32 



the owners desire to perpetuate them, as a busi- 

 ness investment, and practice scientific forestry 

 to this end. Some states wiii not grow forests 

 as a commercial crop because other crops pay 

 better. Holland is one of those states. She can 

 get her timber cheaper by exchanging her farm 

 products tor the timber products of other states. 

 This is true of some other European countries. 



And in our own country we must and do rec- 

 ognize this law of trade and commerce between 

 states and between nations. The better adapt- 

 ability of each state and each nation for greater 

 success in some special yet different lines is what 

 causes trade and exchange of commodities be- 

 tween nations and states and is the very founda- 

 tion and life of the world's commerce. Illinois, 

 Indiana. Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas will never 

 grow forest trees to any great extent. They can 

 do better in exchanging their farm products for 

 timber from states that can raise trees, but that 

 can not compete in agriculture. 



State Specialties 



What would we think of each state in the 

 Union Irving to grow its own cotton or its own 

 sugar caiie? In working along economical lines 

 and those of least resistance, we find the natural 

 law that the world follows iu amity and friend- 

 ship, that of exchange of commodities, and for 

 this purpose centuries ago money, drafts and 

 bills of credit were created as a medium of easily 

 effecting these exchanges. 



Mississippi says to Illinois, we will raise the 

 sugar and the cotton and exchange with you for 

 vour corn and dairy products. North Dakota 

 says, we can not raise corn profitably, but we 

 can succeed better in wheat and flax, and these 

 shall be our specialties, and Iowa and Missouri 

 can furnish us the corn and the fruits. So each 

 state has its specialties according to soil and 

 climatic conditions. Florida raises the oranges 

 and semi-tropical fruits, and a belt east and west 

 through the northern states furnishes the apples 

 and pears. ^ „ 



And it may be that Louisiana and Texas will 

 say to other states, "Our soil is too rich and 

 valuable upon which to grow forest trees, and we 

 will let the hilly, mountainous regions grow our 

 lumber trees for us, and we will exchange our 

 products for theirs." Now this will be done 

 by individuals and by communities and by local- 

 ities in the inevitable equalizing of values of 

 commodities governed by cost of growth and of 

 transportation. 



Trees can be more profitably grown on the 

 western slopes of the Cascade range, chiefly on 

 account of the excessive moisture. So that a 

 tree will there grow to a greater size in forty 

 years than it would in Colorado or Wyoming in 

 100 years. These are facts and have to be taken 

 into consideration when we are inquiring Into 

 forest waste and forest growth. The raising of 

 soil products requires a division of labor, a divi- 

 sion of resources, a variety of soil, each a require- 

 ment of its own peculiar kind for the production 

 of wealth. One can not be his own farmer, 

 baker, shoemaker, tailor, carpenter, etc., in this 

 condition of advanced civilization. But the sav- 

 age could do for himself all that his low condi- 

 tion required. So with localities in growth of 

 any soil product, including the forests. Human- 

 ity requires food, clothing and shelter ; but food 

 and clothing are of first importance, and have 

 no substitutes, and in our rapidly increasing 

 population will have, as they have always had, 

 first claim upon the soil. Trees and lumber are 

 also a necessity, but on account of their many 

 substitutes for purposes of shelter, and not being 

 absolutely necessary tor sustaining life, the land 

 upon which they will be grown will rank as sec- 

 ond in value, as compared with land for agricul- 

 ture, for producing tlie necessities of life. Land, 

 however, will become very valuable for produc- 

 ing trees, but they will be grown upon soil that 

 is better adapted for tree growth than tor 

 growth of farm products ; and while this land 

 may become nearly or quite as valuable, because 

 of such adaptability the value of soil in general 

 will be because of its greatest power for produc- 

 ing food products. 



IN-CREASING PEODUCTIVEN'ESS 



Since the beginning of civilization man has 

 been inventing means by which the productive- 

 ness of human labor can be increased, and where- 

 by the productiveness of the soil can be in- 

 creased, and how waste can be prevented and 

 wealth increased. Each product will and should 

 be grown where it can be grown best and cheap- 

 est, and the grower of any one product will, by 

 exchange, get all the others far more cheaply 

 than he could if he tried to produce for himself 

 all that he needs in ail the products of the 

 soil and of labor. 



When, by overproduction of any commodity, 

 waste ensues, as is always the consequence, it 

 has been the wise custom for producers to con- 

 suit together and lessen the production within 

 the demand. It is not the intention of any 

 manufacturers to put on to the market each 

 year more than can be sold. Now if all producers 

 and manufacturers who exchange products with 

 each other will be governed by this natural law 

 ot supply and demand, then is economy prac- 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



ticed and waste prevented and everybody bene- 

 fited. Nearly all producers and manufacturers 

 get together and consider and act with wisdom 

 in this important matter excepting lumbermen. 

 And the.v, most of all. should make this a prac- 

 tice, for their mistakes can not be corrected 

 annually, as with other land crops, for they only 

 produce one crop in a lifetime. But false state- 

 ments, ignorance, prejudice and bad policies 

 caused national and state laws to be passed 

 which appear to be considered in many states in 

 their application as chiefiy against lumbermen 

 who, of all classes, should certainly be privileged 

 to get together and limit their production to the 

 yearly demand, and thus save the forests and 

 prevent waste by creating a market for the entire 

 tree. 



At present, and especially since 1897, the yel- 

 low pine and Pacific coast lumbermen are wast- 

 ing fully 20 per cent of the tree, as lumber is 

 so cheap at the mill that the lower grades are 

 not wanted, and the No. 4 quality and much of 

 the No. 3 quality of logs are left in the woods. 

 This is a loss to railroad and transportation 

 companies and a permanent loss to individuals, 

 state and nation. When lumber is so cheap that 

 the consumer insists upon using notliing poorer 

 than No. 1 common for the most ordinary pur- 

 poses, a serious and unavoidable waste occurs. 

 Forest Conservation 

 In the interest of forest conservation we ought 

 to be able to get together and discuss these 

 problems and work out an effectual remedy. 

 When the private forests have nearly disappeared 

 one will get what it costs to grow timber, with 

 a reasonable added profit, and there will be no 

 waste. But how vast the sum that could be 

 saved now if we could even get the cost of grow- 

 ing stumpage and thus stop the destructive 

 waste, and thereby save hundreds of millions 

 to the people. Saving never comes until it pays 

 to save. 



There is no waste in the following products 

 at present values : Cotton practically 15 cents a 

 pound : corn 70 cents a bushel ; wheat $1.09 a 

 bushel ; bacon 20 to 25 cents a pound ; hog^ on 

 foot $10 a hundred ; butter ."0 cents a pound ; 

 eggs 22 cents a dozen ; hay $20 a ton. Brad- 

 street reports as follows for the following years : 

 1S96. 1900. 1907. 1909. 



Wheat, No. 2 red $ .64 $ .75 $ .83 $1.23 



Corn, No. 2 mixed 34 .40 ,57 .70 



Best native beeves, Chi- 

 cago 4.63 6.35 6.00 9.00 



Potatoes, eastern, per 180 



lbs 75 1.30 1.30 1.30 



Hogs, carcass, per lb., 



Chicago 05 .08 .09 .09 



being the five principal food staples. 



This is what foreign countries are willing to 

 pay. with freights added, for the farm products 

 of the United States. But lumber goes into 

 exchange for these commodities at so low a 

 price that only the best grades will be taken at 

 all. And only one crop ot timber, and it all in 

 sight ! What a grievous waste I And there is 

 no wav of stopping this forest and mill waste 

 except "by making a market for it by unitedly 

 asking so much for the upper grades that con- 

 sumers will take the lower grades for ordinary 

 purposes. The butcher does not sell his choice 

 steak and throw away the balance of the car- 

 cass. Those who eat meat know that the choice 

 cuts are so high that a market is made for the 

 less desirable ones. 



Let us look at the following, as shown by re- 

 ports of the Department of Agriculture : 

 Lumber advanced from 1899 to 1908 38 per cent 



Corn 100 per cent 



Wheat 59 per cent 



Horses 149 per cent 



Mules 140 per cent 



and 60 to SO percent of lumber cost is labor. 



The government is now selling stumpage at 

 less than what it can be grown for in private for- 

 ests. It may continue to do this. It may give 

 stumpage away for nothing, but we will not get 

 it for nothing. We will have to pay the cost 

 just the same. The same as the government 

 may establish postal routes and rural free deliv- 

 ery over the country and carry newspapers, as 

 they do, for nothing in the counties where pub- 

 lished. Yet we do not get all this for nothing. 

 We have to pay the cost ourselves. The whole 

 people pay the bill. So with saving waste. The 

 people have got to buy this waste in some form, 

 and the better grades must be higher that the 

 lower grades may be used not only without loss 

 but with a profit to the country. 



Dakota may not choose to grow her own trees 

 and her own cotton. Neither will Louisiana 

 choose to grow her own wheat and barley. Da- 

 kota will get her lumber and cotton cheaper 

 by continuing to grow wheat ; and the mountain 

 slopes and lands not so well adapted for agricul- 

 ture will get tlieir agricultural crops cheaper 

 by continuing to grow commercial woods. 

 Forest Fires and Timber Taxation 

 Mr. Pinchot was right when he said here in 

 New Orleans last winter that the first sub- 

 jects to legislate upon, and the only one at pres- 

 ent, are forest fires and timber taxation. 



In southern pine timber fires do not seriously 

 injure a matured forest. They simply burn the 

 grasses. Yet. as trees mature and die, or are 

 removed and manufactured into lumber by the 

 thinning-out process of careful, practical for- 

 estry, it is found that fires have done injury in 

 destroying the little baby pines that would be 

 coming on to take the place of the aged trees 

 as they are harvested. And when one begins to 

 lumber from this tract and cut the trees, then 

 the limbs and tops furnish material to burn and 

 create heat and flame to consume the young 

 and standing timber that is not yet large enough 

 to cut. We should have just and fair laws on 

 tiiese subjects, and fire patrol should be provided 

 by a general tax. The burden should not come 

 wholly upon the manufacturer, any more than 

 he should alone be required to protect his own 

 lumber yard in a city by a fire engine and a hose 

 company. 



The states should and will take an active in- 

 terest in the conservation of the forests and 

 their state reserves. Those states which have 

 lands that are better adapted to tree growth 

 than to the growth of other crops should have 

 work for their forest commission in planting and 

 growing forest trees. I understand that Min- 

 nesota doubtless will enact a law at the pres- 

 ent session, making an additional tax of one- 

 flfteenth of a mill for the purpose of practicing 

 forestry upon the state lands. This will raise 

 a fund in that state of $80,000 per annum. 

 Louisiana and the southern states can afford to 

 pass similar laws, making a small tax, which 

 will fall upon all industries and upon all classes 

 equally alike, so as to raise a fund for purchas- 

 ing such tracts of land, if there are any, which 

 are not so suitable for agriculture, but which are 

 better adapted to raising trees than to the grow- 

 ing of other crops. 



.Adaptability and cost have got to be consid- 

 ered, and no arbitrary law will be passed by any 

 state making it obligatory upon anyone to grow 

 trees. When trees are grown it will be done 

 by the state at actual cost, to be paid out of 

 state funds, or it will be done by individuals be- 

 cause of tlie profit in growing commercial tim- 

 ber. 



The antidote for waste is conservation and 

 use. The people are willing to pay what it costs 

 to produce. Each and every commodity is en- 

 titled to go on to the market with a price cov- 

 ering the cost to produce it, witli a reasonable 

 added profit. Scientific farming is being intro- 

 duced into the middle West and the former 

 wasteful methods of farming are no longer prac- 

 ticed. Farmers are studying to produce the 

 maximum of value at the lowest minimum of 

 cost, and to perpetuate the fertility of the soil 

 and not draw from it more than they put back. 

 Lumbermen should be Just as practical and dili- 

 gent iu conserving their forests, and in making 

 such of the lands as are to continue in forestry 

 produce a paying crop. If by their methods they 

 manufacture more lumber than the market will 

 consume, or if by unwarranted competition they 

 reduce the price far below the cost of reproduc- 

 tion, thus resulting in creating a large waste 

 because of lower grades not being worth the cost 

 of manufacturin,g, they are certainly to blame for 

 the great loss to the nation. The lumberman is 

 culpable wlien he has it in his power to remedy 

 these conditions. It is a crime whose burdens 

 and penalties will be visited to the discomfort 

 and injury of his children and of succeeding 

 generations. 



Cut and Waste of Yellow Pine 

 In the South we are cutting over 2,250,000 

 acres of yellow pine every year, or about 7,500 

 acres every day, producing 13,000,000,000 feet of 

 lumber each year, and 20 per cent waste makes 

 the enormous sum of 2,600,000,000 feet of lum- 

 ber. This means loss to the transportation com- 

 panies in freight of 173,000 carloads each year, 

 and, at $7 a thousand, means an annual loss 

 to labor of $18,200,000. And in the entire nation 

 we are cutting 40.000,000.000 feet annually, leav- 

 ing 8,000,000 acres a year ot cut-over lands, 

 and a total waste from unsalable low grades 

 ot at least 6,000,000,000 feet, or 500,000 carloads 

 annually lost to the country. Add to this the 

 estimated loss of $50,000,000 by fires every year, 

 and we have a total loss to the nation and to 

 the world of over $100,000,000 per annum. 



At this rapid rate of forest cutting somebody 

 will soon have to plant trees, and it is best that 

 we should begin soon. There are doubtless local- 

 ities in each state where some variety of trees 

 can be produced more economically and profitably 

 than other crops. Trees do not exhaust the soil 

 and they thrive on soil that has been exhausted 

 by other crops. It is our duty to study forestry ; 

 our greatest prosperity is coming through the 

 practice of wise methods, and it is the great priv- 

 ilege and duty of lumbermen to help lead in this 

 great work, and not leave it to mere theorists 

 and to impractical and unwise politicians to pass 

 laws that will not only injure lumber manufac- 

 turers but will injure the cause of forestry. 



It is said a banker may make a poet, but no 

 poet would ever make a good banker. .lust so, 

 every forester may not make a good lumberman, 

 but every good lumberman ought to make a good 



