HARDWOOD RECORD 



45 



cutting of timbei', It is well known that the su- 

 preme court of Maine, in March, 1908, rendered, 

 at the request of the Maine legislature, an ad- 

 visory opinion upon the constitutionality of laws 

 designed to "restrict the cutting or destruction 

 of small trees growing on wild or uncultivated 

 lands, by the owner thereof, without compensa- 

 tion therefor, to such owner." The court upheld 

 the constitutionality of such proposed legislation 

 on the general grounds that "the legislature has 

 full power to make and establish all reasonable 

 laws and regulations for the defense and beneflt 

 of the people of the state, not repugnant to the 

 constitution of the state or the United States, ' 

 * * • and however inconvenienced, resricted 

 or even damaged particular persons and corpora- 

 tions may be, such general laws and regulations 

 are held to be valid unless there can be pointed 

 out such provision in the constitution of the 

 state or of (he United States, which clearly 

 prohibits them." The constitutional provision 

 most ape to be cited as a barrier to .such legis- 

 lation is : "Trivate property shall not be taken 

 for public uses without just compensation." The 

 Maine supreme court's opinion covering this 

 point was : "We do not think that the pro- 

 posed legislation would operate to 'take' private 

 property within the meaning of the constitution. 

 While it might restrict the owner of wild lands 

 in his use of them, might delay his taking some 

 of the product, might delay his anticipated 

 profits, and might even thereby cause him some 

 loss of profit, it would nevertheless leave him in 

 his lands, their product and increase untouched 

 and without diminution of title, estate, or quan- 

 tity. He would still have a large measure of 

 control and large opportunity to realize values, 

 lie might suffer delay but not deprivation. While 

 the use might be restricted, it would not be ap- 

 propriated or 'taken.' " 



Can the state force an owner to modify his 

 cutting for the purpose of continuing the pro- 

 ductiveness of the forest, for the sole purpose 

 of furnishing the public with wood products? 



Theoretically this might be done if it could 

 be shown that wood was indispensable to the 

 public welfare, that it could not he obtained else- 

 where, nor satisfactory substitutes found, that 

 the amount of land available for wood production 

 was limited, and that the state itself could not 

 assume the burden of purchasing and managing 

 such lands for wood production. In this con- 

 nection the supreme court of Jfaine said : "The 

 amount of land being incapable of increase, if 

 the owners of large tracts can waste them at 

 will without state restriction, the state and its 

 people mny be helplessly impoverished, and one 

 great purpo.se of government defeated." But 

 while possible, the constitutional grounds upon 

 which such legislation rests are rather shaky, 

 and depend not only on demonstration of the 

 need of such mea.sures, but also upon the cost 

 to the owner. 



Timber is a crop, but one, which requires from 

 forty to one hundred years to grow. Let us 

 compare it with agricultural crops. It is a mat- 

 ter of vital interest to the public that all agri- 

 cultural soils be brought under cultivation, and 

 that the methods of crOp rotation and diversi- 

 lied farming best calculated to maintain the pro- 

 ductiveness of the soil and the largest yields be 

 generally adopted. If it has been clearly demon- 

 strated that fertilizer is necessary, a law might 

 be passed requiring the use annually of a certain 

 quantity per acre of commercial fertilizer or its 

 equivalent in barnyard manure for every acre 

 of tillable land. The proper rotation of crops, 

 grain, hay and pasture, might be worked out lor 

 certain districts and incorporated into a law 

 whose purpose would be to force improvident or 

 ignorant farmers to do better farming, on ac- 

 count of the importance to the community of 

 preserving the fertility of the soil and producing 

 the maximum yields. Has such legislation ever 

 been passed? And would any legislature of 

 farmers find great difficulty in pointing out a few 

 fairly plausible reasons why it should not pass? 



From the standpoint of the producer, he alone 

 should be the judge as to methods, since he must 

 bear the financial risk of the undertaking. And 

 the farmer knows well enough that no law could 

 be passed regulating his methods, since these 

 must be determined according to local conditions 

 in every case. Fortunately, the interests of the 

 individual and the community roughly coincide 

 in the case of agriculture, and, since sound 

 methods pay best in the long run, they will be 

 adopted sooner or later. The public interests In 

 progressive farming are not cared for by laws 

 regulating the operations of the farmer, but by 

 law's for the support of experiment stations, and 

 providing methods for the dissemination of pro- 

 gressive ideas, and the education of farmers' 

 sons in modern farming methods. 



Financially, the owner of timber laud is in the 

 same position as the farmer. Timber may be 

 necessary to the public, almost as necessary as 

 food crops, but the grower of timber crops must 

 make it pay. The public has no more right- to 

 demand that land owners raise timber crops if 

 they cannot do so without losing money than it 

 would have to insist upon farmers or manufac- 

 turers conducting their business in the face of 

 certain financial loss or ruin. In the case of the 

 timber land owner, risks of an especially pro- 

 nounced nature must be incurred if he is to cut 

 a second crop of timber from his lands. All his 

 expenses are practically sunk in his young tim- 

 ber, and can not be realized on until it is big 

 enough to cut. This period even for rapidly 

 gro%ving species is seldom less than forty years. 

 To cut sooner would sacrifice a certain large 

 value for a very small immediate value, ^iuce 

 not only is the investment sunk but the use of 

 the money is lost for the period-, there being no 

 income, the expense increases at compound in- 

 terest for the entire period and would equal the 

 accumulation of a similar sum deposited in a sav- 

 ings bank and not touched foV an equal period 

 of years. 



An owner cannot practice forestry without 

 incurring expense, and this comes principally at 

 the start. It costs something to leave liiuber 

 standing when logging a tract, since not only 

 is the timber not realized on, but the logging 

 operation costs nearly as much without as with 

 the timber not taken. It costs something to 

 burn brush, lop tops, build fire lines and protect 

 the property from fire. Taxes will have to be 

 paid for forty years on the property, on a valua- 

 tion and rate largely determined by local officials 

 who are apt to discriminate against non-resident 

 timber land owners, and these taxes will accumu- 

 late at compound interest against the investment, 

 until the timber is big enough to cut. The prop- 

 erty produces no revenue from which to pay them 

 until the timber can be sold. During this period 

 there is a constant risk of fire, which in some 

 districts amounts to a certainty that young tim- 

 ber will be destroyed. Old timber with its thick 

 bark may escape damage and if killed can be 

 cut and used, but the youug stauds are worth 

 nothing now and are easily ruined even by light 

 fires. 



Under these couditiuus would it be constitu- 

 tional to require land owners to grow timber for 

 the beneflt of the public and assume all the 

 risks? It is clear that the growing of timber 

 crops by private persons may be encouraged but 

 not forced by law, for it would be doubtful if 

 the state could guarantee freedom from financial 

 ruin which is a prerequisite to such a require- 

 ment. The duty of the state is to strengthen her 

 system of fire protection so as to reduce the now 

 almost prohibitive risk to a reasonable one. and 

 to reform her tax laws so that the forest crop is 

 taxed, if at all, only when it is harvested, and 

 not every year during its growth. Progressive 

 states are already accomplishing great things in 

 the improvement of fire protection, but so far no 

 state has given the land owner any encourage- 

 ment whatever on the subject of taxation, and 

 the present system if accompanied by increase 

 in valuation of timber lands, which seems prob- 



able, might absolutely prevent private citizens 

 from growing timber profitably. In addition to 

 these beneficial measures, states can and do. 

 through the oflice of state forester, and the es- 

 tablishment of demonstration forests and in 

 other ways, encourage and educate the individual 

 to grow timber. Can they force him to do it? 

 II. H. C1UP.11AN in American Forestry. 



Mexican Timber 



In Vera Cruz, Mexico, it is stated by .■Ameri- 

 can timber experts who have recently returned 

 from an inspection tour of the mahogany and 

 cedar regions in the tropics of Mexico, that most 

 of the land near the water's edge has been ex- 

 hausted of valuable timber. .-V large part of the 

 country along the river from the port of Tvixpam 

 to Progreso has been stripped of mahogany and 

 cedar, notwithstanding the fact that quite a num- 

 ber of mahogany logs are shipped each year from 

 the port of Laguna in Campeehe. 



About all the mahogany and cedar has been 

 cut within profitable distance of water trans- 

 portation in Campeehe. Even the old method 

 of hauling with mules is not of any commercial 

 profit. It is economically handled by the rail- 

 roads back on the sea-coast where this hardwood 

 limber exists in plenty. 



Beginning at Yucatan and reaching some <?00 

 miles in a line northeast and southwest with an 

 average width of some 100 miles, there is an area 

 of 33,000 square miles of fine mahogany, cedar 

 and dye woods. Some of this territory reaches 

 into Belize, with the majority of it being in 

 Guatemala. 



Right Way to Put on Spliced Leather Belts 



The general opinion has always been that the 

 correct way to put spliced belts on the pulley 

 was to place them so that the splice or joint 

 would run on the pulley side and against the 

 splice on the outside of the belt. The inside can 

 take care of itself, as the joint is kept smooth 

 by the contact and pressure of the pulleys (espe- 

 cially is this the case where any belt dressing 

 is. used). It is always the outside of a splice 

 that opens up and causes trouble. In running 

 over the pulleys the tendency is to open the 

 splice on the outside and close it on the inside. 

 After the thin edge once starts to open the air 

 is forced under it (as it runs thin edge first on 

 the outside) and it soon becomes detached. In- 

 slead splice belts should be run with the splice 

 on the pulley side so as to oHer no resistance 

 to the air on the outside of the belt. 



Centennial Anniversary 



The well-known house of lumber merchants, 

 the Davenport, Peters Company of Boston, Mass., 

 will he able on May 1 to place the word "ccn- 

 Unnial" at the head of its stationery. This 

 house was founded under the name of Edward 

 D. Peters & Co. on May 1, ISll. On May 1, 

 1ST6, it became Ceorge H. Peters & Co. On 

 -May 1, 1887, it was changed to Davenport, Peters ' 

 & Co. On May 1, 1006, the house was incorpo- 

 rated as the Davenport, Peters Company. 



.\t the head of this house is George H. Daven- 

 port, president ; William B. Bacon, treasurer ; 

 Louis M. Pratt, secretary. The main office of 

 Ibis veteran institution is in the Mason building, 

 Boston. .Mass.. and it also has a New York branch. 



Miscellaneous Notes 



Gibbs, Hall & Allen Company of Grand Uapids, 

 Mich., are closing out its business. 



The L'Anse Bay Lumber Company of L'Anse, 

 Mich., w-as recently incorporated w-ith a capital 

 stock of $250,000. 



The Mcintosh Lumber Company of Centralla, 

 Wash., was recently destroyed by Are. The loss 

 is estimated at $100,000. 



