10 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



Relative timber values, therefore, can be analyzed -n-ith absolute 

 safety, as follows: 



As a broad proposition, timber located anywhere within the con- 

 fines of the United States is worth just what the lumber is worth 

 in Kansas City or St. Louis, in Chicago or Pittsburg, in Philadel- 

 phia or in New York, less the cost of production and the cost of 

 the freight. In this analysis the value of the local demand and 

 of possible export requirement* are not taken into consideration. 

 Kither or both may possess value, but in the aggregate they do 

 not contribute materially to any change in the basic condition. 



Standing timber in the state of Michigan, of a corresponding 

 value as a physical proposition to timber in the state of Wash- 

 ington, in a general way, i? worth just as much more as the dis- 

 similitude in the difference of freight between the two named 

 localities and the great consuming markets enumerated. If the 

 freight rate from a Washington timber tract to Chicago be 60 

 cents a hundred pounds and the freight from a Michigan tim- 

 ber tract be 10 cents a hundred pounds the Michigan timber 

 possesses a financial value above the Washington timber of 

 50 cents a hundred pounds, or approximately $15 , per thousand 

 feet. I:i estimating the value of a timber property, there are other 

 things to be considered. 



First, the quantity of merchantable timber within a prescribed 

 area. 



Second, the relative value of the timber when manufactured 

 into lumber. 



Third, the items entering into the cost of lumber production, 

 i. e., availability and cost of labor; water supply; climatic con- 

 ditions, etc. 



Fourth, the immunity of a timber property from destruction by 

 fire, and depredations by timber thieves. 



Fifth, the topography of the land on which the timber grows. 



Sixth, transportation facilities for both lo£a and lumber. 



In brief, the foregoing is a basis for the analysis of timber 

 values within the United States, and many of the points enum- 

 erated have undeniably been overlooked in many timber purchases 

 made within the past few years, notably on the Pacific slope. 



At an investment proposition, purchases made during the last 

 few years in Washington, Oregon, California and neighboring 

 states, represent money well placed for investment purposes, but 

 as operating propositions, they promise very little profit for a 

 decade to come. The big lumber operators of the past two or 

 three decades, the men who have achieved large fortunes, have 

 been operators in the soft woods — in the building wood trade. 

 The education of this class of lumbermen has all been along the 

 line of soft woods, and it has been difficult for them to recognize 

 the prospective values of hardwoods, and especially of what is 

 known as the commoner varieties of hardwoods. Hundreds of suc- 

 cessful white pine operators in the states of Maine, Michigan anil 

 Wisconsin have abandoned the sections with which they were 

 familiar since, forsooth, they said that the timber of their country 

 was exhausted, and have migrated to the South and West, seeking 

 n:ore timber worlds to conquer, in yellow pine, fir, cedar, the yel- 

 low-white pine, and the sugar pine of the Pacific coast. By the 

 generation of smaller and more astute lumbermen, who have fol- 

 lowed the lumber business in these old lumber states, there has 

 been carved out from smaller investment and even from lesser 

 talent generally, relative profits in hardwoods never dreamed* of 

 in the palmy days of white pine production. 



There has come a time when even the so-called inferior hard- 

 woods of this country have a relatively high commercial value, 

 and there is more prospective profit within the comparatively nar- 

 row range of hardwood growth remaining in the I'nited States 

 than ever came out of the white pine industry. 



White pine operators are awakening, with the result that within 

 the past few years there is a scramble for hardwood stumpage by 

 people who a few ycai-s ago would scarcely have taken it as a 

 gift. These active purchases prevail not only in the North, but in 

 the South as well, and a large jiwtion of the hardwood area of 



the United States is fast being grouped into large and compre- 

 hensive bodies, and will soon stand on a parity in gross owner- 

 ship with the big yellow pine holdings of today, and with the 

 white pine holdings of the past. 



Reforestry Problems of Michigan. 



Hon. Charles W. Garfield, chairman of the Michigan Forestry 

 Commission, delivered an address before a lumbermen's association 

 at Grand Eapids a few evenings ago, in which he made sundry 

 statements that should be of vital interest to the citizens of that 

 great commonwealth. He stated that approximately 6,000,000 acres 

 of land, equal to one-sixth the total area, of Michigan, had been 

 abandoned to the state on account of non-payment of taxes. These 

 lands were originally timber areas which had been denuded of 

 their forest wealth and abandoned by their owners as worthless. 

 By reason of deficient legislation the title in these lands has never 

 been absolutelj' revested in the state, and therefore only tax titles 

 are obtainable. Much of this land has been repurchased under tax 

 title claims and the subsequent purchasers being more familiar 

 with the land than the original owners or the state, the cleaning- 

 up process has been continued until practically the larger portion 

 of this area is now a howling, fire-devastated waste, and non- 

 productive in every way, being only a menace to adjoining prop- 

 erties that are in cultivation, or which individuals are attempting 

 to rehabilitate into forest areas. 



These tax lands of Michigan are handled through the auditor 

 general's office, and about 150 subordinates are employed in tak- 

 ing care of the records of them. A passably accurate record of 

 these great properties is about all that is accomplished in the auditor 

 general's office, save building up an expense account against the 

 state treasurer of about .'(>150,000 a year. All these employees of 

 the auditor general's office hold their jobs by reason of political 

 preferment, and represent henchmen of local politicians in various 

 parts of the state. Then tliere is a gang of hangers-on about the 

 office, who keep thoroughly posted on any possible value that may 

 exist in lands reverting to the state, and this crew buys up these 

 tax titles, skins off the remaining timber, and again lets them lapse 

 to the state. The country newspapers throughout a good many 

 sections of Michigan also are beneficiaries of this scandalous sys- 

 tem of handling state property, inasmuch as they receive forty 

 cents a description for advertising these lapsed taxes every year. 



People like Mr. Garfield, and other eminent students of political 

 and busines.^ economy, have urged upon the state of Michigan for 

 years that it was perfectly practical to rehabilitate these state 

 lands into timber areas that should become a source of great and 

 increasing revenue to the commonwealth. These men have given 

 much of their time and energy to making practical object lessons 

 that it was not only possible but practical to regrow white pine 

 for timber purposes, poplar for pulp wood and other woods on the 

 pine barrens and other abandoned areas of the state. In fact 

 Mr. Garfield makes the broad statement that under decent busi- 

 ness methods the state of Michigan owns enough land on which 

 it might grow timber of sufficient value to pay the entire running 

 expenses of the state from the sale of the timber alone, leaving 

 the land forever state property. 



Right here these public-spirited philanthropists run afoul of the 

 iniquitous selfishness of the politicians and their henchmen, the 

 stale grafters and the country newspapers, with the result that the 

 combined power is so strong that it has thus far been impossible 

 to awaken enough state jiride and backbone in the Michigan legis- 

 lature to make any laws that shall look toward rehabilitating the 

 state with forests. 



Out of the vast area of timber land under control of the state 

 the Forestry Commission has succeeded in obtaining four of the 

 most barren townships in the entire state for experimental pur- 

 poses. An object lesson is there presented of what it is possible to 

 do with practically desert land in the way of tree growing, and is 

 sufficient to put a lasting shame and disgrace upon the legislature 

 of the state of Michigan if it does not speedily enact laws so 

 that the reforestation of the state may be made possible. 



