March 10, 1916 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



23 



Foreign Forestkt Methods 



In some European countries the governments have adopted such 

 laws and regulations as virtually forces the owner of timber land to 

 use the cropping system, and this has had the desired results. The 

 writer is familiar with a 200-acre tract of spruce in northern Europe, 

 where the regulations call for nothing smaller than eleven inches at 

 seventeen feet above ground ; the present owner markets about 200 

 M feet per year; his grandfather cut at about the same rate sixty 

 years ago, and so will his grandchildren in time to come, all on this 

 200acre tract. 



The adoption of such laws in this country undoubtedly would be a 

 hardship to many small operators, with manufacturing plants on 

 hand intended for a quick clearing up of the timber tract, but such 

 regulations might be justified on the broad principle that if the gov- 

 ernment make peace it is not morally bound to compensate those who 

 have invested on the expectation of war. In any event such regu- 

 lations must discriminate as between timber on good agricultural 

 ■land, and that on land not fit for any such purpose. 



One way of encouraging the lumbermen to voluntarily work toward 

 forest conservation would be by the method of remitting all taxes on 

 cut-over land where the young timber had been protected from fire, 

 tax exemption to run so long as such tracts were kept up as timber 

 nurseries, and the tax should be retroactively collected at any time 

 the owner might destroy the young timber by converting the land to 

 other than forestry uses. This would seem like a subsidy in negative 

 form, but in reality it would be a subsidy in form more than in 

 substance, for the timber nursery holder would be performing a 

 useful service in return for remission of taxes; still the element of 

 subsidy would be in some degree involved, and should be avoided 

 if better means can be found. There is the alternative of making 

 large additions to the government holdings in forest land, but to 

 this there is the objection that governmental activities are already 

 too extensive and ought not to grow in any direction except that of 

 taking charge in those few lines of service that are natural monopo- 



lies. If the people through the government can legitimately acquire 

 and hold large forest areas, then the extension should be, not in 

 swamps and sand hills, but in fairly productive land. 

 Quality Rather than Quantity 



It will no doubt occur to some that the use of the cropping system 

 would so lessen the output of lumber that there would not be enough 

 for current needs; to this it may be replied that a smaller output 

 of good quality would be rather less of a curse than an overabundant 

 supply of good, bad and indifferent grade. And it should be remem- 

 bered that there are many large tracts of timber owned by men who 

 are not lumbermen but simply speculating investors, and such forests, 

 where the endless process of growth and decay is always taking place, 

 can come into use, for the cropping system involves a spreading of 

 operations, through larger area, instead of cutting down all trees after 

 the manner of a reaper cutting a field of wheat. 



It is not impossible to grow a forest by the method of planting 

 seed; but such a process is too slow and expensive as to all species 

 of which we already have an abundance in a state of natural growth. 

 Planting for forest growth can be justified only with regard to 

 those kinds that are now so scarce that existing natural small trees 

 are not spread over sufficient area, this applying especially to hard- 

 wood, such as walnut, which is clearly the aristocrat of cabinet 

 woods in this country. 



There is simply no escape from the fact that present lumbering 

 methods are working toward a serious and unnecessary shortage in 

 building lumber, and actually threaten a total extinction of the cabi- 

 net woods. Either we must take heed and adopt a more rational 

 method, in which the cropping system must have a part, or else 

 confess indifference as to a future supply of forest products. 



Finally, while the forestry problem is primarily one of practical 

 utility, let us not therefore cynically dismiss the ethical side in- 

 volved, for we may be sure it would be a time of keen regret should 

 future generations of altruists and nature lovers find no more exten- 

 sive woodlands than the city park or the farmer's tiny grove. 



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It appears that the new British orders in council designed to 

 restrict the imports into the United Kingdom to necessities, so that 

 the obligations to foreign countries might be kept down and the 

 price of exchange maintained will not bear as heavily upon the 

 lumber exports as had been supposed. The first impression was that 

 all shippers of lumber would be required to get licenses from the 

 British Board of Trade to forward stocks to England, and steps 

 were at once taken by some of the shippers to make sure of the 

 permits, authorizing vessels under the British flag to load such ship- 

 ments. There is still no absolute certainty about the matter, an 

 entirely authentic exposition of the precise meaning of the orders 

 in council being as yet unavailable; but since the British ships here 

 show a readiness to load yellow pine, white pine, cypress, oak and 

 ash, it is assumed that the restriction does not apply to them, and 

 the exporters are going ahead with preparations to send such stocks 

 forward. From the wording of one of the orders it appears that the 

 prohibition applies only to so-called cabinet woods, though it will 

 be asked under what classification oak is not considered a cabinet 

 wood, when it enters so largely into the construction of furniture. 

 Hickory, on the contrary, would not be classed by anyone in the lum- 

 ber trade as a cabihet wood, but it is among those which the British 

 government aims to restrict. 



The list of restricted woods, as supplied by representatives of the 

 steamship lines here, includes gum, hickory, whitewood (or poplar, 

 as it is known in the United States), walnut, maple and basswood. 

 Outside of these woods, the exporters appear to be at liberty to go 

 ahead much as they did before, and considerable quantities of lumber 

 are moving forward on the ships that take general cargoes. The 

 exports seem to be rather on the increase, which may be regarded as 

 indicating that the requirements of the British governments are 



quite extensive, and that they must be met regardless of any grow- 

 ing necessities for the exercise of rigid economy. 



While the exporters who are members of the National Lumber 

 Exporters' Association have received some information from the 

 London representative of the organization, Frank Tiffany, and the 

 Department of Commerce at Washington has also sent out its inter- 

 pretation of the orders in council, a final authoritative construction 

 is not yet at hand, but this is not allowed to interfere with exports. 

 What the exporters desire now above some other things is to obtain 

 an understanding according to which shipments that were started 

 prior to March 1 or contracts placed before that date will be allowed 

 to go forward, even though they may involve the so-called cabinet 

 woods. In the view of the exporters it would be a real hardship 

 if they were prevented from coin,pleting these contracts. 



Elephants in England 



The London Timber Trades Journal recently discussed the advan- 

 tages of having elephants in that country for lumber hauling, while 

 horses are scarce. Experiments made with a single elephant at Shef- 

 field proved satisfactory. This animal was twenty-eight years old 

 and was hired from a menagerie; yet the old fellow walked right off 

 with a load of 16,000 pounds of lumber. He has kept steadily at 

 work hauling and is doing the work of five horses. Unfortunately, 

 the supply of elephants in England has not been large since the 

 period preceding the Ice Age, and at that early period the stone 

 hatchet men of the British Isles never thought of using the elephants 

 for hauling lumber. It often happens thus. When elephants and 

 other valuable things are plentiful, they are not appreciated. True, 

 as the poet saith: "Blessings [and elephants] brighten as they 

 take their flight. ' ' 



