224 



AMERICAN 1-ORESTRY 



in our i)io|>ertie.s. 



The minimum machinery for producing recreation 

 commodities is not costly. The very hiring of trained 

 landscape architects to i)lan for and direct this work 

 will stop loss by preventing ill-advised construction. The 

 big costs of putting our recreation factory on a pro- 

 ducing basis have all been met. The walls, foundations 

 everything but the fabric producing machinery is present. 

 Less than a tenth, probably not more than five per cent 

 of the cost of developing these to the present point will 

 be further needed to produce 100 per cent of recreational 

 use. With a 95 per cent investment now made they pro- 

 duce from a few to eight or ten per cent of the possible 

 total. 



A tremendous initial investment is in a critical condi- 

 tion with regard to recreation production. No trained men 

 are organized to direct the use of that investment or if 

 they are hired are hampered by lack of adequate funds 

 to carry out their plans. A few hundred thousands of 

 dollars will put many idle plants to producing recreation 

 par-excellence. Some states have recognized this and 

 have made modest appropriations for the business of 

 making play. Literally millions of dollars worth of play 

 can be produced by a comparatively small investment. 



Plav is an essential in human life. It is as fundamental 



a need as beefsteaks, lumber, cotton cloth or ary other 

 commodity. Our greatest and best plants for the produc- 

 tion of play are standing idle or running at low efifi- 

 ciency through lack of proper direction and development. 

 It is high time that we all wake up to the fact that this 

 condition exists and insist that our greatest play pro- 

 ducers, the forest lands of the country, be made safe and 

 capacity producing units. 



Today we have the shells of our factories for producing 

 the recreation commodity in National, State and County 

 parks and forests. The bases are built for the producing 

 units. Nothing is lacking but trained direction and ma- 

 chinery. The market is the entire population of the 

 country an eager group of customers. Today we are 

 on the threshold of producing great quantities of a hu- 

 man need in these extensive unfitted plants. What will 

 the tomorrow of forest recreation be? 



God grant that our vision be clear enough to see the 

 magnificent human service our recreation factories can 

 give! And may He grant further that we make them 

 temples where, while receiving the values found there, 

 we may be assured the knowledge that we have not 

 bungled nor shirked the trust He has placed in our hands 

 when giving us the great forest play places of our Na- 

 tion. 



BIG DOUGL.\S FIR TREES 



This photograph gives evidence of the size of Douglas Fir trees which grow in some of the fine stands of timber owned by 

 the St. Paul and Tacoma Lumber Company, in Washington. The butt cut on the first car came from a tree which the rc- 

 |)ort says was 300 feet high and whose lowest limb was some 200 feet above the ground. This log was 32 feet long. 9 

 feet in diameter inside the bark at the butt, 7 feet at the top, and scaled 11,000 feet board measure. The entire tree scaled 

 t.'i.OOO feet. The second car in the picture contains the butt log from another good sized tree and the other cars carry the 

 sicdiid and third cuts, respectively, from the larger tree. The photograph was taken in January, 1922. at the plant of the com- 

 pany in Taidtna just before the logs were dumped in tlie pond. 



