HARDWOOD RECORD 



27 



the Natioual Hardwood Lumber Association is 

 responsible to Li for the amotini of dift'erence. 

 provided tbe inspector making tlie original in- 

 spection is in error in excess of I lie 4 per cent 

 leeway. 



Some objection has been urged by members 

 to tbe allowance of 4 per cent leeway, and it 

 may not be generally understood by the member- 

 shiii that the Board of Managers has ordered 

 that where the aiuount exceeds 4 per cent the 

 whole difference is charged to the inspector mak- 

 ing the original inspection. This rule is now 

 effective and observed by the inspection depart- 

 ment. The surveyor general has ruled that 

 where the lumber, the grade of whiih is in dis- 

 pute. Is obviously of a lower grade than that 

 certified to by the original inspection tbe 4 per 

 cent clause shall not apply, as the intent of 

 that clause is only to cover line board upon 

 which a difference of opinion might reasonably 

 exist between the two inspectors. 



There have been a few cases where certificates 

 have been issued, and without notifying the sur- 

 veyor general the parties receiving the lumber 

 have asked other deputy inspectors to inspect 

 tbe lumber, keeping the fact that there had 

 already been a certificate issued on the lumber 

 well concealed. In cases of this kind the sur- 

 veyor general has declared such certificates void, 

 and would not recognize such certificates as a 

 reinspection. 



A great many consumers of luinlter make their 

 contracts based upon the rules of insiiection and 

 measurement of this association, and I am fully 

 convinced that if this association continues the 

 policy it has adopted, of placing salaried in- 

 spectors in the dift'erent markets where the 

 amount of prospective work will justify such 

 appointments, there is no douht that the mem- 

 bership will increase materially, and the trade 

 be benefited accordingly. 



W. W. ICxiGiiT. Chairman. 



The report was adopted, on motion. 



President Palmer : Theodore Fathauor. chair- 

 man of the Inspection Rules Committee, will now 

 please read their report. 



Report of Inspection Rules Committee. 



It is safe to assert that no action taken by 

 this association has ever given greater satisfac- 

 tion than that of a year ago which is expressed 

 in our inspection rules as follows : "These 

 rules shall not be changed for a period of three 

 years." This action has given our inspection 

 rules tbe much needed quality, stability, and has 

 placed them for a stii)ulated period above annual 

 revision. We have established a firm standard 

 which is highly appreciated in this country and 

 abroad. We are glad and proud of the fact 

 that, after a number of years of liard, earnest 

 and conscientious work, inspection rules have 

 been adopted that are satisfactory to all con- 

 cerned, which is a great achievement when we 

 consider the vast territory in which hardwood 

 lumber is produced and the still larger territory 

 in which the product is marketed, for each pro- 

 ducing territory has wood of an identity peculiar 



practice; therefore the problem in the begin- 

 ning was a very complex one. 



Your Inspection Rules Committee worked pa- 

 tiently and earnestly year after year to discharge 

 the task assigned and intrusted to them, and I 

 feel that I should publicly speak of my col- 

 leagues in this work in terms of highest praise. 

 Much as we differed at times, our arguments 

 I»ro and con were .ilways sincere, and our views 

 were not prejudiced nor prompted by selfish mo- 

 lives, hut each was willing to study the issue 

 in ijuestion earnestly at all times and look at it 

 from liotli sides. The result was that either 

 one or the other was convinced, and that finally 

 the decision was accepted in the most harmoni- 

 ous and unanimous manner, the result of broad 

 views and close study. 



We are also Indebted to the members at large 

 for the patience they have shown us, and for 

 the unllincliing support they have given us at 

 all times. It is nothing short of remarkable 

 that a large body of practical lumbermen should, 

 and did at all times, adopt the report of its 

 rules committee, and we can assure you, gentle- 

 men, that tbe committee has appreciated the 

 high complim(*nt you paid it in this matter. 



Anyone who has studied the inspection rules 

 of the National Hardwood Lumber Association, 

 whether a member or not, must agree with us 

 that they have been expressed in the plainest 

 terms possible and arranged in the most concise 

 form so that any inspector can understand 

 them. There are no contradictions, or even 

 seeming contradictions, in our rules' today. We 

 have not too man.v rules, nor too much phrase- 

 olog.v, but yet enough. You will also find that 



forest conditions within the I'nited States: some- 

 thing of the details of the efforts being made 

 ttjward reforestry, and some suggestions from 

 the viewpoint of practical lumbermen on the 

 subject of the necessities and possibilities of 

 regrowing and maintaining a forest area to an 

 extent that shall provide a perpetual source of 

 timber supjjly for the nation's needs. 



J. W. TUOMl'SON, MEMPHIS, CIIA lU.MAX 

 ENTEETAINMENT COMMli'TBE. 



to itself, and the same wood in another terri- 

 tory also bears its stamp of location. We must 

 also bear in mind that the different markets in 

 this vast land of ours have customs of their own 

 strongly intrenched by virtue of long years of 



WILLIAM R. P.ARKSDALE, PRESIDENT LUM- 

 BERMEN'S CLUB OF MEMPHIS. 



there is great uniformity in the rules them- 

 selves. That has always been strictly adhered 

 to, and as nearly carried out as it could be, 

 consistent with the different woods, and so it 

 should be, for one wood is always a competitor 

 of another. Therefore the standard of one wood 

 should always be the standard of another wood 

 as nearly as possible. The standard as already 

 stated has been firmly established and no vacil- 

 lating policy in these rules can change it for the 

 next two years. Consequently the only change 

 in tlie value of the different woods is in the 

 prices, which are governed by the universal law 

 of sujipiv and demand. The rvile of making no 

 cliauiic in the rules for a stated period gives tbe 

 inspectors who apply these rules in a practical 

 sense an excellent opportunity to become more 

 conversant with tliem and to perfect themselves 

 in their application. That these rules are bet- 

 ter understood than heretofore by the lumber- 

 men at large is evidenced by the fact that your 

 chairman had fewer letters in the past year 

 asklni^ for interpretation of these rules than 

 ever before in the same period of time. 



TnKOPORE FATn.M KR, Chairman. 



On motion duly seconded and carried, the re- 

 port was adopted. 



President Palmer: The next thing is the 

 report of the chairman of the Forestry Commit- 

 tee, Maurice M. Wall. 



Report of Conmiittee on Forestry. 



To the president and members of the National 

 Hardwood Lumber .Association : Y'our committee, 

 to whom was referred the subject of forestry, 

 has deemed it wise to submit an analysis of 



T. J. MOFFETT, CINCINNATI, WHO RAN A 

 GOOD RACE FOR THE PRESIDENCY. 



Primarily, if we take an account of the 

 standing timber possessed by this country, we 

 will find of the soft wood's that the north- 

 eastern states possess approximately 25,000,000,- 

 oiio feet: the lake states, 70,ooo,b()0,000 feet: 

 the Rocky Mountain states, 80,000,000,000 feet; 

 ibc southern and southwestern states 250,000,- 



1,000 feet, and the Pacific states 800,000,000,- 



1100 feet, or a total stand of soft woods of 

 1,220,000,000,000 feet. 



Of the hardwoods remaining in this country, 

 an estimate of approximate accuracy places the.11 

 at only 250,000.00(1. 000 feet. Thus we have re- 

 maining in the United States today a total stock 

 of 1.475,000.(100,000 feet of timber of all kinds. 



This woodland area is estimated to cover 

 700.000.000 acres. The government still owns 

 about thirty-six per cent of it : thirty per cent 

 is attached to farms, and the remaining thirty- 

 four per cent is in the hands of individual 

 timber owners, lumbermen, railroads and other 

 corporations. 



It is more than probable that not more than 

 one-half of tills woodland is in a productive 

 state. Much of it is in a stationary stage where 

 the death rale equals the new growth, and much 

 of it is cut-over lands. It is estimated that the 

 lumber consumption of the United States is 

 45.000.000.000 feet annually. 



With reasonable accuracy it is estimated that 

 the average acre of timber will sliow an annual 

 .growth of only ninety feet. If this be true we 

 can depend upon a total annual increment from 

 the existing forests of only O.'i.OOO.OOO feet per 

 annum, as an offset against the 45,000,000,000 

 feet of annual consumption. 



Not taking into account the constantl.v in- 

 creasing demands for lumber, we have a timber 

 supply that will be exhausted in less than thirty- 

 five years. Reforestry from a national point of 

 view would neccssil;ite measures being taken to 

 insure an annual growth of timber which should 

 provide for the needs of the nation for all time 

 to come. 



The question arises — can this result be ac- 

 complished, and how? The chief of the Forest 

 Service of the L'nited States Department of 

 Agriculture, Gifford Pinchot, who has devoted 

 the greater portion of his life to a study of 

 forest problems, in a speech delivered before 

 the National Wholesale Lumber Dealers' Asso- 

 ciation last March, confessed that reforestry for 

 the individual was not a practical proposition. 



Today in this country there are no adequate 

 state or national laws that make it worth while 

 for the individual to engage in forestry pursuits. 

 If a man should have the temerity to plant 

 10.000 acres of seedings suitable to soil, he has 

 little or no protection to his jiroperty from fire 

 or other devastation, and beyond tiiat. before 

 (iie frees of his infant forest gained a merchant- 

 able size, the taxes on the property would have 

 rolled up and compounded to an extent that 

 would mean ruin to the adventurer from a finan- 

 cial standpoint. 



Thus, without exception, .so far as this com- 

 mittee can see. in the present default of legisla- 

 tion favorable to forest pursuits, the individual 



