HARDWOOD RECORD 



39 



timber except lay permission of proper legal 

 autbority. As an abstract principle this is 

 riglit. But wben applied to our own state 

 ii, is in direct violation of that |iorficiri of 

 our constitution which says: "Nor shall 

 private propertj' be taken, or applied to 

 public use, without authority of law and 

 without just compensation being first made 

 Ml secured" (Article I, Section 10). This 

 i> that fundamental portion of the constitu- 

 tion which is commonly designated "The 

 Bill of Eights," and of which the last sec- 

 tion expressly declares: "To guard against 

 transgressions of the high powers which 

 we have delegated, we declare that every- 

 thing in this article is excepted out of the 

 general powers of government ;uid shall 

 remain forever inviolate. ' ' 



If language has any meaning, no legal 

 sophistry can alter the fact that we have 

 r.o right to interfere with the owner of the 

 timber in the manner proposed. 



To be within the power of the maxim 

 quoted, we must first provide just compensa- 

 tion, or alter the constitution of the state. 

 It is clear that the one proper thing to 

 ilo is to provide "just compensation." 



Concentrated wealth has been responsible 

 for many wrongs. Hut, on the other hand, 

 it has created so many public utilities, with- 

 out which our wonderful national growth 

 would not have been possible, that it is 

 well for us to halt and consider before we 

 jciin in the popular clamor against if. 

 liven agriculture, the bedrock of our pros 

 perity, would have made a limping prog- 

 ress into the new West but for the great 

 railroads which carried the farmer there 

 and brought his i>roduct to the Tiiarket. 

 There are many instances where .-i w.dl 

 regulated trust has rendered public service, 

 and there are some instances where the 

 absence of such a trust has led to public 

 calamity, and one such example presses so 

 forcibly upon me that I wish to call your 

 attention to it. 



In central Potter county of this state, as 

 one, standing at Cross Fork Jnuction, looks 

 around, the eye will embrace an area of at 

 lease one hundred square miles (that is ten 

 miles square). Over almost the whole of this 

 region absolute desolation reigns. There are 

 but few farms opened up. The timber has 

 been removed, after the Goodyear method, 

 which leaves nothing of marketable value 

 behind it. Fires consumed the slashings, 

 and with them all undergrowth and much 

 of the soil. The showers of summer and 

 the snows of winter have carried olT, and 

 will continue to carry off, the best soluble 

 plant food so long as the law of gravita- 

 tion operates, until no more of the precious 

 freight remains; unless in the meantime 

 active reconstructive measures are adopted 

 by the farmer, or the forester, and at pres- 

 ent there is almost no sign of the presence 

 of either on the ground. The surface is a 

 rolling table land about two thousand feet 

 above tide, deeply gulched here and there 

 into wide ravines. If there is any mineral 



wealth there it has yet to be revealed. 



The only outlooks t'{ir the country are 

 forestry and f:irniing, willi the latter tend 

 ing in the direct imi nf grazing. 80 far 

 as one may now pre<lict, it will be years 

 before any serious attempt will be made 

 to protect that area, or to utilize its pro- 

 ductive possibilities. In the n\eanwhile, 

 however, under the cximisihc to rlestructive 

 agencies, the soil is becoming poorer, and 

 has, in part, reverted almost to a desert 

 condition. That area should sn|iport fi-lli 

 families and .illiiw tn cacli I'.nnily a farm 

 of one hundred acres. U does not at pres- 

 ent support a tenth of that number, and the 

 prospect of an early iucreas(,' is becoming 

 exceedingly remote, because of the pro- 

 gressive impoverishment of the soil. 



Unless some not now visible inducement 

 brings settlers into a region from which 

 they now seem to be going, that area may 

 be marked on the map as productive of 

 nothing but floods, and ten ye.-ns hence may 

 be designated as desert. 



It is proper now to inquire tlirough what 

 agency has the present dejjlorable condi- 

 tion been brought about. Has any jier 

 sonal, corporate, state or national good 

 been gained sufficient to counter-balance 

 the calamity wrought? So far as one can 

 see there can be but one answer. The 

 \ast resources of the region have been 

 squandered and no good sufficient to atone 

 tor the sin returned by any one. 



I do not forget that tlie lumber industry 

 gave emploj-ment to tluuisands of men there, 

 that it built railro;ids ami mills and towns. 

 .\11 fills it ilid. Tlic hum nt' business per- 

 vaded the atmosplieii — for a few years. 

 And now the question is, what is to sup 

 port the towns, preserve the mills, or fur- 

 nish trade to the railroads, for the nakeil 

 hillsides proclaim thi- terrible truth that 

 the source of all this |ir.is|M'rity. the tini 

 ber, is gone, and that tlieri' is nothing in 

 sight to m.aintain rlu' [O .isperity that it 

 created. 



Now let us turn this picture and ask how 

 intelligent co-operation would have man- 

 aged that splendid heritage of timber. In 

 the first place, it would have said: Any 

 business which docs not produce a divi- 

 dend over ami above expenses is not worth 

 conducting. The price of lumber is too low, 

 because there is too much of it on the 

 market. We will reduce the supply until 

 the market yields a fair profit, and the 

 surplus mills would have been shut down. 

 Only those nearest the market would have 

 been operated. This would have saved each 

 year millions upon millions of feet for the 

 time when there would be an actual, im- 

 perative need for it at a remunerative 

 price. Each year would have brought its 

 reward in some shape. 



No real, worthy enterprise or business 

 would have suffered from this diminished 

 suppl}' of lumber, for if it was worthy or 

 requisite for the development of our na- 

 tional life if wouhl liavc been able to pay 



a proper price for the lumber it required. 

 Hut on the other liand, a diminished sup 

 ply of lumber would have curbed our na- 



fi il, wasteful, wicked extravagance in 



the use of lumber. Per capita, wo use or 

 destroy from thirteen to fifteen times as 

 much here as the Knglishmau docs at home; 

 and our assumed requirements here are sev- 

 eial times as large per capita as those of 

 any European nation. 



Yes, a properly directed lumber operation 

 in this state, under one control, would have 

 prolonged the lumber industry until in- 

 irease of knowledge had shown us how to 

 prolong it forever by a rational system of 

 forestry. Instead of blackened, naked hill- 

 sides, instead of abandoned mills and de- 

 serted villages, we should have had pros- 

 perous farms and permanent mills and 

 thriving towns on that very land, and had 

 them so far as we can or care to look 

 down into the future. — From lecture de- 

 livered by J. T. Eothroek at Lehigh TTni- 

 versify. Reported by Forest Leaves. 



A New Method of Chemically Staining 

 Timber 



.\t a rcci'nt racetmg of the Chemists' Club held 

 in Xcw York a short talk was given on the pro- 

 cess ol impregnating growing timber by Dr. Law- 

 rence Ottinger. This method of impregnating 

 growing timber by the distribution of artificial 

 coloring matter through tlio fibres of the wood 

 was invented liy Dr. Levi S. Gardner. This new 

 metluKi is more lasting than the ..ther simple 

 mctlicids of staining. 



The iiroccss of introducing lids coloring matter 

 is tirsl to cut a kerf partly around tlic trunk 

 or one ol' llic limlis of a live tree. By doing this 

 it severs tile hist fibres and leaves the pores 

 open on the inner side of the kerf. The kerf or 

 incision is closed at its outer edge by the pack- 

 ing of a cord of a larger diameter tlian the wldtii 

 of I lie kerf. 'I'hcn a gimlet hole is made from 

 I be outer surface of the tree to the kerf cham- 

 ber. -V nipple is inserted in the outer end of the 

 feed liole to liold a pipe leading to a vessel con- 

 tiiHiing a coloring matter in liquid form. There 

 0,1, si be no lime lost lic^tween tlie process of cut- 

 ling anil the introducing of the coloring matter, 

 hecaiisc tills method is dependent upon the cirou- 

 laiion of lhi> tree to give the desired results. 

 Ihi' tree can be colored to any desired height 

 and can be determined by lateral tapping. This 

 method gives a natural artificial coloring to the 

 tree, wliile Ihe heart of the tree remains unal- 

 tered. .\bove the kerf, the trunk of the tree 

 is solidly coioredr By adding a preserving liquid 

 to the coloring matter the life of tlie tree is 

 greatly increased. 



.\11 different species of trees will not accept 

 Ihe same coloring fluids, as for example what 

 might be fed to beech or poplar will not travel 

 at all in pine or hickory. The atmospheric con- 

 ditions also have to be noted in feeding this col- 

 oring matter, as different species vary on this. 

 The majority of the aniline dyes can be used but 

 some are re,i('cte(l. Tlie known fact that anilines 

 fade under severe exposure to heat and light, is 

 the reason for their not being used very ex- 

 tensively. Instead oxidizing agents and bark 

 extracts are used principally. The majority of 

 the colors which are absorbed are carried by 

 means of the traveling sap, acetic acid will 

 cause the greatest acceleration of any acid, and 

 on being left a sufficient length of time will 

 cause the entire foliage to become colored. 



The cost of this method Is much loner than 

 that of using pressure. Coloring by pressure 

 through Ihe wet log produces effects more uni- 

 form and consequently less beautiful. 



