14 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



Mai-c>i 25, 1917 



noisy but less powerful than the dynamics used by nature to level 

 the mountain ranges which form the background of the picture. 

 Nature is bursting those mountains to fragments by the action of 

 freezing water. It is a slow process. It has been going on tens of 

 thousands of years, and it will continue until the peaks and pinnacles 

 have been so far leveled that forests will grow on their gentle slopes 

 and rounded summits. Wherever a mountain of naked rock rises to 

 a height where freezing occurs at night, destruction is in progress. 

 Water which runs into crevices by da.y, congeals at night and the 

 cracks are forced open a little wider. When the morning sun thaws 

 the ice, rocks break away here and there and fall. 



Experienced mountaineers among steep, naked slopes of rock, 

 know better than to approach too near during the first warm hours 

 of the morning while the rocks, loosened by the thaw, are falling. 

 At the front of some of the stupendous cliffs of the western moun 

 tains are piled millions on millions of tons of rocks that have come 

 down from above during past ages. The slope thus formed is called 

 talus. Ultimately, the mountains srill be rounded to gentle slopes, 

 or leveled, by that disintegrating process. As the slopes flatten out, 

 the forests creep farther and farther up. Thousands of years count ■ 

 as onl}^ a day in that process. 



Sometimes the destruction process on a peak reaches a state of 

 temporary rest for a long period, and forests creep upward as far as 

 there is any soil Then some change in slope or the uncovering of 

 some series of soft strata, starts the destruction anew, and rolling 

 stones gradually pound the trees to pieces and the upper edge of 

 the forest retires far down the slope. The first explorers of Long's 

 Peak in Colorado found exactly that state of affairs. The upper 

 fringe of the forest was in process of being destroyed by falling 

 rocks. 



A picture like that on the front cover of this issue is an interesting 

 subject of study for the geologist, the physical geographer, the 

 botanist, the hunter, fisherman, and the admirer of nature who loves 

 it as a whole without going into details. 



To Standardize Wooden Ships 



TT IS RECOEDED BY ANCIENT HISTORIANS that when an 

 *■ overwhelming Persian invasion threatened to destroy Athens, 

 the oracle advised the people to depend upon their "wooden walls" 

 for deliverance. Since the walls of the city were not of wood, the 

 oracle 's meaning was puzzling, until it was figured out that wooden 

 walls meant ships, and the Athenians took action accordingly. 

 Though they were not able to save their city from capture, they 

 saved themselves from captivity. 



There is somethiug of a parallel in the present situation in which 

 the United States finds itself. The great need is ships. They have 

 been destroyed and interned until the trade of the world, and our 

 own in particular, is paralyzed. Products can no longer be carried 

 to market. Business stagnation of our foreign trade is tlireateued 

 for the want of transportation. It is a time of peril with worse 

 conditions in prospect. In this threatening situation, the oracle 

 that recommended the "wooden walls" comes to mind. 



A movement has begun with the purpose of acting on that recom- 

 mendation. A meeting has been held in Washington to discuss the 

 building of wooden ships to carry our commerce and also to carry 

 commerce for others. The need is great, and so is the opportunity. 

 There is business sufficient for "a large number of freight-carrj'ing 

 vesels, and sea profits promise to be ample and long-continued. The 

 discussion at the Washington meeting was directed wholly to 

 wooden ships, for this reason that the yards which build steel ves- 

 sels are working to their capacity and are employing all the avail- 

 able skilled labor that is to be had for work of that kind. Further 

 enlargement of the steel ship industry must be slow — too slow to 

 meet the emergency — and the only hope is in wooden ships. 



Old wooden ship yards are not overcrowded, and new yards can 

 be quickly established. The plan of building calls for standardiza- 

 tion of ships. They will be of medium size and all alike. By stand- 

 ardizing, it will be posible to make parts at interior points and the 

 yards will have little to do besides assemble the parts to form the 

 complete vessels. That can be done rapidly, and a large fleet can be 



put upon the water in a short time. Sawmills can cut, season, shape, 

 and ship the parts. The skilled labor problem will not be serious, 

 as it is in steel ship yards. 



Timber is suitable and abundant. It is assumed that the great 

 demand will be filled by southern yellow pine, Douglas fir, and one 

 or two other species; but many woods, both hard and soft, can 

 help meet the demand. There is no reason why the United States 

 cannot promptly solve the problem of supplying the ships for carry- 

 ing a large part of the world's commerce in the present great emer- 

 gency. It is a remarkable opportunity to help others and at the 

 same time make a profit for ourselves, and by so doing, place the 

 United States at the front in the sea trade of the world. Wood is 

 the solution now as it was when Athens was in peril. 



Down to First Principles 



A STRAIGHT STRIKE FOR THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF 

 FOREST PRESERVATION was made by Governor Cornwell of 

 West Virginia in his recent inaugural address. He insists that the 

 state should keep lands which come into its posession when they fall 

 delinquent for non-payment of taxes, protect them from fire, and 

 encourage timber growth upon them. An amendment to the state 

 constitution will probably be necessary before this can be done; 

 for it has been the practice for the state to sell lands of that class 

 that come into its posession. 



Lands in West Virginia which fall delinquent for non-payment 

 of taxes are usually tracts which have been lumbered and repeatedly 

 burned until they have been reduced to a deplorable condition. They 

 are so nearly bare that they are a menace. Storm water flows off 

 so rapidly that destructive floods in the streams result, of which 

 West Virginia has had some painful examples. It is proposed that 

 the state shall take measures to reforest these barren tracts, there- 

 by protecting the valleys against floods and at the same time insure 

 a new stand of timber for future generations. 



The sentiment in that state heretofore has not been strong in 

 support of effective forestry methods, but it has been growing in 

 recent years, and it is to be hoped that this constructive policy 

 advocated by the governor will gain speedy and sufficient support. 

 West Virginia is a portion of the finest hardwood region in America. 



Estimating the Loss 



THEY ARE BEGINNING TO ARRIVE AT FIGURES which 

 show the loss of wooden buildings in the European war. It is 

 the merest beginning as yet, but the light it throws on the situation 

 is unmistakable, and it affords a sort of basis for estimating how 

 much lumber wUl be needed to restore wliat has been destroyed. 

 That phase of the case is of interest to lumbermen in America who 

 are looking for export business after the close of the war. 



The French Minister of the Interior has completed a tally of the 

 buildings destroyed by the Germans in tliat part of France which 

 they occupied during their dash for Paris, but from which they 

 retired after a few days or a few weeks. Tliat district is now in 

 French possession and the count of the loss of wooden buildings has 

 been finished. The destruction amounted to 345,840,000 feet, about 

 one-third of it being fine joinery work and interior finish. The 

 invading army occupied that district a short time only. The wave 

 of invasion rolled in and receded, but witliin that brief period the 

 destruction of wooden buildings reached the enormous total given 

 above. 



The Germans still occupy a region of France nearly four times 

 as large as that from which they have withdrawn, and the destruction 

 there has been, from all accounts, more complete than that in the 

 districts where their stay was short. Based on that estimate, con- 

 siderably more than a billion feet of wood has been destroyed, count- 

 ing buildings alone. 



But France is only one corner of the devastated areas. As much 

 or more has been destroyed in Belgium, a greater amount in Poland, 

 while in East Prussia, Austria, and the Balkans the totals are enor- 

 mous. It is doubtful if the whole exports of lumber from the United 

 States to Europe in many years would suflice to restore what tlie war 

 has destroyed in buildings alone. 



