596 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Ex-Congressman James W. Good pointed out the need 

 of educating the pubHc on this important subject. He 

 hinted that this might be a difficult time to get Congress 

 to appropriate money for reforestation on account of 

 the universal demand for retrenchment in government 

 expenditure. Major W. H. Hall pointed out four requi- 

 sites of the National Forestry Policy, first : increasing 

 the national forests ; second, protection from fire, insects 

 and fungus ; third, more complete utilization of wood, 

 and fourth, reforestation involving regulation of timber 

 planting. 



"Economic conditions throughout the country require 

 that lands unfit for agriculture and suitable only for 

 timber growing should be put to work, and Minnesota 

 has several million acres of such land," Governor J. A. 

 O. Preus told members of the National Forestry Policy 

 Committee at its hearings in Minneapolis. "Timber 

 growing by private individuals is rendered almost im- 

 possible because of taxation," continued Governor Preus. 

 "Either these worthless lands must be gotten into the 

 hands of the public or some method of relief from tax- 

 ation be devised. This is going to be a difficult prob- 

 lem because there is an increasing disposition to tax 

 natural resources such as iron, coal and timber by means 

 of the so-called Severance Tax." 



State Forester W. T. Cox, of Minnesota, stated that 

 fire protection had proven effective and could be made 

 more so by increased expenditure. 



J. M. Hughes, Land Commissioner, Northern Pacific 

 Railroad, urged that tax laws be amended so that the 

 burden from that source would be lessened. The average 

 tax paid by the Northern Pacific on its timber lands was 

 1^ cents per acre ten years ago and last year 16 cents, 

 the total bill paid the government being $800,000. Mr. 

 Hughes added that there is no indication that taxes will 

 stop increasing. Sixty per cent of their timber holdings 

 are at present inaccessible and will not be accessible for 

 thirty years. If the present rate of taxation should con- 

 tinue .it would not be practical for the company to hold 

 this timber. 



T. B. Walker, the largest individual timber owner in 

 the United States, testified at length and pointed out 

 the weaknesses of our federal land laws as compared with 

 the laws of Canada. He pointed out that it was not the 

 lumbermen but the laws that were responsible for the 

 wastefulness of American methods. Mr. Walker stated 

 that he did not believe trees could be grown except by 

 actual planting. State Forester Cox and others present 

 took issue on this point, and cited cases in Minnesota 

 where good reproduction had been obtained by methods 

 of cutting and forest regulation. 



The meeting developed an important question regard- 

 ing present freight rates, it being pointed out by Mr. 

 (lilkey and others that a large amount of low grade 

 forest products were not marketed because in many in- 

 stances the railroads charged as high rates on these low- 

 grade products as on high grade lumber, as much on saw- 

 dust and shavings as on sash and doors. 



Leading lumbermen, timber owners and operators of 

 the Inland Empire, to the number of forty, met the Com- 

 mittee at Spokane. An interesting discussion brought 

 out many points of value to the Committee. One of the 

 principal speakers was Mr. A. W. Laird, of the Potlatch 

 Lumber Company, who gave a picture of Idaho condi- 

 tions and emphasized the willingness of the lumbermen 

 to co-operate with the government in establishing a for- 

 estry policy which would be for the benefit of all. This 

 same idea was strongly emphasized by Mr. Huntington 

 Taylor, of the Rutledge Timber Company ; W. D. Humis- 

 ton, of the Potlatch Lumber Company, Idaho, and others. 

 Such was the evident sincerity of the lumbermen in their 

 willingness to submit to some form of government reg- 

 ulation that it elicited a statement from .some of the East- 

 ern members of the committee that it was a different atti- 

 tude from what they had expected to find. 



Discussion developed the fact that Idaho and Mon- 

 tana are today practicing forestry methods along lines 

 approved by the government, and are actually co-operat- 

 ing with the government in the important matter of fire 

 fighting. "It is not a theory, but an actual fact," said Mr. 

 Huntington Taylor, "that we have demonstrated the 

 practicability of co-operation with the government and 

 of handling our forests in line with their regulations." 



Like the Chicago and Minneapolis meetings, the Spo- 

 kane discussion brought out the same situation regarding 

 fire protection and taxation as being the chief obstacles 

 to private practices of forestry. 



"The farming element is suspicious of the lumberman," 

 declared one speaker, "and have refused to make modi- 

 fications in the tax laws which would make it possible 

 for lumbermen to carry their cut-over lands." 



"As the matter stands," he said, "the taxes are increas- 

 ing instead of decreasing and the man who spends 

 money to leave his lands in good condition for repro 

 duction is confronted with a heavier tax than if he lett 

 them denuded. No one expects the lumberman to be a 

 philanthropist, but that is the only way that he can prac- 

 tice forestry under the present system of taxation." 



Fire protection was admitted by all to be the chief 

 factor in growing new forests. Mr. T. T. Munger, of 

 the United States Forest Service, Portland, stated that 

 fire protection was 90 per cent of the reforestation prob 

 lem in the Northwest. 



"Burning of slash costs the forest service in the west- 

 ern yellow pine territory 35 cents to 45 cents per 1,000 

 feet," said Mr. Munger. "In some cases it costs only 

 5 to 8 cents." 



C. L. Billings, Land Agent of the Rutledge Lumber 

 Company and Assistant Secretary of the Coeur d'Alene 

 Timber Protective Association, favored federal aid in 

 fire protection ; also a state law for Idaho, mentioning 

 the fact that Oregon and Washington have state laws. 



Regarding the possibility of fire insurnace on timber, 

 Mr. Laird stated that this subject had been considered, 

 "but was too big a nut for us to crack,'' he said. "The 

 rate would be so high as to be prohibitive." 



