A GERMAN FORESTER'S VIEWS 



71 



Now then if the good people of the U. S. A. desire to 

 have timber and fuelwood they must be willing to pay 

 a price for timber and for fuelwood at which it pays to 

 raise them, by means of constructive forestry. 



In other words, if the people want to have forestry 

 the people will have to foot the bill ; the people will have 

 to create conditions of forest protection, forest taxation 

 and of wood prices at which forestry investments are 

 good investments. 



Do you know of any U. S. A. forester who has placed 

 his own money, oii a considerable scale, in a second 

 growth of American forests? 



I do not know the forester who has done it. 



We should never tire of telling the people of the U. S. 

 A. that there cannot be any American forestry on a large 

 scale unless it be at their expense, directly and indirectly. 

 Capper fashion or Snell fashion, or in any other fashion. 



The greatest enemy of forestry is cheap lumber and 

 cheap fuelwood. When the German owner of woodlands 

 makes a clean cut he nets per acre some $500 gold ; it is 

 easy for him, then, to set aside $10 for a second growth 

 which, tho heavily taxed, is sure to be immune from fire, 

 sure to develop into a first growth of the same money 

 value, and sure to yield, from its thirtieth year on acre- 

 returns of $50 or so periodically, by way of thinnings. 

 Hoiv does the American forest owner stand f 



In Germany the price of timber is maintained by what 

 is, in fact, a huge trust in which the various states as 

 owners of forests, are the leading stockholders. No more 

 timber and fuelwood is cut, annually, than the equiva- 

 lent of the annual timber growth. What about the 

 chances of a "timber trust" in America? 



In addition, all German forests are and have been made 

 accessible by public railroads and public macadam roads, 

 on a gigantic scale. The people have been paying and 

 are today paying for forestry. That's why there is any. 



Do not misunderstand me. Not for a moment do I 

 wish to advocate the importation of German forestry, 

 or of French forestry, in the U. S. A. 



I want to illustrate, however, the fact that every coun- 

 try on this globe has exactly as much forestry as its 

 inhabitants have been willing to pay for. 



For the U. S. A. none but American forestry will do. 



Colonel Greeley, I am told, claims that 75 per cent of 

 American forestry is forest protection from fires. 



Colonel Greeley is wrong ; 95 per cent of all American 

 forestry, in my opinion, based on 20 years of practical 

 work in the U. S. A., is forest fire protection. Indeed, 

 no power other than fire can prevent a forest, id est, some 

 kind of a forest, from establishing itself on cut-over land. 

 "Some kind of a forest" may not be what the forest en- 

 thusiasts desire to obtain ; they want a forest as good as, 

 or better than the primeval. Are they also willing to foot 

 the bill? 



If the people want the biggest merchant marine, the 

 people must pay for it; if they want the best railroads, 

 they must pay for them ; if they want the best forestry, 

 well, they must pay for it ; pay they must, either as 

 owners of marine and railroads and forests ; or as users 



of marine and railroads and forests; or as both owners 

 and users ; and it makes no difference whether the regime 

 be socialistic, or czaristic, or democratic. There is ab- 

 solutely no escape from paying the bills. 



I have been dilating on this topic because it has been, 

 for many years, my hobby topic. Like a canary bird, 

 I know only one song to sing. If forestry is anything 

 less than commonsense applied to cutover and standing 

 woodlands, there is no chance for it in the U. S. A. Com- 

 monsense tells us that investments, to be made on a large 

 scale, must be safe and remunerative. There are no bet- 

 ter business men in the U. S. A. than are the lumbermen. 

 If none of them is practicing forestry the reason lies in 

 the unremunerativeness and in the unsafety of the invest- 

 ment. Amen. 



This winter I hope to be able to refresh my mind on 

 the new issues of American forestry. The Association 

 periodical I am reading regularly, also "Hardwood Rec- 

 ord," copies of the American Lumberman, of the Tim- 

 berman, of the Lumber World Review, are reaching me 

 from time to time. All of this is not enough. I desire 

 to have a more personal touch with the things going on, 

 and I shall be ever so thankful if you will direct to me 

 any American interested in forestry when he pays a visit 

 to Germany. I'll try my best to show to him that German 

 forestry is the product of high prices, of a timber trust, 

 of fine public roads in the woods, and of a ready market 

 for fuel wood. 



The Missouri Forestry Association 



The Missouri Forestry Association was formally or- 

 ganized at an extremely interesting and enthusiastic meet- 

 ing held at the Missouri Athletic Association on Decem- 

 ber 7th, and Hermann von Schrenk, timber engineer and 

 plant pathologist, a director of the American Forestry 

 Association and a leader in the forestry forces in the 

 United States, was elected president. Dr. von Schrenk 

 presided at the meeting, attended by representative men 

 and women from all over the state. 



The object of the association, as announced in the con- 

 stitution adopted, shall be "to advance the public impor- 

 tance of timber crops in the economic life of local com- 

 munities and the whole State and nation, so that due pro- 

 vision will be made for insuring particularly within Mis- 

 souri a proper area of forests so maintained and cared 

 for as to furnish a supply of timber sufficient for future 

 needs and to make available all the other benefits of 

 health, pleasure and profit which forests afford." 



The by-laws provide for the usual association officers, 

 who are also members of an advisory council consisting 

 of twenty persons. The membership of the organization 

 is divided into three classes, all enjoying equal rights and 

 privileges. 



The following officers were elected : Dr. Hermann von 

 Schrenk, St. Louis, President; J. W. Fristoe, St. Louis 

 and Mrs. Marie Turner, Kirksville, vice presidents ; W. 

 P. Grumer, St. Louis, Treasurer and Prof. Frederic 

 Dunlap, Columbia, Secretary. 



