12 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



Thos. P. Ivy of Dunlinne, Centre Conway, N. H., is out with a 

 pamphlet on "Forestry Problems in the United States," of which 

 the following is his preface: 

 Express yourself. 

 Whatever you are. out with it ! 

 We do not want a world of masqueraders. 

 Make yourself felt, make your real self felt. 

 Put your private stamp upon the future. 

 The writing of this pamphlet was undertaken to present in a 

 sliort space and in unoensored language the forest situation as it 

 appears to be today in the United States. It is the opinion of the 

 writer that much of what the National Government is doing in the 

 name of forestry is based on a mistaken forest policy, and if con- 

 tinued the nation as a whole will be in a worse forest condition an 

 hundred years hence than if our present forest problems had been 

 left to individuals and to the states to work out. If this contention 

 is true, it is most important that the error be corrected now. 

 Whether there are errors or not can only be ascertained by a free 

 discussion of forestry in Congress, on the rostrum, and in the 

 public prints. Certainly it is supreme folly to leave a subject so 

 vital to every citizen, state and territory to be dealt with by the 

 exclusive judgment of one person, the United States forester. 

 In his pamphlet Mr. Ivy scores the Forest Service and its chief 

 unmercifully. 



The editor of Arboriculture for May also has an article under the 

 head of "The United States Government Opposed to Forest Plant- 

 ing. ' ' Arboriculture is the official organ of the International Society 

 of Arboriculture and is edited by John P. Brown, its secretary and 

 treasurer, and is published at Connersville, Ind. Excerpts from Mr. 

 Brown's criticism of the Forest Service are as follows: 



The people in the United States have the disgraceful spectacle 

 of an important branch of the government, organized for the special 

 purpose of encouraging the perpetuation of our forests, subverting 

 their purposes, and actually engaged in discouraging corporations 

 and individuals from planting trees. 



.During the past six years the International Society of Arbori- 

 culture has been obliged to expend forty thousand dollars in efforts 

 to overcome the evil influences caused by the publications and per- 

 sonal attacks by the United States Forestry Bureau officials in their 

 antagonism to the work of this society, mostly caused by the gross 

 Ignorance of employees of the bureau. 



Jloneys appropriated by Congress for the sole purpose of pro- 

 tecting our forests and extending them by planting trees are mis- 

 appropriated, the oflicials of the Forestry Bureau advancing argu- 

 ments against the planting of Cataipa speciosa trees, of which they 

 are as totally ignorant as they are of many other practical matters 

 pertaining to forest growth and management. This has now been 

 going on so long, and with such disastrous results, that forbearance 

 ceases to be a virtue, and we are compelled to make this expose 

 of the United States Forestry Bureau methods. 



The American Congress has been very liberal in providing the 

 Forestry Bureau with unlimited funds to carry out the work of 

 " forest perpetuation. An army of clerks, apprentices, professionals 

 and sinecurists are employed by the bureau in various ways and at 

 very high salaries. Large numbers of young men, just out of col- 

 lege, are maintained in the field as professional foresters, with botel 

 bills and traveling expenses without limit. 



But, strange to say, this army neither plants trees nor encour- 

 ages others to do so, but has played the role of obstructionists, 

 advising individuals and corporations not to plant trees, and has in 

 many ways antagonized the work of the International Society of 

 Arboriculture, which society has planted many millions of forest 



The Forestry Bureau is one of absorption, reaching out with its 

 tentacles to grasp everything in sight and gain control of every 

 organization, state or independent, which undertakes to promote the 

 planting, care, management and perpetuation of American forests. 

 It is well known how the bureau attempted to secure control of 

 finances of the state of New York, and to displace the most excel- 

 lent forestry service of that state, in order that it might give em- 

 ployment to its own army of employees, and secure the handling 

 of the money appropriated by the legislature. 



But we have to deal with the many dishonorable acts of the 

 Bureau of Forestry toward the International Society of Arbori- 

 culture, and the work of this society among the railway systems. 



Officials of the Forestry Bureau have undertaken to persuade 

 railway companies which had employed the International Society 

 • of Arboriculture to plant trees not to follow the advice of this 

 society, but to turn the work over to the United States Forestry 

 Bureau. These officials have advised the railway companies that 

 the trees recommended by the society would not grow in their terri- 

 tory, and by such misrepresentations have endeavored to prevent 

 the planting of trees, and in some cases have succeeded in preju- 

 dicing some railway officials, so that the plans for forest planting 

 have been entirely abandoned. 



The Department of Agriculture has sent out men to make alleged 



soil analyses, to determine whether trees could be grown In certain 

 sandy lands, and these experts, with a work on chemistry in one 

 hand and a vast amount of inexperience in the other, have certified 

 to land owners and railwa.vs that such trees could not grow in 

 these soils. Yet ten thousand instances are known where the 

 Cataipa speciosa trees are growing thriftily in exactly identical 

 locations. 



The bureau called into session the American Forestry Congress 

 and selected only such speakers as were known to be opposed to 

 the Cataipa speciosa. Some of these speakers had been coached by 

 Forestry Bureau officials, and much misinformation given them in 

 order to be sure of destroying the influence of the International 

 Society of Arboriculture at one blow. No member of this society — 

 numbering three thousand members — was permitted to say a word 

 in behalf of the Cataipa speciosa, but the secretary was invited to 

 . send delegates who might listen to abuse without the privilege of 

 reply or correcting wrong statements. • • • 



It is the well known ambition of the head of the Forestry 

 Bureau to control every organization and individual who is engaged 

 in the work of forest restoration and thus claim the honor -of 

 everything done in this line. Also to increase the army under his 

 directions and provide them with work at high salaries, by crowd- 

 ing out and absorbing independent foresters and organizations and 

 thus secure control of all government, state and private forestry 

 work. 



The Forestry Bureau maintains a "Press Bureau" through 

 which it secures the publication of press items in the country papers 

 of America, lauding the acts and policies of the bureau with the 

 view to creating public opinion in its favor. Some of these news- 

 papers may be surprised to learn of the inside workings of the 

 authorities in their efforts to prevent forest tree planting. 



The bureau employs several inexperienced youths, just out of 

 college, wnth an overflowing surplus of theory and a corresponding 

 paucity of experience, who are sent out to instruct mature men, 

 liorn and brought up in the forest and familiar with every tree and 

 shrub, if not acquainted with their Latin nomenclature, how to 

 manipulate forest operations so as to provide paying jobs for the 

 greatest number of government emploj'ees for the largest period of 

 time at tlie joint expense of the government and the timber owners. 

 In explanation of the foregoing it may be stated that it is possible 

 that Mr. Brown is somewhat of a Cataipa speciosa crank, as he seems 

 to regard the planting of that tree as a panacea for all forest 

 denudation evils. 



Hardwood Freight Rate to the Pacific Coast. 



The agitation started by the Wisconsin Hardwood Lumbermen's 

 Association and promptly taken up by the Hardwood Eecokd, pro- 

 testing against the unjust freight rate charged from Mississippi val- 

 ley points to the Pacific coast, is now receiving the support of all 

 leading interests in the hardwood production of the country. At the 

 Memphis meeting of the National Hardwood Lumber Association 

 last week the subject came up for discussion, and a committee on 

 railroad affairs was appointed to take up this and other freight mat- 

 ters that would naturally come before the association. The Hard- 

 wood Manufacturers' Association of the United States has also 

 taken steps to interest its members in a protest to the transconti- 

 nental freight committee against the eighty-five cent rate. Even 

 the Pacific coast associations are thoroughly in sympathy with the 

 hardwood producers in their demand for a lower rate on hardwoods 

 to the coast. As the matter now stands, the general rate on building 

 woods from the coast to Mississippi valley points is sixty cents, with a 

 special rate of fifty cents on fir, and forty cents on fir to Minneapolis. 



The argument may be presented by' the transcontinental freight 

 alliance that hardwoods shipped west have a higher value than 

 building woods going east, and therefore should stand a higher 

 freight rate. This is scarcely a tepable position, because hardwoods 

 are of such weight that even refrigerator cars now going west empty 

 can be loaded to their capacity with hardwoods, and the business 

 should be a very desirable one at a rate twenty-tive cents less than 

 is now charged. 



Again the people of San Francisco will need about a billion feet 

 of lumber in rebuilding that city. It seems certain that at least ten 

 per cent of this quantity will naturally be hardwoods in the form of 

 finish and flooring. If these woods could be obtained on a reason- 

 able freight rate it would be of great assistance to that section, and 

 would also give an outlet for some hardwoods that can be spared 

 from the Mississippi valley. As the matter stands today quite a 

 portion of the hardwood demand of the Pacific coast is being sup- 

 plied from Australia, the Philippines and Japan, simply because 

 woods of corresponding value to our own can be obtained from these 

 countries at a less cost, attributable solely to the high freight rate. 



