SIMPLE FOREST CONSERVATION 



By Albert V. S. Pulling 



Professor of Forestry, University of New Brunswick 



FORESTRY has been, recently, a subject for lengthy 

 discussion. Conservation is its aim, and prevention 

 of timber famine. Most civilized covmtries are importing 

 both pulp and timber. The exceptions are Sweden, Nor- 

 way, Russia, Canada, the United States, and some of the 

 new States of Central Europe. In this country it now 

 costs more to raise a tree than that tree is worth for 

 lumber. Hence, lumber prices are going up when we 

 have to grow all lumber like field crops. We must defer 

 this condition as long as possible. It is my purpose to 

 mention a few principles that will, I believe, help the 

 citizen to solve the forestry problem. 



The shingle is probably the best known roof covering, 

 and, by virtue of its lightness, durability and beauty, it 

 will long remain a favorite on this continent. Shingle 

 siding is also very popular on the modern house; the 

 thatched shingle roof is coming into favor, and wooden 

 shingle production has been booming in spite of the 

 competition of prepared roofings. 



But the humble shingle has been a badly abused bit of 

 lumber! Our grandfathers split out "shakes" of white 



pine or white cedar, shaved them with a draw-shave, and 

 nailed them to the roof with great wrought iron nails, 

 made, perhaps, in a local shop. Fine roofs they were. 

 I am familiar with one steep-roofed old "Dutch" barn 

 in the Hudson Valley, where those hand-shaved shakes, 

 three feet long, an inch thick at the butt, and laid a foot 

 to the weather, did duty for over 85 years. The butts 

 were worn as thin as paper, when last observed, but the 

 big wrought nails were still solid in the sheathing boards, 

 and the roof did not leak. Only the heart-wood, we are 

 told, of the fine old growth "pumpkin" pine was used for 

 this purpose and its weather-resisting qualities were re- 

 markable. 



Yet pine is an inferior shingle wood. It is much sur- 

 passed by our Eastern white cedar {Thuja occidentalis) , 

 'common in Maine and New Brunswick, the Western red 

 cedar {Thuja plicata) and the Southern bald cypress 

 {Taxodimn distichum). Still, many of our shingles rot 

 quickly. This is principally due to two reasons ; first 

 that the good grades of white cedar are getting scarce, 

 and much sapwood is going into shingles ; second, the 



CYPRESS 



WHITE CEDAR 



RED CEDAR 



The source from which most of the wooden shingles come. These are the three species most used in shingle manufacture the 

 Cypress of "Rite Grade" fame, the White Cedar, all too scarce now, and the Western Red, one of the finest of shmgle woods. 



