50 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



pounds to the cubic foot. The heart-wood is light broivn, or 

 often (lark brown in very old trees. It turns dark upon exposure. 



The most important use of conacaste at the present time is for 

 furniture and interior finish. It is especially well adapted for 

 furniture, not only because of its pleasing grain, but because it 

 takes and retains a beautiful polish when properly finished. 



Although this wood has no well-defined annual rings of growth 



like those in our oaks and chestnuts, there are obvious zones or 

 bands of pores which seem to separate layers of growth. These 

 pores are less numerous than in mahogany, and they are, on an 

 average, smaller in diameter and are open. The pith rays are 

 numerous, but so narrow that it requires a hand lens magnifying 

 from four to six diameters in order to see them. These rays add 

 no attractive figure to the wood when quarter-sawed. 



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Forestry in Indiana 





At the leitnt iimiual uieetiiig of the Indiana Hardwood Lumber- 

 men's Association, Samuel Burkholder, chairman of the Committee 

 on Forestry, made the following interesting report in behalf of that 

 committee: 



By forestry in this article I will mean the scientific raising of 

 trees to be sold to the manufacturer of lumber in the same way a 

 farmer raises wheat to sell to a flour mill. 



Much has been said and written in the last few years advocating 

 forestry, but I contend, except in a fevv rare instances, forestry 

 is not yet practicable for a private owner, but is a work for the 

 state. 



In Europe, where waste is reduced, where more money is annu 

 ally spent upon the forest to increase its net returns, where the 

 annual cut is in most cases limited to the annual growth, and where 

 the state takes an important part in the management of communal 

 and private forests, the striking feature is the considerably greater 

 profit of forests under direct state management. 



All communal forests are subject to some form of state super- 

 vision and many of them are managed precisely as if they were 

 state property. Private forests necessary for the protection of 

 watersheds or the welfare of the general public are also subject 

 to state control. They cannot be cleared; cuttings must be done 

 as prescribed by the state, and all cuttings must be reforested. 

 Other private forests not necessary for protective purposes can 

 usually be managed as the owner desires, but co-operation with the 

 state exercises a large influence in the management of private for- 

 ests. As a rule, government or state forests are very much more 

 profitable and productive. Communal forests are next the most 

 productive, and private forests least productive of all. In the 

 United States the net returns from the forests are a great deal 

 less than the net returns in Europe. 



None of the foreign systems withhold the forest from use. Their 

 purpose is to utilize the forests to the fullest extent and to attempt 

 to replace what is cut ofl: by intensive methods of cultivation. The 

 results of this are seen in the fact that the average production 

 of wood per acre in the United States is about twelve cubic feet, 

 while in France it is about thirty-seven cubic feet; in Germany it 

 runs from forty-two to forty-six cubic feet per acre, and in some 

 of the Swiss forests it runs as high as fifty-six cubic feet per acre. You 

 will note from these figures that the European countries are far 

 ahead of us in commercial forestry. In all of these countries it 

 has been found that forests under direct management of the state 

 are more productive than under any other kind of management. 



In an investment of this sort there are three items to be taken 

 into consideration: the risk of fire; burdensome taxation, and com- 

 paratively low price of the product. 



Undoubtedly the state is far more able to cope witli tlie lire 

 proposition than any private owner could be without going to such 

 an expense as to make it entirely impracticable. In Europe they 

 have no forest fires for the reason that fires are prevented from 

 starting, which is a matter for the state. 



The second item, burdensome taxation, is wholly a matter for the 

 state. Here where one has to pay taxes year after year on the 

 same trees, one cannot afford to hold them very long, but the (rtate 

 practically forces an owner to cut them to keep the profits from 

 being absorbed by the high a.ssessments. In Switzerland an owner 

 pays taxes when Ihe timber is cut. In Germany and Austriii. the 



laws are somewhat difi'erent, but they are very favorable to private 

 forestry. 



Under the third item I have put the rate of interest an owner 

 could expect to get on his investment at the present prices if the 

 land is not worth over $3 per acre or $10 per acre, after the trees 

 are planted, if the public and state are aroused to the necessity 

 of protection from fire, if the forest is not damaged by wind 

 or insects and if the forest is not taxed too high or there is devised 

 another m.ethod of taxation for forests, then a profit of four per 

 cent may be expected on a forty to seventy-year investment, pro- 

 viding the right kind of trees are planted. 



This last is very essential. There has probably been at least 

 .$1,000,000 spent in Indiana in planting catalpa, the greater part 

 of which is waste. Possibly the state would have been better off 

 by several million dollars if it had never heard of the catalpa be- 

 cause there are now more than thousands of acres of our most valu- 

 able land planted with catalpa. I am confident the owner will not 

 make more than one to three per cent out of such an investment, 

 whereas he should make ten to fifteen per cent. 



If private owners have to pay five and six per cent for money 

 while the government can get it for two and a half per cent, it 

 follows for this reason alone the states and government can grow 

 commercial trees cheaper than private owners and can hold the trees 

 longer before cuttiug, thereby getting a better grade of lumber. 



The Indiana State Board of Forestry is now trying to determine 

 the rate of growth of our Indiana commercial forest trees. The 

 report of what we have done to date will be in our 1911 book. All 

 desiring copies of this will please hand their names to me and I 

 will see that a copy is sent to them as soon as the report is 

 published. 



The Lumber Business in Louisiana 



In a bulletin on Manufactures of Louisiana, recently issued by 

 the Census Bureau, it is shown that far more establishments are 

 engaged in the manufacture of lumber and its products than in 

 any other one industry in the state, and that the value of the 

 output is exceeded only by that of the combined sugar and molasses 

 and sugar refining industry. The lumber and timber industry of 

 Louisiana has reached an advanced stage of development. It gave 

 employment to an average of 46,072 wage earners in 1909, ajjd 

 the value of its products amounted to $(i2,S:!8,000, which figures 

 represent sixty and five-tenths per cent and twenty-eight and one- 

 tenth per cent, respectively, of the corresponding tables for the 

 state. This industry includes sawmills, shingle mills, planing mills, 

 box factories, etc. 



While the lumber business today is one of the oldest in the 

 state, it was comparatively undeveloped as late as 1889. The most 

 active development has been since 1899, and in 1909 Louisiana 

 was the second state in the Union in the amount of lumber sawed. 

 In that year :!,:!4G,G] 0,000 feet of softwood, .•oiisisting of yellow 

 pine and cypress, and 200,308,000 feet of hardwood wore cut. A 

 table showing details of the various industries in Louisiana gives 

 .'ITfi establishments engaged in this lino of work in 1899 and 702 

 in 1909. There were 30,000 employes in 1899 and 49,000 ton years 

 later. The capital invested in 1899 was $14,920,000 and in 1909 

 $88,97.1,000. 



