HARDWOOD RECORD 



15 



olainis iiiaile by uunitToiis sliippcrs regarding the time limit on 

 railroail claims. The Interstate ('omiiierce Commission will lio 

 wi'll to maintain its riputatiini tin entire fairness if it grants 

 this |.lea. 



The Logs or the Finished Article? 



EM'OUT Fl(;ri;i:s eoverin^; fin.'st proiluets in th<' I'niteil 

 States show that a larye snni is invested annually in Ameri- 

 lan harilwooil lojts on the part of importers from various 

 eountries across the water. In most cases these logs go into 

 products which American manufacturers are well equipped ami 

 well qualified to manufacture themselves, lu selliug the product 

 of the American hardwood forests in this crude form, American 

 linsiness men as a whole are not realizing the actual return 

 value they shouhl realize from supplying the foreign market with 

 the finished artiides made from these very logs. 



It will he argued that manufacturers abroad can turn out these 

 products at a less cost than American manufacturers producing 

 them, and also that the foreign manufacturers are peculiarly 

 qualified to take care of their p;irticular trades and can waril off 

 competition from abroad because of their intimate knowledge of 

 the trade to which they cater. 



Granting the low cost of manufacture abroad, it has been 

 proven that this point can be easily met by superior eflSciency, 

 svhich as a rule prevails in this country. Regarding the other 

 point, if this argument were discussed, it wouM probably lie 

 merely an excuse for the absence of proper endeavor to secure 

 this trade, which should rightly be part of the business of the 

 .\merican manufacturers. The Canailian government has levied 

 an export tax on pulpwood in order to increase the manufacturing 

 establishments turning out wood pulp in the dominion. It would 

 not be necessary to place such a tax upon export logs to enable 

 the American manufacturer to get the benefit of the increased 

 profit resulting from the sale of the finished jiroduct, but it is 

 necessary that the foreign market slioulil be closely analyzed by 

 American manufacturers of jiroducts made from wood with the 

 idea of gradually taking over this market unto themselves inso- 

 far as it is directly eonnecterl with the various species of Anieri 

 can woods. 



The market is there and the aliility to fill the market also. It 

 is neeilless to say that the effort to secuie the market exists, but 

 while some inroads have been made on the tra<le of foreign 

 manufacturers, this latent ability is more or less predominant and 

 American hardwood logs will contin\ie to be exported so that the 

 cream of the profit may be secured by manufacturers abroad until 

 American manufacturers of such proilucts fully realize the possi- 

 bilities in the situation. 



Eastern and Western Forests 



MA.NV Lr.MHKKMK.X AKK i;.\ I'KCTI .\G that the opening of 

 the Panama canal will remove the barrier which has stood 

 in the way of marketing the eastern and the western woods in 

 •■ertain large regions. The lumber dealers in the Kast and in 

 the West share in this hope. It is exjjected that the cheap west- 

 ern softwoods will find profitable markets which they have been 

 unable to reach in the past because of high freight charges over 

 the available routes; and the expectation is equally strong that 

 eastern hardwoods, either as rough lumber or in manufactureil 

 articles, will be carried to western markets at rates which will 

 assure the manufacturer and dealer a larger share of profit than 

 has been possiljle in the past. Time must test the reasonableness 

 of these expectations. 



The forests of the Pacific .slope are almost exclusively soft- 

 woods, and much of the timber is of splendid quality. The 

 eastern forests are both hardwoods and softwoods. The hard- 

 woods in the Mississippi valley and east of it have been esti- 

 mateil to aggregate 40n,000,00(l,0nn feet. A single softwood of the 

 Pacifiic coast, Douglas fir, considerably exceeils in quantity all 

 the hardwoods of the United States. 



There are western demands for eastern woods and eastern 



markets for western woods. Business men expect freer exchange 

 when the canal is opened. A thousand miles of practically tree- 

 less plains and mountains separate the forests of the eastern part 

 of the country from the western. 



The geographic separation of those widely-different forest 

 regions has existed during an immense period of time. What is 

 now the nearly treeless belt extending from Canada to Mexico 

 was once a sheet of water connecting the Gulf of Mexico with 

 the Arctic ocean. The separation of the eastern from the western 

 forests dates from before that time. There were then two con- 

 tinents instead of one, and the eastern continent's forests were 

 different in composition from the those of the West. In the East 

 there were yellow poplars, red gum, sassafras, sycamore, elm, and 

 many other hardwoods which still grow there; in the West were 

 the softwoods which to this day hold undisputed domain. 



The separation existed long jirior to the Ice Age, and it has 

 continued practically unbroken ever since. When the sea with- 

 drew from the central part of the continent, a semi-arid region 

 took its place, and neither the forests of the Kast nor of the 

 West could spread across it to mingle their species in common. 

 A few, the cottonwood, juniper, and white spruce, succeeded in 

 crossing the arid belt, but most others could not, and thej' remain 

 separate today as they were in the Cretaceous Age when an 

 arm of the sea divided them. 



It may be of interest, though not now of practical importance, 

 that when the eastern part of North America was separated by 

 water from the western, there was no Isthmus of Panama. The 

 Pacific ocean was joined with the Atlantic by a deep wide 

 channel, and what is now the whole Panama region was then 

 sealiottoiii. 



Dr. Rothrock's Resignation 



"pHE KESIGNATIOX of Dr. .1. T. Rothrock as a Ineinber of the 

 *■ Pennsylvania State Forestry Commission, for the reason of 

 "advancing age," is an event of more than momentary importance 

 to the cause of forestry in this country. He was one of the first 

 men to take hol<l of this work and he has devoted the best part 

 of a long life to it. He has been to forestry what Benjamin 

 Franklin was to popular government — founder, expounder, and a 

 long, faithful, and practical worker. He was planning and execut- 

 ing long before the mass of the American people had heard of 

 forestry. He can be classed with that few of whom it has been 

 said: "They, while their companions slept, were toiling upward 

 in the night." Dr. Rothrock is a botanist of rare attainments. 

 Knowledge of the range and characteristic of many of our forest 

 trees have been greatly extended through his personal work in 

 nearly all parts of the United States. During many years he 

 has been a contributor and one of the editors of "Forest Leaves," 

 a small, four-page periodical which has contained more practical 

 and accurate information concerning American trees than any 

 other publication of like size ever given to the public. It is to 

 be regretted that he feels that age makes his resignation neces- 

 sary. Yet, he has not laid down the armor until ho has seen 

 the battle won. The movement has now gaineil such momentum 

 that it no longer depends for success upon the efforts of one man 

 or a few men. Fortunate it is, therefore, that this Apostle Paul 

 of American forestry can retire with the assurance that he has 

 "fought a good fight." 



Progress of the Age 



AKECFXT BCLLETIX issueil by the University of Wiscon- 

 sin, commenting upon the work being done at the Forest 

 Products Laboratory at Madison, Wis., in connection with the 

 forestry department of the university, after reviewing the work 

 in detail, contends that the question of utilization as a great 

 waste in our forests and in our lumlier mills is dealt with in 

 part by the develoinnent of distillation. It tiicn goes on to tell 

 briefly of the results aimed at in connection with the various 

 wastes in the forest and at the mills. 



Ill coiKdiision if says that: "And what does all this work 



