toward forest perpetuation, and 

 neglect to protect the rights of posterity, 

 and land owners refuse to consider their 

 perpetual interests, only thinking of how 

 soon they can clear the land and bank the 

 money, just so long yellow pine will in- 

 crease in price and the trees disappear, 

 never to return. 



If the lumber men and timber owners 

 want their industries to become perma- 

 nent they should use the influence they 

 have with State legislature to secure pro- 

 tection to the young pine growths, keep 

 down annual fires, and forbid the boxing 

 of immature trees for turpentine. Other- 

 wise it will be but a very brief period that 

 American lumbermen will supply the 

 world with forest products. 



