HARDWOOD RECORD 



by it. especially if the operation has be»n 

 rcecntly completed. All of this kind of work 

 is, of course, done by hand, and as it is the 

 last operation before storage or shipment, a 

 great deal of care is exercised in these finish- 

 ing touches. 



The cuts shown in connection with this 

 article illustrate admirably several of the 

 types described. The massive sideboard, 

 weigliing nearly 500 pounds, has some beau- 

 tiful hand-carved decorations upon it, and 

 also utilizes five mirrors and six clear beveled 



plate glasses in the cabinets. The other side- 

 Ijoard shows what beautiful effects may be 

 obtained with quarter-sawed veneered oak. 

 Ine two buffets also bring out the beauty of 

 the wood as well as the various uses to which 

 plate glass may be jiut ; while the china closet 

 illustrates how elegance goes hand in hand 

 with simplicity. All of these cuts show in 

 a small way the kind of work done by the 

 well-known Olbrich & Golbeck Company of 

 this city, to whom the Record is indebted for 

 illustrations suown. • 



Clarence Boyle Jr. 



Preserve the Forests. 



It 



aint and far-off cry at first, but 

 iiuw the shout of "Preserve the forests" caa 

 lie distinctly heard throughout the land. This 

 is well, for there was, and now is, great dan- 

 ger of their complete destruction. But may 

 we not ask if that cry of alarm covers all that 

 is rcquireil? Preserve the forests! Tes; that 

 means to save them and keep them intact. 

 But is that enough? Is it sufficient? We 

 must realize that the cry has a different sig- 

 nification in the minds of some of those who 

 join in it. One interprets it to mean, ' ' Stop 

 cutting down the trees, leave them alone, they 

 are too sacred to have the profane hands of 

 the lumberman laid upon them. ' ' Another 

 deems it to mean ' ' Cut and use them con- 

 servatively ; cut only the mature trees, and 

 do it in slich a manner that the natural 

 growth shall maintain the needed supply of 

 forest products in perpetuity. ' ' 



He»e, then, are two plans, two widely sepa- 

 rated schemes of forest treatment before the 

 people of this country for consideration. Both 

 cannot be right. Is either of them so? If 

 not what is best? 



If the supply of forest products is the para- 

 mount aim and purpose of forest maintenance 

 — and it certainly should be — there is no call 

 to now discuss the first proposition. We can- 

 not do without forest products. Such a course 

 would at once precipitate a timber famine 

 v.hich, in iny event, will come all too soon. 

 It would simply be an exhibition of senti- 

 ment gone mad. 



But the other view may well be discussed — 

 for it is largely entertained — to see whether 

 it covers all that is needed, to see if our 

 present area of virgin and second-growth for- 

 ests can, by the method suggested, be made 

 to produce what the people need; and, fur- 

 ther, to see what more should be d'^ne if they 

 cannot That all this should be known every 

 practical business instinct and conception 

 testify and demand. It is an important ques- 

 tion and, unfortunately, one little understood, 

 for it is new, and there has been slight effori 

 to determine it. The recent announcement 

 of a possible exhaustion of our timber supply 

 in the near future has dazed and bewildered 

 our people. With the great mass of people 

 forest reproduction and maintenance are pro- 

 found and deep mysteries, and they have ac- 

 cepted the theories named without much ex- 



amination, and largely as their fancy dictated. 

 As Nature has thus far provided the forests 

 so she will do for the future, is their thought 

 — feeling all the while that there is no need 

 for any action. To them it is hardly conceiv- 

 able that our forests will not last forever. 

 Have we not always declared that they were 

 inexhaustible? 



Facing this condition of the public mind 

 will it not be well to consider the case with- 

 out wild, unreasonable denunciation of those 

 who are accused of having been largely re- 

 sponsible for the destruction of our forests 

 when the poor fellows cut everything they 

 could sell — or, on the other hand, to hug the 

 delusive phantom of their continued use, with 

 restoration by unaided natural processes 

 alone? 



Efforts have been made by the Forest 

 Service and the Census Bureau at Washing- 

 ton to secure data covering the amount of 

 standing timber yet remaining in our country, 

 together with the annual consumption. Could 

 this information be accurately obtained it 

 would give an approximate idea of how long 

 our supply will last. But there has been, 

 from the very nature of the case, only partial 

 success in this matter, and much uncertainty 

 is freely admitted. Except the amount of 

 sawed lumber reported as turned out by the 

 mills in 1906— which was 37,5.50,736,000 

 board feet — the information and estimates 

 secured can be considered as approximate 

 only. Still, enough has been learned to show 

 that we are consuming our forests faster than 

 their natural growth can replace. It is esti- 

 mated that we are consuming in one year as 

 much as grows in three, thus each year accel- 

 erating the speed of their destruction. It is 

 further deemed probable that our present 

 forests will not, at the present rate of con- 

 sumption, last more than twenty-five or thirty 

 years, and that the end of the hardwood suj)- 

 ply will be reached inside of twenty years. 

 That is certainly discouraging; but we must 

 recognize it and also recognize the further 

 fact that our population is rapidly increasing 

 and that there are new uses and new demands 

 for wood, never before known, coming to the 

 front. 



Xow, iu the light of all this, approximate 

 only as it partially is, is it not safe, is it not 

 fair to conclude that our present forests, no 

 matter how well cared for, cannot be deemed 



secure from exhaustion iu the near future? 

 Can any treatment increase their yield three- 

 fold? — and it should be more to provide for 

 iucrease of population and new uses of wood. 

 Is it not plain that there should be not only 

 an increase of production of present forests, 

 but a large increase of area that shall be pro- 

 ductive in the not far distant future? Can 

 any other conclusion be reasonably arrived at? 

 But offhand conclusions should not satisfy ; 

 there should be something specific, something 

 of known facts — and these are not wanting. 

 In considering the case it will ifot be neces- 

 sary to roam over the whole domain of 

 forestry. The hardwood side will suiEce: 

 but it may be added that what is true of that 

 is true of the remainder. 



It should be remembered that the most valu- 

 able and most used species of hardwoods in 

 our country grow almost exclusively within 

 our borders. So far as a commercial supply 

 is concerned we can depend on no other coun- 

 try for hickory, oak, ash, poplar, black wal- 

 nut, chestnut, elm and the gums. To these 

 we could very well add maple; but, leaving 

 that out, the species named produced in 1906, 

 6,867.861,000 board feet, or 79 per cent of 

 the total cut of hardwood from the saw, to 

 say nothing of the oak and chestnut used for 

 railroad ties, telegraph, telephone, electric 

 light and trolley line poles and cooperage. 

 Can our hardwood forests sustain this drain 

 upon them without we greatly increase their 

 area? How long will the supply of mature 

 trees, trees large enough for the saw, last? 

 That is an important question, for, be it 

 known, not one of the species named, except 

 chestnut and, in certain locations, ash, can 

 be expected to grow trees large enough for 

 the saw from seed under 80 to 100 years, and 

 the chestnut will not do it under 75 years. 

 This is not guesswork; it is from actual and 

 long continued counting of annual rings and 

 the averages taken. The average of chestnut 

 large enough for a standard forty-foot tele- 

 graph pole is from 50 to 55 years, according 

 to soil in which it may grow, and but few 

 white oaks will make a standard tie under that 

 age.. 



Nor can any of these, except chestnut and, 

 slightly, oak be depended upon to send up 

 sprouts from cut or decaying stumps. After 

 a few years our supply of hardwood must 

 come from young and immature trees now 

 standing in our forests or from seeds sown. 

 From a long and careful observation of forest 

 conditions in our country, observations made, 

 in part, to confirm an early belief that natural 

 reforestation could be depended upon, I am 

 forced to say. and say it with all the em- 

 phasis possible, that to depend upon the 

 young growth which may be found standing 

 on 95 per cent of our forests is to lean upon 

 a broken reed. And, furthermore, there must 

 be seed sown in some other way than by 

 natural process to provide for the future. 

 Nature cannot satisfactorily accomplish seed 

 sowing under the changed conditions which 

 inevitably must result from cutting the ma- 

 ture trees. 



