THE HARDWOOD RECORD. 



25 



THE FORESTRY aUESTlON. 



Kepoit of Forestry Committee of the 

 National Wliolesale Lumlser Dealers' Asso- 

 ciation is at hand. It treats of the matter 

 in its relation to the United States govern- 

 ment and contains such valuable and prac- 

 tical suggestions that -sve are glad to be 

 jible to produce it in full, as follows: 



REPORT OF FORESTRY COMMITTEE. 



The Connnittee on Forestry has given 

 c-lose attention during the year past to the 

 relations between the I'nited States gov- 

 ernment in its several liranehes and the 

 interests which are peculiarly the concern 

 of our association, and after long and care- 

 ful consideration it ventures to make the 

 following report and recommendations: 



Tlie committee was struck at the outset 

 with the confusion in dealing with forest 

 matters, due to the distriliution of forest 

 work among three different departments of 

 the government, viz.. the General Laud 

 Office, which administers the national for- 

 est reserves: the United States Geological 

 Survey, which is charged with the duty of 

 making the maps, deseriliing the forests, 

 suggesting changes in l)oundaries and 

 establishing permanent boundaries: and 

 the Bureau of Forestry of the Department 

 of Agriculture, which is charged with all 

 matters of professional forestry. One of 

 the main interests of the latter has been 

 the promotion of practical forestry among 

 private owners: and some of the members 

 of this association and outside lumbermen 

 owning in the aggregate more than 5.0(30,- 

 000 acres of land have, as a personal mat- 

 ter, sought the co-operation of the Bureau 

 of Forestry in the management and devel- 

 opment of their tracts. 



It is not the desire of yoiu' committee to 

 criticise the work that is done under any 

 of these three departments. No better 

 body of men could be found, for instance, 

 than those working under the United States 

 Geological Survey for the work that it has 

 done, but in the nature of the case this 

 work is temporary. The Cieneral Land Of- 

 fice is under the Department of the In- 

 terior and its work could properly be done 

 by the Bureau of Forestry, which is under 

 the Department of Agriculture. All the 

 trained foresters in the employment of the 

 United States, and practically all those in 

 the country, are attached to the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, while the administra- 

 tion of the forest reserves is carried on 

 without the direct participation of any of 

 these trained men. 



Without going too deeply into the dis- 

 cussion, the following may l)e briefly stated 

 as reasons why the transfer of all federal 

 forest work to the Department of Agricul- 

 ture should be made: In the first place, 

 the Department of Agriculture has already 

 a very important Held of forest work for 

 farmers and others hi the introduction of 

 practical forestry on private forest lands. 

 This is a permanent part of this department 

 that could not be transferred. The inter- 

 ests of private owners have already been 

 alluded to, Ijut it may be added that the 

 amount of forests in farms alone is about 

 four times as great as the whole area of 

 the federal forest reserves. It is not con- 

 templated that the question of titles, pat- 

 ents, and ownerships should be transferred 

 from the General Land Ollice. It remains 

 only to be added that the Commissioners 

 of the General Land Ofiice, the Secretary 

 of the Interior, the Secretary of Agric^il- 

 ture, and the President of the United 

 States concur in the wisdom of the pro- 

 posed transfer. The national forests i-e- 

 serves are almost wholly on high land and 



their importance to the prosperity of the 

 West grows out of their relations to irri- 

 gation, manufactures, and to other inter- 

 ests depending on a regular water supply; 

 to the production of wood, not only for 

 lumber, but for ties and fuel, charcoal and 

 other wood products: also for the protec- 

 tion they offer to herds and flocks for 

 grazing: and. finally, and most important 

 of all, to their retanling the tnelting of 

 snows and washouts that come from heavy 

 rains. 



Second, the committee earnestly urges 

 adequate appropriations by Congress for 

 the work of timber testing. The import- 

 ance of this work can hardly be exagger- 

 ated. It is of vital moment that the com- 

 parative strength of timbers of different 

 sorts should be definitely known by archi- 

 tects and engineers. The absence of this 

 knowledge may cause undue waste or 

 undue iiarsimouy in the use of timber. In 

 the nature of the case, the jjrocess is ex- 

 pensive, since many examples of each sort 

 of timber to be tested must be assembled, 

 and the testing destroys the value of the 

 timber subjected to it. Further, the re- 

 ports of any timber test should have the 

 sanction of a department of the United 

 States Government, in order that they 

 may have validity and universal accept- 

 ane. Some of this work has already been 

 done, but as new woods are coming into 

 the market they should tie properly tested 

 and classified wim reference to their en- 

 durance and fitness for various timber 

 purpcises. The committee urges upon the 

 memliers of this association to bring this 

 matter to the attention of members of 

 Congress. 



Third, the committee recommends a cen- 

 sus of standing commercial timber in the 

 United States. Notwithstanding the esti- 

 mates put forth from time to time, it is 

 known by the initiated that there is at 

 present no reliable knowledge of the tim- 

 ber supply. If, for instance, the conclu- 

 sions of tile census of 1880 had been valid 

 the entire stock of white pine in the 

 United States wouhl have been out of 

 existence in 1890. while now, twelve years 

 subsequent to that date, there has been 

 a production in three states of over 5,000.- 

 00(1,(11 lit feet. There is an explanation for 

 this great discrepancy in that no timber 

 trees with a diameter of less than twelve 

 inches were counted in the census referred 

 to, and the growth accumulating on the 

 trees was left out of consideration, but, 

 nevertheless, it is a fair illustration of the 

 difliculty surrounding the subject and the 

 lack of definite knowledge which there is 

 upon it. The estimates made are too gen- 

 eral to be made the liasis of commercial 

 investment, and they cover only a fraction 

 of territory. There is no railroad engineer 

 who is not anxious about the question of 

 ties, and no definite and reliable informa- 

 tion is forthcoming. The unreliable cen- 

 sus of ISSO referred to above is practically 

 the only one that there ever has been, no 

 attempt having been made in the eleventh 

 or twelfth census to collect timber .statis- 

 tics and nothing of importance having 

 been accomplished before 1S.S0. The com- 

 mittee unreservedly recommends to the 

 nuMubers of this association that this mat- 

 ter be impressed upon members of Con- 

 gress. It Is believed that the complete 

 census, including its tabulation and the 

 printing and distribution of the proper 

 inajis. etc.. can be accomplished for about 

 .fiino.tKXi. 



Fourth, there js now pending before Con- 

 gress the question of an appropriation of 

 !fK).0(X),(KK) for the establishment of a for- 

 est reserve in the Appalachian Mountains. 

 It is not the intention of your committee 

 to repeat here, except in the briefest way. 



the arguments for this appropriation. The 

 matter has been much discussed: it was 

 made the subject of a special message to 

 the Senate and House of Representatives 

 by President Roosevelt, December 1!), 11)01, 

 and the subject has been so much dis- 

 cussed that it may be assumed that mem- 

 bers of this association are familiar with 

 it. The proposition, briefly, is to reserve 

 a large tract in the States of Tennessee, 

 North Carolina, and South Carolina and 

 Georgia, and possil)ly some in Alabama 

 and Virginia. The Secretary of Agricul- 

 ture in his report, which was transmitted 

 by the President to Longress, calls atten- 

 tion to the fact that this region embraces 

 the highest peaks and largest mountain 

 masses east of the Rockies: that upon 

 these mountains descend the heaviest I'ain- 

 falls of the United States, except that of 

 the North Pacific coast: that if the soil, 

 which is, generally speaking, thin and 

 easily washed away, is once denuded of its 

 forest and swept by heavy rains the river 

 and harbors will become choked with the 

 detritus washed down from the mountain 

 fields. Besides these considerations, the 

 rivers which arise in these mountains flow 

 into or along every state from Ohio to the 

 Gulf, and from the Atlantic to the Missis- 

 sippi. Enormous agricultural and naviga- 

 tion interests, and water-power interests 

 as well, are dependent upon these rivers. 

 The heaviest and most beautiful hardwood 

 forests of the continent are upon these 

 mountains, and for economic reasons their 

 preservation is imperative. The reserva- 

 tion, moreover, is vital to the agricultural 

 interests of the South, the loss in a single 

 year being more than the entire purchase 

 price of the entire tract proposed to be 

 reserved. The President's message to Con- 

 gress contains the following: 



"Wise forest protection does not mean 

 the withdrawal of forest resources, 

 whether of wood, water or grass, from 

 contributing their full share to the welfare 

 of the people, but, on the contrary, gives 

 the assurance of larger and more certain 

 supplies. The fundamental idea of for- 

 estry is the perpetuation of forests by use. 

 Forest protection is not an end of itself; 

 it is a means to increase and sustain tlie 

 resources of our country and the industries 

 ■which depend upon them. The preserva- 

 tion of our forests is an imperative busi- 

 ness necessity. We have come to see 

 clearly that whatever destroys the forests, 

 except to make way for agriculture, threat- 

 ens our well-being." 



To sum up, the committee in making 

 this report urges action upon the points 

 named, viz,: First, the recommendation 

 that the entire forestry interests of the 

 government shall be concentrated in the 

 Bureau of Forestry, Department of Agri- 

 culture, except the question of land titles; 

 second, it reconiniends and pledges its 

 members to work for adequate appropria- 

 tions for testing timbers: third, it urges 

 an immediate approjiriation for a timber 

 census of the United State: and, fourth, 

 it urges the passage of the pending bill in 

 favor of the southern Appalachian forest 

 reserve. 



GEORGE P. S.VWYER. Chairman; 

 ROBERT C. LIPPIXCOTT, 

 PRANK II. GOODYEAR, 

 FRANK E. WHITMAN, 



Forestry Committee. 



The R. H. Jenks Lumber Company is 

 ptUting in a new mill at Tremont, La. 

 The mill will have a daily capacity of 

 75,000 feet, and will be done by September 

 1. It is situated at one end of a stretch 

 of 40 miles of I'.iilroad which is owned by 

 the company, another big mill being lo- 

 cated at the other end. 



