FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 81 



To illustrate this, permit me to refer to three of these considerations 

 which may illustrate some of these complexities. One needs to but sug- 

 gest the time element required for study in the rate of growth of our 

 various species of trees under different silvicultural conditions, or for that 

 matter almost any study that may be undertaken with trees, to indicate 

 as a physiological factor, the time element that all but bars individual 

 research. It is often said that every generation must learn its wisdom by 

 its own mistakes. This is, of course, but a partial truth in any case. It 

 is particularly untrue in regard to forest management. Were it other- 

 wise, forest management could never be learned. We must and do ac- 

 cept and practice the results of centuries of study, while we await the 

 slow solution of those problems which are yet to be solved. 



'As one example of the unique economic problems presented by the 

 study of forestry, I would suggest the peculiar relationship between de- 

 mand and production as contrasted with their relationship in the case of 

 other crops. It is well known that a keen and increasing demand for 

 a product normally causes a rise in prices, and that higher price in 

 turn causes an increase in production. Everyone knows that the present 

 abnormally high price of wheat will, if maintained until after the next 

 seeding, result in a larger acreage being sown to wheat, and finally in 

 the production of more wheat. It is equally true of the production of 

 beef, of horses, of apples, or any other crop whatever — except wood. 

 We have now had, for a number of years, high prices for timber, and 

 from year to year they continue to soar with no relief in sight. Have 

 these high prices induced lumbermen generally to take better care of 

 their lands as they have made their annual cuttings, or have they been 

 known to reforest the areas denuded? To ask such questions is to 

 answer them. Everyone knows that high prices have meant a larger 

 area cut over and more carefully "skinned" — to use a slang term — of 

 all that was of value. These areas are, in many cases, afterwards, 

 burned over by the lumbermen to protect their standing timber, and 

 in those parts of the country where this is not practiced, it is almost 

 certain that sooner or later, by accident or design, fire will sweep over 

 the brush-littered area and destroy the remnant of the stand that the 

 lumbermen spared because it would not pay to cut it. The net results 

 then of higher prices in forest products is a larger area cut over and cut 

 over in a more destructive manner, plus a probability of an increase in 

 the amount of fire, all tending to decrease production. This is surely 

 a fair illustration of burning the candle at both ends. 



A psychological consideration is met in the attitude of mind with 

 which the people regard or, perhaps better, disregard the situation. 

 There are very many who admit the approaching exhaustion of our 

 natural forest resources, but who dismiss the subject with the remark 

 that when wood becomes too dear for its present general use, substitutes 

 will be found. This may be true, hut at what cost? Certainly a glance 

 at the history of the use of wood does not justify the accepting of this 

 answer as a discharge of a citizen's duty in the matter. It is perfectly 

 true, as pointed out by these people, that much substitution of other 

 materials for wood has already taken place, but what about the sub-* 

 stitutes the other way? The substitution of rags by wood pulp in the 

 manufacture of paper, is but an example of a long list of substitutions, 

 and new uses that far more than counter-balance the saving that has 

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