20 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



a joke. The average operator professes great enthusiasm over this 

 subject, but when it comes to practical application he is satisfied to 

 have his neighbor practice foresi: conservation, while he practices 

 forest annihilation. 



To achieve the best results from a forest area is no simple problem. 

 Tday the good end of hardwood lumber sells readily, and if a 

 manufacturer takes out of his forest only his high-class timber and 

 leaves the remainder to the depredation of fire and decay, he succeeds 

 in getting a large proportion of No. 1 common and firsts and seconds, 

 and makes an immediate profit out of his business, but sacrifices to 

 a tremendous extent the eventual profit that could be attained by 

 following otlier methods. On the contrary if he attempts to log 

 clean, taking everything out of his 

 forest that will make a saw log, he 

 finds his mill loaded down with low- 

 grade stock which he is obliged to 

 sell, if indeed he can sell it at all, 

 at a price that means a loss, if his 

 accounting includes a reasonable 

 stumpage value. 



It is no simple problem that the 

 hardwood manufacturer encounters 

 when he attempts to log by selec- 

 tion, taking out only the mature and 

 hyper-mature growth and leaving 

 the younger trees in good shape to 

 reach maturity and rehabilitate his 

 forest. Felling a mature oak or red 

 gum among sapling growth, and 

 getting the logs out of the forest 

 destroys a vast (juantity of the 

 young timber, and leaves the prop- 

 erty a chaos. Some of the wiser 

 manufacturers, who are attempting 

 to leave their younger growth ir. 

 shape to eventually produce mer- 

 chantable saw timber, are now tak- 

 ing out the smaller trees they wish 

 to convert into lumber first. In the 

 case of an intermingled growth of 

 ash, oak, hickory and gum the ash 

 and hickory are fii'st removed, thus 

 making at least a partial oi)ening in 

 the forest to permit the felling of 

 the larger and mature white and red 

 oak without as much destruction of 

 young grow-th as would be entaileil 

 if the big trees were felled first. 



In logging operations the modern 

 steam skidding appliances destroy .'i 

 va.st number of the young trees. 

 When logs are cable hauled from the 

 woods to the tracJi, everything on 

 top of the ground has to give way 

 before the logs. 



Here then are the several horns of the dilemma: to make an imme- 

 diate profit by getting out the high-class timber as quickly and 

 cheaply as po.ssible, giving no heed to forest conservation ; to lose a 

 possible profit by cutting the forest clean, or to cut in such a way 

 as to leave the young growth in shape to eventually grow into mer- 

 chantable trees. 



Every proposition that a lumberman encounters varies witli the 

 conditions, and forest conservation, as desirable as it is and as worthy 

 of being forwarded, is a big and important problem. If a stumpage 

 owner and lumber manufacturer can, even at the present rate of 

 taxation, reasonably protect himself against fire loss, in the average 

 case he can eventually make more money by lumbering by selection 

 than he can by cutting either only his high-class timber and leaving 

 his property for fire, decay and destruction, or by cutting clean. 



For immediate and large profit lumbermen will tell you that the 

 practice of forest conservation is both a joke and a Jonah. 



This analysis is a sad blow to forest conservationists. The appar- 

 ently wanton waste of young timber, that in many sections of the 

 country will earn from ten to fifteen per cent per annum in actual 

 accretion of growth, it seems would be a logical business proposition 

 for lumbermen to protect. The waste today in a large portion of 

 the hardwood forests of the United States is more reckless than 

 has ever before been witnessed in lumber history. The education of 

 stumpage owners to the value of sacrificing immediate profits for 

 eventual gain is the only way to bring about a reform and practical 

 conservation of the forest area of the land. 



DIGNITY OF TRADE 



OJ7EN must eat, they must be clothed, they 

 ( must be housed. If is quite as necessary 

 thai you should eat good food as that you 

 should read good bool(s, listen to good music, 

 hear good sermons, and look upon beautiful 

 pictures. ^ That is sacred which serves. There 

 are no menial iasl(s. "He that is greatest 

 among you shall be your servant." The physi- 

 cal reacts on the spiritual and the spiritual on the 

 physical, and, rightly understood, they are one 

 and the same thing. We live in a world of spirit 

 and our bodies are the physical manifestation of 

 a spiritual thing. ^ We change men by chang- 

 ing their environment. Commerce changes en- 

 vironment and gives us a better society. To 

 supply water, belter sanitary appliances, belter 

 heating apparatus, better food served in a more 

 dainty way — these are tasks worthy of the highest 

 intelligence and devotion that can be brought to 

 hear upon them. <} We have ceased to separate 

 the secular from the sacred. The way to help 

 yourself is to help humanity. The way to cheat 

 humanity, is to cheat yourself. We benefit our- 

 selves only as we benefit others. 



— E/berl Hubbard. 



A Forestry Bill 



Lhi April 'J.'! Senator Burkett in- 

 troduced a bill in the Senate to 

 promote the science and practice of 

 forestry by the establislimeut of the 

 Morton Institution of Agriculture 

 and Forestry as a memorial to the 

 late J. Sterling Morton, former Sec- 

 retary of Agriculture. On May 25 

 Senator Dolliver and the Committee 

 on Agriculture and Forestry re- 

 ported the bill favorably and 

 recommended its passage. 



Details of the bill recite that the 

 purpose is for aiding in the ad- 

 vancement of the science and prac- 

 tice of forestry, including tree plant- 

 ing and tree culture, by furnishing 

 to students and teachers of said 

 subjects more adequate facilities for 

 study and scientific research, and 

 with facilities for experimental tree 

 culture, and also by providing a 

 museum for the recejrtion of speci- 

 mens such as will give to the gen- 

 eral public a practical exposition of 

 the growth, culture and uses of the 

 products of the forest. 



It is proposed that the institution 

 shall be located at or near the 

 former home in Nebraska City, 

 Neb., of the late J. Sterling Mor- 

 ton, and shall be known as the 

 ' ' Morton Institution of Agriculture 

 and Forestry." 



It is provided that the institution 

 shall be under the general super- 

 vision and control of the Secretary 

 of Agriculture. It shall have a site 

 of not less than one hundred and 

 sixty acres in extent, for biiihlings 

 and propagating grounds. 



It provides that the building shall be of plain and durable mate- 

 rials and of sufficient size to the carrying on of the work of such 

 an institution and for the reception and arrangement of specimens, 

 pictures, maps, charts, instruments and models showing the use of 

 woods and all products of the forest, together with suitable rooms for 

 a library, laboratories, lecture rooms, chemical appliances and equip- 

 ments. 



The cost is limited to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. 

 Provision is made for a director of said institution to be the 

 custodian thereof, and his salary is fixed at six thousand dollars per 

 year. 



Provision is further made for teachers and lecturers and general 

 assistants as the needs of the institution may require. 



The bill specifies that the institution shall be open free of tuition 



