HARDWOOD RECORD 



35 



possibly for the entire thirty-year period a total of $10.00 per 

 acre, thereby easily obtaining in forty years a yield of from 10,000 

 to 15,000 feet per acre. Figuring that money doubles every ten 

 years, if interest and expenses are compounded at six per cent, 

 this would make the timber cost at the end of a forty-year period, 

 with a yield of 10,000 feet per acre, $11.50 per thousand. I 

 believe that land in Louisiana can be bought that will in fifty 

 years produce an average of 20,000 feet per acre, and with favor- 

 able taxation for the entire period at a cost of $10.00 to $12.00 

 stumpage, according to the quality of soil and the cost of land 

 as to its value for other crop purposes. The tax should follow 

 the saw at the harvesting of each crop. 



In European countries it has been found most economical that 

 the government or state shall grow the forests. The state pays 

 no tajfes, can get money at a lower rate of interest, and can 

 establish and maintain a uniform system of forestry under the 

 charge of educated and trained experts. When the crop has 

 matured to a point where cost has met value of product, so that 

 it would be a sacrifice of profit and a waste for even the state to 

 maintain carrying charges, then the trees should be harvested, 

 the land grubbed of its stumps, and the process repeated for 

 another crop. It is surprising how much can be grown on an 

 acre by intensified forestry, where trees of the same age are 

 planted in rows or at proper distances from each other, according 

 to contour and nature of the ground, and are intelligently pruned 

 and tended. 



On the Pacific coast it has been ascertained that 1,000 feet 

 per acre per annum can be grown, or 40,000 feet per acre in 

 forty years. In the Vanderbilt forest near Asheville, N. C, I saw 

 stands of white pine ten inches to one foot in diameter which had 

 been grown from the seed in eighteen years. In the different 

 states such soil should be selected for forestry which is not so 

 well adapted for annual crops of agriculture, yet well adapted for 

 tree growth. And the work should be done by the state. 



A lumberman may be a good mechanic and a man of excellent 



judgment as to how to cut and saw the tree into lumber so as to 

 secure the greatest commercial value, yet he would not necessarily 

 make a good forester. They are two distinct occupations. It is 

 most naturally the province of one to furnish the capital and 

 skilled knowledge to grow and care for the forests and to then 

 dispose of the raw material to the other, the skilled manufacturer, 

 to prepare for the market. AVe can never make it profitable to 

 grow trees to an age of the present old-growth forests of one 

 hundred and fifty years or more. But these old trees have ob- 

 tained their growth; they have long been ripe for the harvest, 

 and a rapidly increasing population and the demands of other 

 countries are calling for the marketing. Most of this acreage is 

 not improving. In most instances, at the best, it is only holding 

 its own. Growth of mature trees has stopped, and trees are dying 

 to fully offset the gain of new growth; and when fires come both 

 the old and the new growth are swallowed up in flames. The 

 Forest Service is doing most valuable and valiant work in pro- 

 tecting and saving the forests from disastrous fires. The govern- 

 ment appropriations for this work should be most liberal and 

 should be supplemented and aided by appropriations and appoint- 

 ment of sufficient forces of forest field men and fire wardens from 

 each state. 



We are far behind the older nations in the practice of conserva- 

 tion, but we have awakened in time. It is not now too late to 

 care for the present and insure for the future. We have had too 

 great an abundance. In the early history of our country we had 

 to cut down the forests and clear the ground for farm crops; 

 now we have arrived at the point where we must conserve and 

 improve the soil and plant and care for the forests. We are going 

 to become great through thrift and saving, and our people shall 

 not want. Not any one class, but each and all should bear their 

 just share of the public burden of conservation, restoration and 

 protection, and every class of property should be taxed fairly for 

 the public cost in this great work of the present in providing for 

 the future. 



vi;;i;;Ka4!aaw5iiTO}o^i™m:)U';y;'>ttMitta^^ 



y Trend of Hickory Manufacture 



Some peculiar features about the manufacture and marketing 

 of hickory ha\c developed lately — some drifts and tendencies that 

 seem at variance with the logical order of things. 



One of these is the more general practice of cutting up hickory 

 logs into flitches and planks, and marketing them in this form 

 instead of reducing them to wagon axles and to specific dimension 

 for agricultural stock. For two years or more this drift has 

 been noticeable among sawmill men who get a certain percentage 

 of hickory in their hardwood logs. Some who a decade ago were 

 making a strong feature of axles and other dimension stock in 

 hickory, and bolsters and kindred products in oak, now do but 

 very little of this. Instead of reducing stock to specific dimension 

 as formerly, they cut it into planks and flitches and let the customers 

 reduce it to specific dimensions. This tendency is very noticeable in 

 regard to hickory, and to some extent oalc is following along 

 the same line. 



About the only explanation the millraen talked to on this 

 subject have given for this is that they find it more satisfactory. 

 Now and then one may find a more detailed explanation to the 

 effect that at one time the price of hickory axles was higher 

 compared to the price of lumber and flitches than at present. 

 The price of axles and hickory dimension stock has increased 

 some in the last ten years, but not in proportion to the price 

 of hickory logs and hickory lumber. This is, perhaps, the main 

 reason why many hardwood millmen are now cutting their hickory 

 into planks and flitches in preference to reducing it to dimension 

 stock. Another reason, perhaps, is that they do not get as large 

 a percentage of hickory now as formerly and do not consider 

 it enough to justify going into the detailed process of converting 



into various duneusiou so as to use it up advantageously. They 

 are simply flitching it and letting the consuming trade reduce 

 it to dimensions, and take care of the scrap and trimmings as 

 the}' may see best. 



What may be another factor is that a few years ago the larger 

 consumers of hickory effected an organization, and in this work 

 advocated the idea that manufacturers of small articles in hickory 

 buy the raw material from the users of the larger articles. If 

 this had developed, as it was hoped it would, it would have meant 

 that the users of hickory axles could buy flitches, work them up 

 and dispose of their trimmings to others — that is, such of them 

 as they were not able to use themselves. 



The whole proposition seems illogical and a drift away from 

 what would be the natural thing of the day in connection with 

 hickory. There is a greater tendency than ever before to produce 

 more dimension in the woods, to the end not only of saving freight 

 on waste material, but also that the raw material may be more 

 closely utilized. Manv examples of this kind of conservation have 

 been shown during the past few years, some of them recently in 

 the columns of Hardwood Record. Moreover, it is perhaps safe 

 to say that some manufacturers specializing in hickory prod- 

 ucts are today working along this line and accomplishing good 

 results thereby. Meantime, no matter what the logic of the case 

 or what arguments may be put up, pro and con, there seems no 

 getting around the fact that the present drift among the sawmills 

 merely cutting a small amount of hickory incidental to manufac- 

 turing a general line of hardwoods is toward marketing it in 

 the form of planks and flitches rather than to reduce it to axles 

 and smaller diinension stock. 



