HARDWOOD RECORD 



30E 



set it. Wben every year sees vast arras t»f 

 timber exhausted and put into agriculture and 

 no attempt made to replant and eultivate. can it 

 be possible that the end will never come'.- When 

 less than one hundred years liave consimied 

 17.100,000 acres ot' tlie linest hardwood timber 

 from our state, how Ions will the 1,. ".00,000 

 acres left last'' I'rophecy based on i)ast facts 

 tells us that at the present rate, if no attempt 

 is made at replenishment, the limber supply of 

 the United States will last only sixty years. 

 Such statements are not myihs. In this ase 

 •of progress the demanil and consumption of 

 «very community are on the increase. I'nless 

 there is a change in the methods of timber ctit- 

 ting and an effort at replenishment made, the 

 timber supply must Kive out and the Inmlicr 

 business become a ihing only to be remembered. 



It is for the prevention of the abuses ot 

 forests and the builditig up of right sentiments 

 and inclinations that forestry was instituted. 

 It is in these capacities that the relation of for- 

 estry to lumbermen is to be found. 



The law creating the Roard of Torestry Iie- 

 partment has detined the duties in a very gen- 

 eral way. The duties stated, as etnbodied in the 

 law, are: To colled, digest and classify in- 

 dCoriuation respecting forests, timber lands, forest 

 preservation and timber culture, and to recom- 

 mend plans for doing these things. The law- 

 further states that the board shall recommend 

 plans anil methods for the establishing of state 

 forest reserves, and so far as practicable give 

 out information on all the above phases of tim- 

 ber knowledge to associations and meetings of 

 timber dealers, woodworkers, farmers and en- 

 gineers of maintenance of the way ot railroads. 



Krom the points of duty, as stated in the law 

 governing the board, the relation of forestry 

 to lumbermen is a direct one. Timber promo- 

 tion is the dominating element of duty. The 

 things which should receive attention lirst, be- 

 cause of their rehttion to lumbermen, are the 

 following : 



Inforiiiation should be collected and classified 

 regarding the present forests so that the people 

 may know the real conditions in the state. 



A rigid movement legally should be made to 

 conserve and rightly use the present timber in 

 the state. 



Ati urgent movement should be made to per- 

 petuate the present timber areas by cultivation 

 and replanting, especially so in those parts of 

 the slate where the timber has become most 

 exhausted. 



The waste lands of the state'should be planted 

 In timber of the most valuable kinds suited to 

 their soil and moisture. 



The state should make wjinton destruction of 

 timber a misdemeanor, punishable by law equal 

 to the punishment meted out to offenders of our 

 -game and other natural resource laws. 



Landowners should be required by statute to 

 keep and cultivate a fractional part of their 

 ■estates in timber and to retain the same up 

 to a given standard in numbers per acre. 



The state should have legal powers in the 

 bands of forest officers to enforce laws for the 

 betterment of timber lands to rebound In their 

 general effect to the stale's welfare. 



the things here mentioned and even by a much 

 more extended and stricter policy than here out- 

 lined. They have also found it wise that they 

 did so. 



We. as a state, are now in a prime condition 

 to carry out a great work In forestry which, if 

 delayed, will mean much greater outlay, effort 

 and time to accomplish. In the state are suffi- 

 cient timber areas, if proper treatment is com- 

 pelled, to insure the state against a timber fam- 

 ine for tile future. The present forests are in a 

 shape to be cultivated easily because of the ex- 

 cellent stock of seeds and .voung trees they 

 afford. Itightly used they will furnish a con- 

 tinuotis supply of good timber equal to the 

 preseut output. But. unless this is done, a 

 timber famine must come to us as it has come 

 to others. It may be in the future beyond our 

 vision of time, but it must and will come unless 

 a change takes place. 1 think I may sum up 

 tlie whole relation of forestry to lumbermeu in 

 the following statements, which outline the 

 policy to be followed by the dei)artment in its 

 work : 



First, to promote in the best way possible the 

 preseut timber lands in the state by insisting 

 that they be conserved, cultivated and used in 

 rlie right way ; 



Second, to promote the planting of the waste 

 lands in the st.ate to timber of tlie most valu- 

 able commercial kinds suited to them in their 

 soil and moisture conditions. 



Third, to liave laudowners plant and cultivate 

 new forest areas for economic uses as an auxil- 

 iary to the saving ot the present timber areas : 



Fourth, to recommend and induce such legis- 



is kept out tlie trees will grow much faster. 



At the end ot twenty-five years there ought 

 to be 150 to 200 trees to the acre on the entire 

 2,000 acres. At the end of fifty years there 

 ought to be 1011 prime trees to tlie acre. You 



KMlIllT. IMUA.NAI'dl.lS, 



These suggestions may seem out of question 

 and unreasonable, but other nations who have 

 in the past been as lax as we are in the con- 

 servation of their timber lands have been com- 

 pelled for their general welfare to accomplish 



S. lilUKlIOI.DER, CRAWFOEDSVILLE, IND. 



lation as will insure a better respect for timber 

 and timber promotion throughout the state ; 



Fifth, to stand as a bureau of information in 

 tlie best sense for all the phases of sttch, as is 

 set forth in the law creating the board. 



In the performance of these duties we ask 

 the united support of the Indiana lumbermen. 



Of the 2,000 acres that the Forestry Ke.serve 

 contains, 1, 400 acres have a fine stand of sec- 

 ond growth hardwoods. Three hundred acres of 

 this has been cultivated; that is. all the worth- 

 less and inferior frees have been cut out. leaving 

 on an average about 20O trees to the acre, rang- 

 ing in size from two to fifteen inches in diam- 

 eter. The worthless stuff is disposed of for 

 ties, spokes, lumber and fuel. 



On the GOO acres that had been in cultivation 

 before tile stale pur(hased them there have been 

 about 250 acres planted in seeds of oak, ash. 

 hickory, chestnut, walnut, wild cherry, black lo- 

 cust. Kentucky coffee-tree and catalpa. 1 think 

 that I can safely say that at the present time 

 there are growing about uO.OOO black walnut. 

 T.'i.OflO standard oaks, 3.5,000 hickory and a 

 like amount of chestnut and ash. 



The fields were ])lowed and planted in corn 

 and tomatoes the summer before planting, which 

 was done in the fall. The seeds are planted 

 four feet apart and are cultivated the same as 

 corn. At maturity of the proposition the entire 

 2,000 acres ought to be planted and cultivated 

 to tlie best hardwoods in the country. 



You must not think that it takes 200 to 300 

 years for trees to grow, and that by counting 

 the rings on the log you can tell the age of 

 the tree, for often there is more tlian one ring 

 a year. I'hen. ag.tiu when the young trees are 

 cultivated and all the worthless undergrowth 



D. F. SWAIXrSnEtBYVlI.K, IND. 



can make your own calculations as to what the 

 2,000 acres will be worth. 



S. BURKHOLDEI:. 



On Railway Rate Regulation. 



The chairman then announcecl that J. M. 

 Pritchavd was a tlelcgate representing the 

 association at the Interstate Commerce Law 

 (Jonveutiou, held at Chicago, Oct. 26 and 27, 

 and requested him to make a report on this 

 subject. Mr. Pritchard's report -was as fol- 

 lows: 



Gentlemen : As a duly authorized delegate to 

 the Interstate Commerce Law Convention held 

 at Chicago. October 20 and 27, I'JOo. to repre- 

 sent the Indiana Hardwood Lumbermen's As- 

 sociation, I beg leave to submit the following 

 report : 



Prior to the date of the convention there was 

 a discussion between N. W. McLeod of St. Louis 

 and others on one side, and E. I". Bacon of Mil- 

 waukee, chairman of the executive committee 

 of the Interstate Commerce Law Convention, 

 as to the seating of delegates who might not 

 be in harmony with the subject matter of the 

 call ; namely, a paragraph taken from President 

 Roosevelt's "message to Congress in 1904 which 

 reads as follows ; 



"The Interstate Commerce Commission should 

 be vested with the power, where a given rate 

 has been ciialleuged and after full hearing found 

 to be unreasonable, to decide, subject to judicial 

 review, what shall be a reasonable rate to take 

 its place : the ruling of the commission to take 

 effect immedately and to obtain unless and un- 

 til it is reversed by the court of review." 



The executive committee, of which E. P. Bacon 

 was chairman, ruled that any delegate not in 

 harmony with the scope of legislation outlined 

 in the extract from I'resident Roosevelt's mes- 

 sage quoted above would not be eligible to a 

 seat in the Interstate Commerce Law Conven- 

 tion. Said ruling grew out of the fact that the 

 executive committee liad received from many 

 reliable sources information lliat the railroad 

 <'orporafions were infiuencing the appointment of 

 delegates and furnishing them transportation 

 to tile convention in the attempt to pack it with 

 delegates hostile to legislation for increasing 

 the 'powers of the Interstate Commerce Law 

 Convention. 



On the morning of Oct. 26 about four hundred 

 persons, claiming to be delegates to the Inter- 

 state Commerce Law Convention, under the 

 leadership of D. M. Parry and N. W. McLeod, 

 appeared at Steinway Hall and applied for ad- 

 mission. Tlie executive committee of the Inter- 

 state l^ommerce Law Convention had prepared 

 the following declaration of principles, which 

 all delegates were required to sign : 



"We, the undersigned delegates, for ourselves 

 and for tlie association or organization which 

 we represent, endorse the principles of the fore- 

 going call for the Interstate Commerce Law Con- 

 vention, and endorse and agree to support the 

 legislation as outlined in tlie president's last an- 

 nual messa,ge to congress to so amend the Inter- 



