HARDWOOD RECORD 



35 



states, and various states own about 10 per 

 cent more. In this matter it seems to me tlie 

 government is riglitly engaged, because it can 

 more properly protect this land from depreda- 

 tions, tire and thieves than the individual. It is 

 free from taxes and pays lower interest rates 

 than is possible with private holdings. Informa- 

 tion that recently came to me shows that the 

 government is placing much of this timber on 

 the market, having sold quite a large portion of 

 its timber in Oregon and Washington. This, it 

 seems to me. should not be done, but rather only 

 such timber should be sold by the government 

 at this time as has been damaged by Are or is 

 otherwise damaged or dying and only such other 

 timber as necessary to sell with it to make the 

 purchase of such timber desirable or profitable. 

 When this timber goes into the market it tends 

 to cheapen timber on the market and cheap lum- 

 ber does not aid conservation, but rather to the 

 leaving in the woods to rot what under other 

 conditions might be taken out at a profit and 

 thus utilized. It goes without argument that 

 the American lumberman is first a business man, 

 and will at all times take from the woods what- 

 ever will show a profit in the business. 



In many localities isolated from markets not 

 all the trees are valuable at this time for lum- 

 bering and over such lands great care should be 

 used to not damage such timber as will be left, 

 by telling the trees and through logging opera- 

 tions, since over much of such territory it will 

 become profitable to recut in a few .years, as 

 has been proven by experience in Michigan and 

 Wisconsin, and in fact many other states of the 

 Union. 



.The system of taxing timber holdings in many 

 states is toda.v forcing much timlier onto the 

 market. It is due to this largel.v that I am able 

 to procure log supply for my Indiana mill at 

 tliis time. The taxes and interest on the invest- 

 ment being considered so much greater than the 

 growth of the timber, that the land is being rap- 

 idly cleared and put to cultivation. Fire Is the 

 arch enemy of lhi> forests, waste from fire, floods, 



W. W. SClllP.XER. XEW YORK. SUPERIN- 

 TIOMJKXT BVKEAr OF INFOH.M.\TION 



etc., according to the govei-nment reports, exceeds 

 the annual cousumptioq of lumber in this coun- 

 try. The nation is becoming awakened to the 

 magnitude of this loss and there seems to be 

 on every hand determined efforts to prevent it. 

 Much is being done to this end by thorough 

 patrol b.v men whose sole duty is to protect the 

 forests from fire. Many fires result from care- 

 lessness from hunters and campers and often 

 much damage is done to standing hardwoods 

 from so-called leaf fires, scaiTing the exposed 

 roots or Ixjwl, thus allowing the worms to get 

 into the tree, much of this damage should be 

 eliminated entircl.v. but the state must get 

 busy, since only the proper relief can come 

 from that source. 



Reforestation can be encouraged provided 

 there is encouragement from one source only 

 and that is protection against fire. Tliis is 

 a long-time crop and there is not much in- 

 centive for the private individual to engage 

 in the business. 



Early in last April forest fires supposedly of 

 incendiary origin devastated ten thousand of 

 the choicest reforested acres of the Biltmore 

 estate in North Carolina. Ten to fifteen years 

 ago worn out land was set to poplars which 



promised in a few more years, merchantable 

 timber and all the young trees were killed. This 

 is not encouraging to private reforestation 

 under present conditions, and is a further argu- 

 ment in support of adequate fire protection "by 

 the state. It is not considered that this fire 

 was set for the purpose of destroying, but was 

 doubtless resulted from leaf firing. During the 

 last four yeiirs there were two milliou acres 

 of forest lands burned over ; it is true that a 

 great deal of this was cut over lands, hut lands 

 containing a great deal of timber that would 

 have been available and valuable in a few years. 

 We believe that great effort should be made to- 

 ward codifying, revising and amending the laws 

 relating to private reforestation, to encourage 

 the growing of trees by the people, taking away 

 a portion of the jeopardy hy making the tax 

 on such property only the tax on the naked 

 land, b.v making it a more serious offense to 

 set fires and making earnest effort to detect and 

 punish those persons responsible for the .same, 

 as in the case of yeggmen or violators of the 

 revenue laws ; the annual loss resulting from 

 forest fires will certainly justify extreme 

 measures to this end. Someone said" the reason 

 reformers accomplished so little is because the.v 

 \vant so many kinds of reform, but I think that 

 we, as lumbermen, are agreed upon the nature 

 of reforms necessary in the laws relating to 

 lorestry in this country. 



Colleges have been giving thorough instruc- 

 tion in mining, agriculture, etc., for many years, 

 and many of the great universities have ■ es- 

 tablished chairs on forestry w'here more or less 

 theoretical forestry is being taught ; but there 

 is no school where clear-headed, practical 

 lorestry can be taught as it can by the sound, 

 business man. Yet these schools "are doing a 

 great work, and it is our duty as an association 

 and as citizens to cooperate and aid in every 

 way in the thorough dissemination of this 

 knowledge. 



It is with much regret that I note here the 

 lailure of the Appalachian White Mountain 

 Forest Reservation Bill to pass at the last ses- 

 sion of the national congress. The people's 

 monej* can be used for no better purposes than 

 in the conservation of the nations natural re- 

 sources, the protection of our great water.- 

 sheds, sources of navigable rivers, water power, 

 etc., and would urge that this association use 

 every effort to support the government in a 

 continuation of its policy of the last two 

 decades in the great business of forest conserva- 

 tion and reforestation that posterity may not 

 be forgotten. 



In concluding this report I must emphasize 

 the necessity of proper fire protection, and that 

 liy the proper practice of forestry our forests 

 may be made to yield ample timber for our 

 needs and a general awakening of the states to 

 these ends. 



Ex-I'resident Roosevelt so forcibly emphasized 

 these points in his special message to congress 

 in transmitting the report of the National Con- 

 servation Congress, that I quote it here as fol- 

 lows : 



"Forests in private ownership cannot be con- 

 served unless they are protected from fire. We 

 need good fire laws, well enforced. Fire con- 

 trol is impossible without an adequate force of 

 men whose sole duty is tire patrol during the 

 dangerous season. 



"The conservative use of the forest and of 

 timber by American citizens will not be general 

 until they learn how to practice forestry. 

 Through a vigorous national campaign in edu- 

 cation, forestry has taken root in the great body 

 of American citizenship. Tlie basis already 

 exists upon which to build a structure of forest 

 conservation which will endure. This needs 

 the definite commitment of state governments 

 and the federal government to their inherent 

 duty 01 teaching the people how to care for 

 their forests. The final responsibility both for 

 investigative v/ork in forestry and for making 

 its results known rests upon the states and the 

 nation. 



"I!y reasonable thrift, we can produce a con- 

 stant timber supply beyond our present need 

 and with it conserve the usefulness of our 

 streams for irrigation, water supply, navigation 

 and power. 



"Under right management, our forests will 

 .^■ield over four times as much as now. We can 

 reduce waste in the woods and in the mill at 

 least one-third, with present as well as ftiture 

 •profit. We can perpetuate the naval stores in- 

 dustry. I'reservative treatment will reduce by 

 one-fifth the quantity of timber used in the 

 water or in the ground. We can practically 

 stop forest fires at a cost yearly one-fifth the 

 value of the merchantable timber burned. 



"We shall suffer for timber to meet our needs 

 until our forests have had time to grow again, 

 but if we act vigorously and at once, we shall 

 escape permanent timber scarcity." Respectfully 

 submitted, J. V. Stimsox^ Chairman. 



Mr. Perry read the report of the Marine 

 Insurance Committee in the absence of Chair- 

 man Harvey Granger and the motion tvas 

 passed that liis suggestion be referred to the 



incoming trustees. The report of this com- 

 mittee follows: 



Report of Marine Insurance Committee 



This committee has never had the opportunity 

 or found the necessity of meeting together and 

 the only matter that I know of that has come 

 up to me as chairman is the one of marine in- 

 surance as a general proposition on coastwise 

 business. 



In a statement prepared by us from the 

 records of a very limited number of the members 

 of our organization covering a period of five 

 years, from 1004 to 1908 inclusive, I find that 

 the aggregate of values was .$9.."i2-1.000, and 

 that the aggregate of premiums was $146,000, 

 which makes an average cost of IV3 per cent. 

 The amount of losses collected was only $57,- 

 591, which amounted to six-tenths of 1 per cent, 

 showing that the losses collected amounted to 

 just about one-tbird of the premiums, which 

 demonstrated cleaily to my mind that if a con- 

 siderable number of the members of our organi- 

 zation who are large insurers would get together 

 and form a marine insurance compan.v or some 

 cooperative alliance for the purpose "of giving 

 all of its members the benefits of the profits now- 

 made by the various marine insurance companies 

 that we would be taking a great step forward in 

 economy in marine insurance. 



It is clearly evident, from the statement sub- 

 mitted by the various members who made up 

 this report, that if the National Wholesale Lum- 

 ber Dealers' Association was operating in con- 

 junction with this organization a marine de- 

 partment that there could have been saved to 

 the members thousands and thousands of dol- 

 lars, because out of a report of about fifty mem- 

 bei's the insurance company's earnings were 

 ¥S9,000 above their losses. Now. what would 

 it have been if we had a complete statement of 

 the entire membership of our association? "Why, 

 it would be tip into the hundreds of thousands. 



An organization of this character could be 



G. E. SMITH. Ni;\v YORK. CIIAIR.M.VN SPE- 

 CIAL MEMBERSIIH' COMMITTEE 



formed, to be handled by the national liody, 

 providing a fair percentage of the members, 

 especially the members doing a coastwise and 

 export business, would join. These members, of 

 course, would get the benefit in the end of cheap 

 insurance, while the organization would be pre- 

 pared to furnish insurance for those members 

 of the national body who were not a party to 

 the insurance department, at rates as cheap, if 

 not a little cheaper than those being furnished 

 by the marine companies today. 



If it should be found that it is not feasible 

 to form a marine company for the handling of 

 this business, then I would suggest that a large 

 percentage of the membsrs caVr.v their own in- 

 surance during certain months of the year. By 

 experience we have found that in our own busi- 

 ness a large amount of money can be saved by 

 carr.ving our own insurance during certain time's 

 of the .year, especially it the class of vessels Is 

 watched very closely. 



I'or the assoc-iation to accomplish better re- 

 ^ults through its marine insurance committee. 

 1 am of the opinion that the proper thing to 

 do in connection with this marine insurance is 

 to entirely separate the great lakes section from 

 the coastwise section and appoint a special com- 

 mittee of three to handle this matter. The 

 appointmetits should be such that the three 



