Conservation of Lumber Supply . 349 



This to a considerable extent, has come from the policy 

 of the government in its determined efforts to depress and 

 keep down to the lowest possible point the price of the lum- 

 ber to supply the needs of the public. 



One important feature of the government policy accom- 

 plished or operated in the opposite direction and tended to 

 increase prices. 



It has from the start been made a criminal offense for 

 the lumber manufacturers to seek to secure a large body of 

 pine at a low cost, which made the production of lumber 

 more expensive. This, added to the high rate of wages, the 

 carrying charges of interest on the larger investments and 

 the excessive taxation on standing timber, lumber, mills, etc., 

 has compelled the rapid destruction and the wasteful methods 

 of producing lumber. 



It has been one strong feature of the government poHcy 

 to survey the forest lands rapidly and place them in market 

 in order to keep an over-stock of timber, with a view of 

 cheapening lumber for use of the public. This policy has 

 resulted in the surveying of over nine-tenths of the timber 

 lands, and leaving in the possession of the government less 

 than ten per cent of the original area and quantity of timber, 

 the government ow^ning a considerable amount of land that 

 is surveyed, together with some that is yet unsurved. 



This method of disposing of the timber has made the 

 cost of the timber to the lumbermen or timber owners much 

 higher than the price received by the government from the 

 entrymen, and has been one of the prime factors in the de- 

 nuding of the forests. And the method of disposing of the 

 timber has prevented the lumbermen from securing consoli- 

 dated holdings by and through wiiich they could, to better 

 advantage, conserve and preserve the forests. 



These conditions have prevailed, to a large extent, from 

 the earliest times through the territory of our white pine 

 forests to within the past ten or fifteen years. They do nov/ 

 and will prevail in the future in the remaining quite exten- 

 sive southern forests, and the great and principal supply of 

 the Pacific or Avestern states. In the old white pine states 

 the problems of conservation are of little concern. The 



