HARDWOOD RECORD 



ing. We must keep on writing and talking 

 with the belief that it may not be in rain 

 — that a wave of this sentiment may blow 

 so strongly over the country that each state 



will have on its statutes a law enforcing the 

 preservation of such timber as is left and 

 the reforestation of all the waste lands. 



Frank Sp^xgler. 



NeWs Miscellany. 



Will Hold a Unique Festival. 



PisGAH Forest. N. C. July IT. — Editor Hard- 

 wood Record : I thank you for the very kind 

 writeup you have given me in the last issue of 

 the Hardwood Record. There is no better 

 grease to our enthusiasm than a little approval 

 of our actions coming from a friend. I think all 

 good fellows crave more the love and approval 

 nf their friends than they do money or other 

 worldly success. 



However, one statement I wish to correct if 

 I may, and that is that the Pisgah Forest boun- 

 dary consists largely of cut-over lands. This is 

 not the case : on the contrary, the large ma- 

 jority of the lands have never seen an axe as 

 yet. 



I want to say that you are setting for yourself 

 a lasting monument by arousing in an intelligent 

 way a definite interest in forest conservation ; the 

 Hardwood Record is doing wonders to aid a 

 practical understanding of forestry in this coun- 

 try. With regard to the articles on "American 

 Foiest Trees" I want to say honestly that I 

 consider the book which you propose to issue will 

 be a very good one. I am sure It will find a 

 ready sale among all foresters and forest stu- 

 dents, and above all in the lumber fraternity, 

 where forestry interest has been aroused to a 

 high pitch. 



Your article on "Forestry vs. Forest Economy" 

 is particularly good. It supports the suggestion 

 that the Interstate Commerce Commission he 

 given increased authority towards regulating the 

 rates on low grade lumber in carloads. The 

 main enemy of conservative forestry, meant to 

 preserve timber for the future, is the present low 

 value of stumpage and the present cheapness — 

 in spite of claims to the contrary — of lumber. 

 As long as lumber is relatively cheap stumpage 

 is relatively cheap. As long as stumpage is 

 relatively cheap, nobody can be induced to either 

 raise it, to preserve it. to protect it, or to pay 

 taxes on land for producing stumpage. Give me 

 European stumjiage prices for western North Car- 

 olina, and I shall practice sylviculture with the 

 same intensity in western North Carolina with 

 which I would practice it on the happy hunting 

 grounds of Germany. Nobody raises cotton with 

 the prospect of getting 4 cents a pound on it, 

 or wheat with the prospect of obtaining 50 cents 

 a bushel for it. Cotton production and wheat 

 production are rediiced where and when the 



(he same reason stumpage is not produced where 

 the price of stumpage and as long as the price 

 of stumpage rules particularly low. 



I enciose herewith a photo showing our present 

 yard of yellow poplar at Pisgah Forest station, 

 in a situation known to you. 



Forestry at Biltmore will be twenty years old 

 this fall, and the Biltmore Forest School will be 

 ten years old. I have planned, together with 

 graduates of the school, a Thanksgiving festival 

 beginning on Thanksgiving day and ending on 

 the Sunday tollowing. Do you think there is any 

 chance to arouse the interest of lumbermen, no- 

 tably the committees of the various associations, 

 in this festival? It is my plan to show during 

 that time the achievements of the first attempts 

 at practical forestry in this country. Do you 

 not think this plan is a good one and one in 

 which prominent lumbermen will be interested? 

 C. A. Schexck. 



par 



liar 



low. F( 



Big Timberland Transaction in West Vir- 

 ginia. 



What is said to be the largest single sale of 

 timberland in the history of West Virginia has 

 been made by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad 

 Company to a corporation which will at once 

 begin development. The purchasing company 

 has mills at Ridgeway and at Camden-on-the- 

 Gauley, within reach of the tract. The com- 

 bined capacity of its mills is 350,000 feet a day. 

 Two million dollars Is the reported price paid 

 for 200,000 acres of hardwood, chiefly virgin 

 forest, containing yellow poplar, cherry, oak, 

 maple, birch, ash and many other valuable 

 woods. 



The land lies in a mountainous region drained 

 by northeastern tributaries of the Great Kan- 

 awha, which empties into the Ohio about 300 

 miles from Pittsburg. It is one of the largest 

 and most valuable bodies of hardwood timber 

 remaining in the Appalachian region. Many of 

 the mountain ranges which cross the tract are 

 from 3,000 to 4.000 feet high and covered to 

 their summits with rich forests. 



North of this tract, but drained by the same 

 streams, lies another holding of 129,000 acres, 

 recently secured by a pulp company. This is 

 covered with spruce and hemlock, with many 

 patches of hardwoods. Development of the prop- 

 erty, it is said, will begin in the immediatg 

 future. The two bodies of land, lying in the 



same region, aggregate more than 500 square 

 miles of primeval forest about to be turned into 

 marketable products. 



The stripping of the forest cover from a region 

 so large and so mountainous will be watched 

 with interest by those who study the effect of 

 the soil cover on stream flow. The rainfall 

 over the region is very heavy — more than tour 

 feet annually. Snow six feet deep on the tim- 

 ber-^d mountains, while not usual, is an occa- 

 sional occurrence. Fire is sure to follow the 

 usual methods of lumbering, and unless this 

 region is more fortunate than most lumbered 

 tracts in that part of the Appalachian plateau, 

 many of the summits and sides of the mountains 

 will be laid bare down to the soil and rocks. 

 The rainfall and melted snow, which are now 

 retarded by the forests, will then pour down the 

 naked slopes and cause destructive floods in the 

 lower streams, and low water will follow. 



West Virginia is one of the states which has 

 taken no measures to protect its valleys from 

 floods by preserving the forests on the moun- 

 tains. Its woods are being cut and burned more 

 rapidly perhaps than those of any other state. 

 and this in face of the fact that it is by na- 

 ture a forest state, with soils and situations 

 suited to almost all eastern timber trees. It 

 might perpetuate its forests and have woods of 

 immense value always. .\ little protection 

 against fire, the leaving of small trees to form 

 the future forest, and provision for reproduction 

 by means of seed trees, are simple measures, but 

 they would mean all the difference between wast- 

 ed hillsides and well stocked forests, ripe for 

 the ax. A few years would bring handsome 

 returns from the investment. 



A Dangerous Feat. 



A story wherein a young man's presence of 

 mind, determination and bravery took promineut 

 part in the recent floods has just come to light, 

 says the Fort Scott (Kan.) Tribune of July 3. 

 Perry Hamilton, son of the well-known log ex- 

 porter. .T. V. Hamilton, is the hero, the Hamil- 

 ton lumber camp southwest of town was the 

 locale and the day the flood reached its crest 

 was the time. Young Hamilton's father has a 

 force of men working at a post up the river a 

 few miles and when the floods came the other 

 day they fled, the water attaining a considerable 

 depth in their tents. There were nearly $4,000 

 worth of walnut logs piled up. which the flood 

 commenced to move slowly towards the river. 

 Perry arrived at the camp to find it deserted 

 and his father's logs slipping out to midriver. 

 He quickly plunged into the water, dragging 

 after him a big log chain. Swimming towards 

 the front of the logs, which were floating down 

 the river, he piloted them towards the bank, 

 where a fence was used to corral them, making 

 a temporary boom into which the logs drifted. 



|.iJ.(Jjiiil/rJr.f.y(,^(fe 



Y-VRD OF YELLOW POPL.\R .\T PISGAH ST.\TION, N. C ON THE VANDERBILT ESTATE. 



