312 YEARBOOK OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



conditions, a force of men who are unequaled for enterprise and skill 

 in their profession; but the system has very largely failed in what is 

 of infinitely greater importance to the permanent welfare of the lumber 

 industry the upbuilding throughout the country of a stable rlass of 

 workers in the woods, locally trained and carrying on their work each 

 in his own community. The advantages of such a condition lie in an 

 equitable geographical distribution of labor, in the wholesome influ- 

 ence throughout the country of a class whose means of livelihood is 

 forest work, and in the fact that all the operations of lumbering may 

 in this wa}^ be conducted more cheaply than in any other. 





INFLUENCE OF FORESTRY UPON THE PRICES OF LUMBER. 



The effect upon the prices of lumber which will result from the 

 application of forestry to the lumber industry will be strongly marked. 

 The wide fluctuation characteristic of lumber values to-day is much 

 more the result of conditions within the industry itself than of varia- 

 tions in the demand for the product of the forest. The uncertainty 

 of available supplies, the lack of true proportion between stumpage 

 values and lumber values, the speculative features which the industry 

 now presents, have all tended to produce an exceedingly unstable and 

 abnormal fluctuation in the prices of lumber, with a marked disposition 

 toward rapid increase. Under forestry the speculative element can 

 not exist. The cost of producing timber, plus a legitimate profit, 

 will be the basis upon which the value of it will be fixed. The annual 

 output of the country will be no longer a matter of conjecture, and a 

 steady and normal range of prices for lumber will be the inevitable 

 result. 



CONCLUSION. 



The influence of forestry upon the lumber industry is not a matter 

 of conjecture. The details will have to work themselves out, but the 

 broad results of conservative forest policy on the part of private 

 owners are plain. The lumber industry in the United States is 

 approaching a crisis. There is no more doubt that conservative meth- 

 ods will be applied to lumbering in this country than there is of the 

 development of irrigation, of regulation of grazing, of the application 

 of improved methods in agriculture, or of any other modification to 

 which private as well as public interests point the way. Hou long 

 it will be before the results of practical forestry make themselves gen- 

 erally felt it is impossible to foretell; but the fact remains that there 

 will be established in this as in other countries in which conservative 

 lumbering has followed wasteful lumbering a legitimate and perma- 

 nent industry, characterized, as has been stated, by conditions under 

 which speculation can not exist. Prices will continue normal and 

 steady, and the quantity of timber produced will be the main factor in 

 regulating consumption. 



