46 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



HIGH PRAISE GIVEN ASSOCIATION 



u. 



PUBLIC opinion as mirrored in the 

 editorial columns of the press of 

 the country is solidly behind the cam- 

 paign for a national forest policy 

 and for better fire protection of the 

 forests. The editors, following the 

 statement of the Association that the 

 next President will be a newspaper 

 publisher, commented widely on that 

 fact. Now the editorial comment con- 

 tinues from one end of the country to 

 the other. The Chicago Tribune edi- 

 torial, which was used oh the front 

 cover in November, has been reprint- 

 ed by scores of papers. Warren G. 

 Harding, the President-elect, has 

 voiced his approval of the need of 

 a national forest policy and his speech 

 on this subject prompted additional 

 editorial comment. 



A resume of this expression of 

 opinion, which extends from coast to 

 coast follows : 



Clinton (la.) Advertiser: The Ameri- 

 can Forestry Association deserves high 

 praise for its efforts to arouse Congress 

 and the American people to the importance 

 of a national forest policy. 



Statistics show we are consuming lum- 

 ber three times as fast as we are producing 

 it, and it is predicted our saw log lumber 

 will have disappeared in fifty years. 



The bulk of the original supplies of yel- 

 low pine in the South will be gone in ten 

 years and within seven years 3,000 manu- 

 facturing plants will go out of existence. 

 White pine in the Lake States is nearing 

 exhaustion and these States are paying 

 $6,000,000 a year in freight bills to import 

 timber. New England, self-supporting in 

 lumber twenty years ago, now has to im- 

 port one-third of the amount used. It has 

 $300,000,000 invested in wood and forest 

 industries, employing over 90,000 wage 

 earners. Fire destroys over $20,000,000 

 worth of timber every year and kills the 

 reproduction upon thousands of acres of 

 forest lands. Within fifty years our pres- 

 ent timber shortage will have become a 

 blighting timber famine. 



There is a remedy. Forests may be pro- - 

 tected from fire, regrowth can be en- 

 couraged, conservation can be practiced, 

 reforestation can be accomplished, though 

 it takes from 50 to 100 years to mature a 

 timber crop. 



Forests devastation must be stopped, and 

 lands now in forests must be kept con- 

 tinuously productive. Forest lands now 

 devastated and idle must be put to work. 



The American Forestry Association, 

 pioneer in the national movement for re- 

 habilitation, is working successfully to 

 these ends. 



Anaconda Standard: While several for- 

 est fires are raging in Idaho and Montana, 

 the question of lumber stocks and lumber 

 prices jumps into the front row of leading 



ANOTHER REASON FOR HIGH 

 LUMBER COSTS 



First reports of an analysis of 

 American freight traffic on railroads, 

 begun this year by the Interstate 

 Commerce Commission show that 

 during the first quarter of 1920 rail- 

 roads moved 80,087,435 carloads of 

 freight, aggregating 275,931,603 tons. 

 Statistics were presented to show the 

 quantity of each of 69 separate com- 

 modities entering into the composite 

 total of merchandise moved in less 

 than carload lots. 



Bituminous coal, of which 1,866,632 

 cars were moved, was by far the 

 leader in the list of bulk commodi- 

 ties reported. Forest products were 

 next in utilizing railroad facilities, 

 with 452,559 carloads of lumber and 

 timber and 341,687 cars of logs, poles 

 and cordwood. Olympia . (Wash.) 

 Recorder. 



topics. The American Forestry Association 

 calls upon the people to urge the promul- 

 gation of a national forest policy and the 

 Forestry Magazine discusses lumber from 



A LAUGH FROM "LIFE" 



The American Forestry Association 

 has asked the people of the United 

 States to select, by popular vote, a 

 suitable national tree. 



We venture to suggest that some 

 of the votes will be cast as follows: 



The Bolshevist will vote for the 

 redwood. 



The amateur distiller for the juni- 

 per. 



The severe school teacher for the 

 birch. 



The chronic Brooklynite for the 

 rubber plant. 



The bathing girl for the beech. 



The baseball player for the willow. 



The lady of fashion for the fir. 



The susceptible youth for the peach. 



The poker player for the pear. 



The bellboy for the palm. 



The railroad employe for the plum. 



The professional humorist for the 

 chestnut Life (N. Y.). 



the viewpoint of the manufacturer. Prices 

 have been soaring and timber resources 

 dwindling. It is a serious condition, ac- 

 cording to this authority. 



Newark Star: There are more than 50,- 

 000 wood-using plants in the United States 

 having an invested capital of over a bil- 

 lion dollars and employing more than a 

 million persons. All alike are suffering 

 from the diminishing supply of timber, yet 



obvious remedies, such as reforestation, 

 conservation of existing supplies and fire 

 prevention are not applied. 



Sumpter (S. C.) Item: The American 

 Paper and Wood Pulp Association, at its 

 recent convention in New York, adopted a 

 comprehensive program for replenishing the 

 paper mills' raw material supply. It is a 

 scheme of reforestation, to be made into 

 a national policy and put through by the 

 federal government, with the co-operation 

 of the States. 



There would be fixed sums appropriated 

 annually for forest surveys, the purchase 

 of timbered land and land suitable for tim- 

 ber, and for planting new trees. The pro- 

 cess would go on until the national forests 

 aggregated 200,000,000 acres. The States 

 would be expected to provide better pro- 

 tection for forest lands. Private foresta- 

 tion would be encouraged, and farm loans 

 would be made available to promote tim- 

 ber-growing. 



These recommendations are no doubt 

 good ones, deserving careful consideration 

 by Congress and the State legislatures. 

 They need not be allowed, however, to 

 divert attention from an important fact 

 emphasized at the convention by George 

 W. Sisson, president of the Association. 

 He admitted frankly that the present paper 

 shortage, which is of such vital concern to 

 every publisher in America, and indirectly 

 to every citizen, is due directly to the 

 prodigal methods used in American for- 

 ests and paper mills. 



Toledo Blade: Paper mills are no longer 

 close to supplies of wood pulp. Lumber 

 comes over the rails now to practically 

 every mill and the haul is constantly get- 

 ting longer. 



The New England and Great Lake States, 

 once self-supporting in a lumber way, im 

 port material to keep their wood-using in- 

 dustries alive, and the South's supply of 

 virgin pine will be exhausted in fifteen 

 years, it is estimated. The center of the 

 lumber industry is moving rapidly to the 

 Pacific Coast and this means longer hauls, 

 higher freight charges and consequently 

 higher prices for articles made of wood. 

 In the face of these facts timber wastage 

 in the United States by preventable fires 

 is estimated at $28,000,000 a year and re- 

 forestation is carried on only haphazardly. 



Tacoma Daily Ledger: So often has this 

 story of forest depletion been told, and re- 

 told, that the public is gradually recogniz- 

 ing the economic danger in our disappear- 

 ing forests and considering the need of 

 conservation and of a constant replenish- 

 ment of the supply of timber. The awaken- 



