166 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



to the State Council of Defense that the retail price of $14 was too 

 high, and the council announced that it would supply the householders 

 with wood at $9. This immediately upset the previous program, as 

 the dealers stopped buying wood and the farmers stopped producing it. 

 The Council of Defense undertook a cord wood operation on a tract 

 which had been cleared of its forest growth for a Government powder 

 bagging plant, and has been able to deliver a considerable amount of 

 wood. However, had not the armistice resulted in a plantiful supply 

 of coal, it is evident that there would have been a serious situation as 

 a result of this interference with the plan of production by farmers. 

 In other words, production can only be stimulated by an attractive 

 price, and the consumers' interests are better served in«the long run by 

 stimulating production than by fixing the price. 



It may appear, at first glance, that the plan of the State Council of 

 Defense to cut and sell wood in Richmond was in line with the plan 

 advocated by the Forest Service to develop municipal wood yards. 

 Several of these were successfully operated in the South, but for the 

 most part they have relied upon the farmers to produce the wood. In 

 fact, the main purpose of a municipal wood yard was to guarantee a 

 price sufficiently high to stimulate production by private operators. 



The municipal wood yard was most generally adopted in North Caro- 

 lina. A somewhat different plan was adopted in the Tennessee towns, 

 where local war fuel companies were organized. These are stock com- 

 panies made up of public-spirited citizens as stockholders, operating 

 under a charter duly registered with the State. The officers serve with- 

 out pay and the profits are limited to 6 per cent, as the object is entirely 

 to alleviate the fuel situation. In some of the northern cities, notably 

 Worcester, Mass., the Chamber of Commerce undertook to furnish 

 wood by advancing funds. In this case the special object was to pro- 

 vide the industries of Worcester with an emergency fuel. Several con- 

 cerns were saved from closing by these measures, and although their 

 fuel costs were much higher than usual, they found that they could burn 

 wood satisfactorily, and there was no interruption in the carrying out 

 of the war contracts, which would otherwise have been the case. 



The wood-fuel campaign served its main purpose of relieving the coal 

 shortage with wood. It has not brought about any better handling of 

 the woodlots, as was possible with the high prices obtaining for inferior 

 wood. It seems to the writer that there is an undeveloped opportunity 

 to encourage forestry through the public wood yard, but that the best 

 results could be brought about through some modification of the Ten- 

 nessee plan, whereby the stockholders were pledged to the advancement 

 of forestry in the surrounding country as well as the sale of wood at 



