HARDWOOD RECORD 



41 



purchase of land by the states, with a view to 

 protect the slopes and also to provide a local 

 supply of timber in the future. 



Still one other point, and that is the duty 

 of the public through its national and state 

 agencies to develop the science of forestry 

 through research and experiment and to educate 

 private owners how to practice forestry through 

 personal assistance and practical demonstration. 



The program of forest conservation may be 

 summarized under the following heads : First, an 

 adequate public support for the proper protec- 

 tion and administration of the national and state 

 forests of the country ; second, the organization 

 within all of the different states of state-aided 

 fire protection of private forests ; third, support 

 of the government and state agencies engaged in 

 experimenting with forest products, looking to 

 the extension of the uses of wood, wood preser- 

 vation, etc. ; fourth, the development of a reason- 

 able system of taxation of growing timber which 

 shall be uniform in the different, states ; fifth, the 

 establishment of state forests on a large scale 

 through purchase of cut-over private lands ; 

 sixth, adequate support of those public agencies 

 engaged in developing the science of forestry 

 and diffusing information which will aid private 

 owners to h.andle their timbcrlands along the 

 lines of forestry. 



W. L. Sykes, chairman of the Committee on 

 Forestry, delivered his- report, which was in 

 part as follows: 



Keport of Forestry Committee 



Chairman W. L. Sykes of tlie Committee 

 on Forestry stated that owing to the fact 

 that the members of his committee were scat- 

 tered all over the country from Canada to 

 California, it was impossible to get together 

 for a direct discussion, and that their views 

 were submitted by correspondence. 



He further stated that to this committee 

 was referred the question as to whether or 

 not it should become members of the Na- 

 tional Conservation Association. After some 

 investigation it was unanimously recommended 

 that it join this association, and on June 22 

 the Executive Committee voted to instruct 

 the secretary to apply for membership, which 

 was done. At the convention of the National 

 Conservation Association held in St. Paul 

 last September the chairman of this Forestry 

 Committee represented the association as a 

 delegate. 



Mr. Sykes then went on to tell of what he 

 had seen and heard while in attendance at the 

 conservation congress and gave an outline of 

 the subject covered by the various speakers. 

 He was impressed with the fact that con- 

 servation as advocated was not limited to 

 forests but embraces the entire natural re- 

 sources of the country. He said he noticed 

 a very evident belief that the present timber 

 holdings of the government will remain in 

 government control and will be operated 

 under rules and regulations promulgated by 

 the government. The only adverse comment 

 came from citizens of Oregon, Washington 

 and Idaho, who contended that this was an 

 infringement on state sovereignty. 



In regard to the object of conservation, 

 the speaker said: "Many people have the 

 erroneous idea that conservation means pro- 

 hibition from cutting timber. But this is 

 not the thought. It is not likely that the 

 government will sell large tracts of. timber 

 to be operated as has been the custom in 

 the past, but will sell sturapage where it 

 should be cut to save it from loss, for in- 

 stance, where it has been damaged by fire. 

 But it can easily be seen that lumber so 

 produced will of necessity have to sell at a 

 higher price because of the increased cost in 

 operating. 



The report recommended that all lumber 

 producers keep in touch and work in harmony 

 with the national government and respective 

 state organizations as far as practical, and 

 suggested that to accomplish this, the asso- 

 ciation should be represented at the next 

 conservation congress by at least two dele- 

 gates. 



Fire, it was argued by the committee, is 

 the most serious element operating against 



conservation. The best methods for combat- 

 ing this menace will be adopted by the govern- 

 ment, and the private operators should feel 

 it incumbent upon them to co-operate with the 

 government officials to best further proper 

 methods for saving the present standing for- 

 ests from loss or waste due to fires. Inasmucli 

 as different sections of the country would re- 

 quire altogether different kinds of action, the 

 committee merely recommended a broad plan 

 which would entail the cutting of burnc<l tim- 

 ber, maintenance of fire patrol, construction 

 of lookouts, installation of teleplione systems 

 and the maintaining of friendly feelings with 

 the natives. 



With the proper protection against fire, the 

 next most essential element is reforestation, 

 in the opinion of the committee, which, ac- 

 cording to the report, cannot be accomplished 

 successfully by individual efforts. The com- 

 mittee argues that, first, the system of taxa- 

 tion is not favorable and, second, it requires 

 too long a time to raise merchantable tim- 

 ber for an individual to find it a profitable 

 investment. While it is mainly up to the gov- 

 ernment and state, still there are many places 

 Avhere the lumberman would gladly start re- 

 forestation if the tax system would allow it, 

 and if see<llings could be purchased at a 

 reasonable price. 



The report then took up the peculiar con- 

 ditions prevailing in New York state relative 

 tc conservation. In the empire state the con- 

 stitution prohibits cutting of timber on state 

 reserves, with the result that there are con- 

 stantly millions of feet of timber which 

 sliould be cut and removed, either on account 

 of ripeness, storm or fire, which are left in 

 the woods to rot, and constitute an utter 

 vaste. This, the committee, says, is negative 

 waste, and in opposition to this the report 

 points out what it calls positive waste, speci- 

 fying the hewing of millions of railway ties 

 from trees that would produce a good quality 

 of lumber from that part wluch is reduceil 

 to chips and remains in the woods to feed 

 fires and damage other timber. As another 

 •instance is cited the fact that only a small 

 portion of the trees is utilized where the tim- 

 ber is remote from the market. 



Eelative to scientific forestry, the report 

 states that it ought to be productive of much 

 good, and recoinmends that the individual 

 members of the association support and en- 

 courage forestry schools and open up their 

 operations to the students of these institu- 

 tions with a view of better fitting them from 

 a practical way to deal with problems which 

 they will have to confront in the future. 



E, C. Lippincott, chairman of the Advisory 

 Committee to American Forestry Association, 

 made a brief address, covering the work of 

 that organization. 



C. 0. Shepherd, chairman of Trades Kela- 

 tions Committee, in lieu of a report from that 

 committee, read several communications, in- 

 cluding one from the Eastern States Retail 

 Lumber Dealers' Association, expressing en- 

 tire satisfaction with the relations that had 

 existed between the National Wholesale Lum- 

 ber Dealers' Association and the retailers of 

 the East during the past year. 



President Higbie then introduced Lewis 

 Doster, secretary of the Hardwood Manufac- 

 turers' Association of the United States, who 

 delivered the following address: 



Lewis Doster's Address 



Mr. President and Gentlemen of the conven- 

 tion : I want to contradict your president, if 

 nobody else has done so during his regime. I 

 allowe'd your president the privilege of selection 

 and I think that is how I was called on first. 

 Representing the Hardwood Manufacturers As- 



sociation of the United States. I am personally 

 representing our newly elected i)resident, Mr. 

 \V. B. Townsend, president of the Little River 

 I.umlier Company and the Clearfield Lumber 

 Company of Tennessee and Kentucky respective- 

 ly, who I know is a member of your organiza- 

 tion. At the time of the receipt of your kind 

 invitation to our association to meet "with you- 

 and to appoint delegates. President Townsend, 

 who contemplated a trip to the West coast, 

 stated to me personally in Cincinnati, "I will 

 appoint the delegates gladly, but they may not 

 go. I want to go to this convention in Wash- 

 ington, but if I go to the coast, you have got 

 to go." He went to the coast and I am here, 

 gentlemen, to represent him personally and to- 

 extend the greetings of the Hardwood Manu- 

 facturers' Association of the United States, and 

 its willingness always to co-operate in conven- 

 tion and association work. 



On the sub,1ect of greetings from one associa- 

 tion to another, you, as a wholesale lumbermen's 

 organization, represent all of the woods of the 

 United States. I can onl.v talk on hardwoods, 

 and naturally, the one subject wbicli has been- 

 brought before you in this important subject 

 of universal hardwood inspection ; thc-reforc, with 

 the pleasure of the chair and the gentlemen here. 

 I would be glad to reflect the conditions as com- 

 ing from a sawmill operating standpoint of the- 

 territory which the association I am honored to 

 represent covers. In supplementing my dis- 

 cussion on the question of grading, I would like 

 to say that the organization covers the southern 

 hardwood production of the United States. This 

 begins geographically, at a line in Peimsylvania 

 or Maryland, or close to the Mason and" Dixou 

 line, running southwest to the gulf of Texas. 

 It covers the Appalachian mountain chain ; it 

 covers the Mississippi valley, with its delta coun- 

 try, and its overflowed lands, taking in eighteeD 

 or nineteen different kinds of hardwoods and a 

 section of the country in which the climatic 

 conditions, both winter and summer, are subject 

 to the worst kind of hardships that represent 

 the hardwood production of this country. 



The association has been formed since 1902 

 and its aim in life has been to develop a sys- 

 tematic method of grading to assist the develop- 

 ments of the sawmill man. In all of our local- 

 ities every sawmill operator is busy with a 

 problem on his hands to get his product to the 

 market in the most practical and feasible man- 

 ner. He has spent, and the association has 

 spent since its organization, over three hundred 

 thousand dollars, with 90 per cent of it to the 

 view of unifying hardwood inspection. The at- 

 titude of the Hardwood Manufacturers' Asso- 

 ciation, through its officers and membership, has 

 been to work in unison with every communif.v, 

 a condition that will Justffy the "work of urit- 

 fying this inspection. Prior to in02 there were 

 a. large number of hardwood grading rules rep- 

 resenting different localities, "and even in the 

 localities that we represented in producing 

 points. They all had local rules and when the 

 lumberman manufacturer put up his stock in 

 yards at the mill points, he did so without any 

 knowledge of how lumber was to be graded 

 when shipped to the various ijcints which are 

 determined after the lumber is cured. Since 

 that time the grading rules have been given 

 more thought and attention, with the result 

 that there are practicafly only two rules of hard- 

 wood inspection in the field. 



Since I have been here, I have been asked a 

 number of questions by different memliers of 

 your organization, as well as by personal friends, 

 regarding the attitude of the membership of our 

 association. I also listened with a great deal 

 of interest to your president's report, which 

 brought up this important subject of uniform 

 hardwood inspection. I have listened fo the re- 

 port of your chairman. E. V. Babcock, on hard- 

 wood grading inspection, and to the discussion . 

 which took place immediately afterwards. In 

 answering the questions which were asked of me 

 which ran in this line, or theme, "Are the hard- 

 wood manufacturers sincere in wanting hard- 

 wood inspection," I did not know what to say, 

 except "Yes," with a great big capital Y E S. 

 There was no other stronger English word I 

 could use to refiect the feelings of each individ- 

 ual member, and I have been the secretary of 

 the association since its inception. 



I desire also to call attention to the fact that 

 in 1910 our association and the large body of 

 representative lumbermen of the New York Lum- 

 ber Trade Association and the Eastern States 

 Retail Lumber Dealers' Association met in con- 

 ference, and in dealing with the problem of 

 eliminating any rules or conditions that were 

 impracticable, I was then amazed to see how 

 readily a condition can be overcome when you 

 meet sincerely face to face with a square deal 

 policy and equitable system of taking care of 

 these problems ; getting the big ones through, 

 with the result that last year these organiza- 

 tions advanced a number of points by becoming 

 able to have the opportunity of beginning what 

 we believe is the flnaf ending of the troubles 

 of not having uniform inspection. I gladly 

 state this at this time, for the reason that the 

 Eastern States Retaii Lumber Dealers' Asso- 

 ciation and the New York Lumber Trade As- 

 sociation are well known by you gentlemen, 



