Commercial Forestry 



Synopsis of Address by Mr. Ellwood Wilson, Forester of the Laurentide Paper Company 

 before the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. 



All large industries Mr. Wilson said, were 

 accustomed to look at the financial side, 

 and the chief question the forester 

 was asked was 'Will it pay' ? Paper manu- 

 facturers had till within the last few years 

 paid little attention to forestry but had 

 regarded the woods more as mines than as 

 agricultural holdings. Up till a few years 

 ago no manufacturer would use anything 

 but spruce, but now in some districts they 

 were using practically as much balsam fir 

 as spruce. 



Mr, Wilson pointed out that the conditions 

 were so different in America from those in 

 Europe that it was impossible to apply here 

 methods used there. On this continent the 

 large paper companies either owned their 

 holdings outiight or leased them for long 

 terms from the government, and the first 

 question which every forester was asked was 

 how long would the present supply last. In 

 some cases this was a very difficult question 

 to answer by making an inventory because 

 there were no maps and no information as to 

 the exact size of the holdings, which ran all 

 the way from one million to four million acres. 

 There was then, of course, the necessity of 

 overcoming the antagonism of the old ideas 

 as to forest utilization, but the constant 

 trend of affairs had convinced the holders 

 of the necessity of knowling about the supply 

 for the future. 



Another point that had held back the 

 forestry movement among these concerns 

 was the fear that some other material than 

 wood might be used to make paper, or that 

 some other country like Japan or India 

 might make paper from some quick growing 

 wood like bamboo. However, after considering 

 these things Mr. Wilson felt that wood would 

 continue to be used for a long time to come, 

 and that it would pay to operate the forests 

 on that expectation. 



There were two types of men managing 

 companies. One looked only to the earning 

 of as large dividends as possible without 

 much regard to the future; while the other 

 one saw his work as a part of a broad scheme, 

 and who was willing to look ahead and plan 

 for the future. He was happy to say that in 

 the paper industry this latter type was often 

 found, and that paper companies especially 

 in Canada had to a great extent urged govern- 

 ments to do their duty in regard to the 

 forests. 



Mr. Wilson pointed out that they had now 

 by an inventory of a good part of the wood- 

 lands in Quebec, come to the conclusion that 



the supply available by the streams and 

 present means of transportation was good 

 for fifty or sixty years more. His hearers 

 might say that forests grow, but Dr. Fernow 

 had just told them that there was no increase 

 in the amount of timber in a virgin forest as 

 the decay and death of trees balanced the 

 new growth. 



He was positive after his experiments in 

 this matter that there was only one way to 

 handle this question, and that was to begin 

 to plant on a large scale. Mr. Wilson on 

 this point said, 'I am quite sure that the 

 financial return will be adequate, and when 

 you think of the huge cost of these plants 

 which must be situated where water power 

 is cheap, where there is an easy way to get 

 the wood out of the forests, namely by 

 floating it on the rivers, and that it is neces- 

 sary to provide them with raw material, it 

 seems that their dependence on wood, their 

 interest will soon bring them to this con- 

 clusion and that they will soon begin to plant 

 on a large scale.' 



The company by which he was employed 

 used one and one half million trees per year. 

 They had been for four years experimenting 

 with species which grow quicker than our 

 native ones, and while it was too soon to 

 say what the results would be, still he hoped 

 that in a few more years they would have 

 begun to plant as many trees as they cut. 

 His hearers might say that it took a long 

 time to grow trees, but he did not think the 

 time element would play such a very im- 

 portant part in this question, because these 

 immense plants, owned by large and self- 

 perpstuating corporations which would en- 

 dure as long as other human institutions, 

 should go on practically in perpetuity. 

 And planting even without considering the 

 sure rise in the value of timber would give 

 a proper financial return. They had now 

 planted nearly 100 acres and found that it 

 could be done as low as five or six dollars 

 per agre. Of course they did not know as 

 yet whether the native species would do as 

 well in pure stands as they did when growing 

 naturally mixed in the woods. They were 

 also trying plantations of different kinds of 

 trees in pure and mixed stands and on dif- 

 ferent soils. He felt that when 

 the forester learned the practical 

 bearing of his work and when he could show 

 the lumberman and the paper manufacturer 

 that there were actual returns in dollars and 

 cents from forestry then the field would be 

 enormously increased. 



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