34 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



where the men are that way then you don 't have men in your employ 

 —they are machines and partly slaves. When men are that way they 

 will not get out as much work as in a shop where some liberty is 

 allowed, and where the foreman will not set a man at, a task that 



the man knows he thinks is beneath him, or at one that the foreman 

 cannot do. If the employe knows that the foreman can do the work 

 in as good or less time than any other man, he will as a rule have 

 ambition enough to equal if not better that time. — H. B. A. 



i:<i^>i:>^i;>5t?;^j^Ji;^>^^i^;^i^^s^Lt^v;>5iy ^ 



Are Lumhermen Helped ? 



For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1911, the U. S. Forest Service 

 sold 830,000,000 feet of timber. 



Announcements through the newspapers and in other ways are 

 made from time to time that the government is offering or will soon 

 offer for sale large bodies of timber. The question is frequently 

 asked whether such sales are calculated to help the lumberman. The 

 question is a reasonable one. The man who owns timberlands which 

 are so situated that what timber the government sells competes with 

 what he has for sale, may incline to the belief that his business is 

 not helped. It is not, however, a matter which can be discussed and 

 decided from a strictly local standpoint. 



When the Forest Service sells a large quantity of standing timber, 

 it does something more than seU it at an agreed price, and relinquish 

 all interest in it and authority over it. It regulates the manner of 

 cutting and removing. It keeps the land, and cares for it. The sale 

 does not include everything that grows on the ground, but only the 

 timber that is merchantable, and enough other material for the con- 

 struction of necessary roads, bridges, skidways, and similar appur- 

 tenances. The contract requires the buyer to cut low stumps, by 

 which process the tract yields more lumber. The felling must be done 

 carefully, in order that breakage of trunks and the destruction of 

 small timber may be reduced to a minimum. The limbs and tops must 

 be disposed of in a way to lessen fire danger as much as possible. 

 When the tract has thus been lumbered, it has not been skinned and 

 devastated, but it has a stand of small trees left, with the ground 

 cleaned, and with all conditions favorable for the growth of young 

 timber. Fire protection is provided as far as possible, and the process 

 of producing another crop of timber is fully under way. 



Is that worth anything to the lumbermen of the United States? 

 It is an example of what can be done on a large scale. It is practical 

 conservation. The way of carrying it out is shown. If the govern- 

 ment can do it successfully, and good' results are seen to be certain, 

 private operators may be induced to do likewise. Examples on a large 

 scale are needed to convince timber owners that conservative lumber- 

 ing is profitable. Examples on a small scale do not seem to carry 

 conviction to the lumberman that low stumps, brush piling, the pro- 

 tection of small growth, and economy in skidways, bridges, chutes, and 

 swamping work, will pay. Many honestly believe that an experiment 

 in a small way is no proof that success will attend the same methods 

 when practiced on a large scale. During the fiscal year ending June 

 30, 1911, as stated above, the Forest Service sold 830,000,000 feet of 

 timber. The lumbering of this will be on a scale large enough to fur- 

 nish practical examples that should be of value to lumbermen in the 

 whole country. There has been abundance of theory in this country 

 as to how to practice forestry on a large scale in lumber operations; 

 and now the country is about to witness the theories put to the test. 

 The sales made thus far have all been made in the West. 



The government is taking up a new line of forestry in the Appala- 

 chian region from Maine to Georgia. It is new only in the sense 

 that it has not been done in the United States before. The problems 

 are different from those to be worked out in the West, where the 

 timber is mature and ready for sale. Ultimately the western problems 

 will be present in the Appalachians, but not now. Denuded or partly 

 denuded tracts on steep mountains and about the sources of rivers 

 are being acquired by the Forest Service. Already 270,000 acres have 

 been bought, and much more will probably be purchased in the near 

 future. It is not expected that the government will soon offer timber 

 for sale in that region. The announced reason for taking up forestry 

 there is that the navigable streams which have their sources in the 



mountains need protection, and to that end forests must be looked 

 after. 



The reason is doubtless sufficient, but what good will the lumber- 

 man get out of it? While the sources of the rivers are receiving 

 protection, will any direct or indirect beneficial results accrue to pri- 

 vate timber holders and land owners in that part of the country or 

 elsewhere ? 



The question is best answered by considering what it is that the 

 government is undertaking. That country is chiefly a hardwood 

 region, though large quantities of pine, spruce, and hemlock are 

 found in certain parts of it. It is a land of mountains. The slopes 

 are steep, and the soil is usually a thin layer over the rocks beneath. 

 Fires are so destructive when they follow lumbermen that extensive 

 tracts become so barren in a few years that the growth of a future 

 forest is impossible. 



The government is buying its lands in patches, the strategic points, 

 as it were. It proposes to keep down forest fires as a first measure. 

 That will, ill a majority of cases, be sufficient to reclothe the partly 

 denuded tracts with forests, for most of the trees will come back if 

 given a chance. 



Past experience has shown that private holders of timber do not, 

 and generally cannot, protect their property against forest fires. 

 Organizations for doing it are not in existence. The owner of tim- 

 ber has felt discouraged, and in order to make the most out of what 

 he had and while he had it, he has cut the best of his timber, and let 

 fire take what was left. Under the circumstances it has not seemed 

 possible to do otherwise. Year by year the denuded areas have 

 enlarged, and erosion of soil has increased in geometrical ratio. A 

 large part of the finest hardwood region in this country is threatened 

 with destruction. 



The Forest Service is now taking a hand. It will fight fire scien- 

 tifically with carefully -enforced rules to lessen the starting of fires; 

 lookout stations for quickly discovering those which get under way; 

 fire lanes to facilitate the heading off of fires before they go far; 

 and the employment of trained men to patrol the woods in times of 

 danger and be ever ready to act instantly. 



In addition to suppressing fires, trees will be planted on such vacant 

 areas as do not reforest themselves naturally. 



The carrying out of this policy will help the timber owners and 

 lumbermen in the region both directly and indirectly. The actual 

 protection of their holdings will be important. The government 

 reservations scattered among the mountains will become ' ' islands 

 of safety," as it were. Timber holders in the vicinity of each will 

 be safer, because fires will be fewer there. This in itself will amount 

 to a great deal, but the example which all may see will be worth more. 

 If the government can successfully fight forest fires, and can reclothe 

 vacant areas, the owners of private lands in the vicinity will be 

 encouraged to try similar methods. A concrete, practical demonstra- 

 tion is what is wanted. The Appalachian region is so valuable for 

 timber that any method of conserving what is now on the ground 

 and making more grow will be welcomed by lumbermen. The job 

 is too big for an individual or a company, but the Forest Service is 

 undertaking it. 



The naval stores industry is a great thing in the South, but it has 

 been destructive of timber. The cutting of deep boxes in the trees 

 to collect the resin weakens the trunks and they are thrown by storms, 

 causing immense loss of valuable timber. If not blown down, the 

 accumulation of resin in and about the boxes or notches makes the 

 trees a prey to fire, and the loss of timber on that account has been 



