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HARDWOOD RECORD 



The Railroads and the Shippers 



NOTHING HAS HAPPENED in recent years of more portent to 

 shippers than the gathering of prominent railroad officials and 

 lumbermen which took place at Memphis on AprU 7. The meeting 

 means not only that manufacturers of southern lumber have made the 

 justice of their case clear (and in the face of the evidence presented 

 it is but a policy of ordinary business judgment to surround them 

 with more favorable shipping conditions), but that there is a more 

 receptive spirit apparent on the part of the railroads towards the 

 other fellow's side. 



A perusal of the proceedings of the meeting as given on page 22 

 will reveal the spirit of the meeting — a spirit fair in the extreme but 

 on the part of the lumbermen a spirit portentious of a genuine con- 

 cern for the life of their industry. 



The singular moment of the meeting is given evidence by the big 

 attendance of railroad officials — their realization of its significance 

 to them was shown by their close attention to the proceedings. 



It is impossible to forecast results, but to one having been present 

 there is only one possible outcome, the readjustment of rates to intel- 

 ligently meet actual shipping conditions; the almost complete cessa- 

 tion of manufacture and shipment of certain kinds of southern lum- 

 ber. The lumbermen expressed themselves as having their books open 

 to substantiate the exhibits made of their operations. 



A Look Into the Future 



IT IS A PRETTY GOOD RULE not to cross the river until we 

 reach it, yet when we know that wc are bound to come to the 

 ford sooner or later, it is not a bad policy to make inquiry concerning 

 the chances of getting across. 



The exhaustion of the existing forest resources of the United States 

 lies ahead, and it will be reached at some future time, but, fortu- 

 nately, the day is not immediately at hand. There are a few figures 

 on the subject which are worth thinking over. According to the in- 

 ventory of forests by the Bureau of Corporations, there are 2,826,- 

 000,000,000 feet of standing timber, suitable for lumber, in the 

 United States at this time. The annual cut for lumber is approxi- 

 mately 40,000,000,000 feet. If no growth should take place, and 

 the present rate of cutting should continue, a very simple sum of 

 long division shows that the last tree will be reached in about seventy 

 years. 



However, the problem is not quite so simple. During that seventy 

 years, some wood will grow, and some timber now standing will fall 

 of its own accord and decay without reaching a sawmill. While the 

 mills are sawing 40,000,000,000 feet a year, the cordwood cutters, 

 crosstie hewers, pole contractors, and other users are taking from 

 the forest another 40,000,000,000 feet a year. That is the lowest 

 estimate which has been made of this drain, exclusive of lumber. 

 Some insist that it will amount to not less than 60,000,000,000 feet a 

 year. The fact is, no one knows this drain with anything like the 

 accuracy with which the sawmill cut is known, but all admit that 

 it is very large. 



If this drain is added to the lumber cut, it would appear that the 

 supply will last only thirty -five years, instead of seventy; but an 

 examination of the facts somewhat modifies that conclusion. The 

 Bureau of Corporations' estimate included saw timber only, and not 

 the tree tops, limbs, and small stuflF; and it is of this latter that 

 most of the poles, ties and cordwood are cut. In other words, they 

 are made from what the sawmills don't want, and for that reason 

 they don't much increase the drain on the saw timber at present, 

 though the cutting of small stuff results in lessening the future sup- 

 ply of sawlogs. 



The United States contains a little more than 500,000,000 acres of 

 forest land. This means land which now has timber, or such as once 

 had it and ought to have it again. It does not include any arid 

 regions too dry or poor to grow trees. The present supply is on 

 these 500,000,000 acres, and the future supply must come from there. 

 The present average stand per acre, for the whole area, is approxi- 

 mately 5,650 feet — a rather thin stand, considered as a whole. 



The average annual growth of a good hardwood forest in the 

 southern Appalachians is about forty cubic feet or three hundred 



board feet (feet of boards) a year. Good softwood forests wOJ do 

 a little better. Suppose that the whole of the 500,000,000 acres 

 of woodland in the United States grows trees at that rate. The 

 problem of future supply is solved at once; for, at 300 board feet 

 per acre a year, the annual total is 150,000,000,000 board feet, or 

 nearly twice the present cut of lumber, poles ties, fuel and pulpwood. 



Unfortunately, the weak place in this argument and conclusion is 

 that the present forests are not producing new wood at anything like 

 the rate of 300 board feet a year per acre. Enormous tracts are not 

 producing a thing of value, because fires kill the young trees and 

 leave the land barren. Most of the broadleaf forests wiU sprout from 

 the stumps and roots after the old trees are cut, and thus restore 

 themselves. They may survive after one or two crops of sprouts have 

 been killed by fire, provided no more fires occur. But the needle- 

 leaf forests — except redwood — do hot restore themselves by sprouts. 

 After the trees are cut, if a fire runs tlirough the slashings and de- 

 stroys the seedlings and the seeds that are on the ground, that tract 

 is done for as a producer of timber, until some means are found to 

 start a new growth from outside sources. 



The future of the timber supply need not be dark or doubtful ; but 

 it must be confessed with sorrow that at present the prospect is 

 somewhat gloomy. In so many parts of the country the efforts to 

 protect and restore the tree growth are feeble, half-hearted, and in- 

 adequate. In too many instances the timber owner, with indifference 

 for the future, and looking only at present profit, skins his tract and 

 passes on. The people generally have not responded to the need of 

 preparing for the future. Some states have taken forward steps in 

 conserving their timber resources, but others, acting through igno- 

 rance or indifference, have adopted half -cooked excuses for forest poli- 

 cies, even going to the extreme of placing their forests in tlie keep- 

 ing of game wardens, or some moss-grown commission. 



Their Efforts "To Pull Together" 



HARDWOOD RECORD HAS MENTIONED in past issues the 

 efforts now being promulgated by members of St. Louis' lumber 

 and allied trades to form a large comprehensive organization whereby 

 all of the industries directly interested in the production, sale and 

 remanufacture of lumber products may be formed into one organi- 

 zation for the general good of all. They have felt that the trend 

 of the times makes necessary unified movemeut and as great an 

 organization as possible in order to insure maximum prestige to 

 effect such action as will be necessary for the interests of all. 



The Lumbermen 's Association of Chicago is the model on which 

 the St. Louis lumbermen are planning their new organization. In 

 fact, Chicago men prominent in the local organization have given 

 their advice on invitation from the St. Louis lumbermen, in order 

 that the St. Louis organization may be gotten up along as compre- 

 hensive and effective lines as possible. 



All this goes to show that the idea of getting together and over- 

 looking the barriers raised in the past by diversion of interests in 

 the minor details is becoming year after year more generally accepted 

 as the important theme of business. The essential to the success of 

 an organization such as the Lumbermen's Association of Chicago is 

 harmony throughout. The individual divisions have their respective 

 questions to solve among themselves, but in the broader issues in 

 which the trade as a wliole is involved, the entire organization works 

 without jealousy or regard for any individual interests, and the result 

 has been giving to Chicago lumbermen and industries closely allied 

 with lumbering in the city, a prestige never before been enjoyed. 



The plans in this direction as worked out by St. Louis lumbermen 

 and others in similar lines are indeed to be commended. This idea 

 of getting together to work for the common good will spread with- 

 out a doubt, and it will do so logically as certainly those interested 

 in selling things made from wood are just as vitally interested in the 

 broader questions surrounding their industry as are the lumbermen 

 producing raw material from which to make those articles. Perpetua- 

 tion of demand and continuance of business along the most favorable 

 lines are questions which can be solved only by the consolidation of 

 combined action on the part of all. These plans give the desired 

 momentum, and can very well be taken as models for similar organiza- 

 tions where the extent of the industries is great enough to warrant. 



