438 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



NORWAY EXPORTS LUMBER FOR AGES AND 



EDITORIAL opinion of the country is 

 a unit in demanding action on a na- 

 tional forest policy. Here are editorials 

 on the need of a National Forest policy. 

 One is from Senator Arthur Capper's pa- 

 per, the Topcka Daily Capital, and the other 

 from the Nashville Banner. They both 

 point to conditions in Europe. The ques- 

 tion should be answered: if little Norway 

 can export lumber for a thousand years, 

 what about the United States? 



Topcka Daily Capital: Newspapers gen- 

 erally are strong for "saving our forests" 

 and reforestation, and ought to be. They 

 consume annually in the United States 

 wood pulp equal to 300,000 forest acres. 

 Stretched on a single line the 

 width of an ordinary newspa- 

 per the paper consumed would 

 make a streamer reaching 

 about half way from the earth 

 to the sun. 



There are some 2 million 

 Americans, however, who are 

 educated in behalf of refor- 

 estation and who are heedful 

 how they destroy timber. 

 These are the boys who got 

 to the front in France. A 

 good many of them have paid 

 fines for injury done to trees 

 'n the war zone. And they all 

 observed the French foresta- 

 tion system and witnessed the 

 French method of conserva- 

 tion. .\ French forest, or a 

 German, consists of alternat- 

 ing rows of trees in every 

 stage of growth from the 

 youngest seedling up to the 

 mature trees. The latter are 

 constantly being hewn down 

 for lumber, but for every 

 tree taken out a seedling is put in the 

 ground, and as fast as the large timber is 

 cut the next stage of timber becomes ready 

 for the ax and saw. Witnessing this in- 

 telligent process of preserving French tim- 

 ber while using it, the average American 

 service man obtained such a sense of con- 

 servation that he will be careful about 

 wasting growing timber at home and will 

 be strong for the program of the- gov- 

 ernment and thd American Forestry Asso- 

 ciation for reforestation in the United 

 Stales. 



Michigan's white pine forests, once 

 among the most splendid on the globe, 

 have been ruthlessly destroyed, with no re- 

 forestation and consequently Michigan and 

 oihi-r states about the Great Lakes which a 

 xeniiati'>ii ago shipped millions of tons of 



white pine to the South and West, are 

 now paying heavy freight charges for lum- 

 ber from Texas and Oregon to Michigan. 

 Under the French or German system 

 Michigan's forests would be intact today. 

 The waste of American primeval forests 

 has been an example of American pride 

 in immediate and temporary "prosperity," 

 which shows big for the time being, but 

 an example also of its carelessness of gen- 

 erations to come after. 



Nashville Banner: The United States 

 Department of Commerce has recently is- 

 sued a report on "Norway's Forests and 

 Lumber Trade," in which it is shown that 



THE ETERNAL FEMININE 



I JUST MUST UMi 

 A AJEVW Offers ' 



eOU-f HER 



throughout the year, are some of the 

 reasons for its important place among 

 lumber export countries, according to 

 Trade Commissioner Axel Oxholm of 

 the department of commerce, in his 

 latest special report. 



The lumber problems of Norway and 

 the United States are much the same, 

 says the trade commissioner in advanc- 

 ing the opinion that American lumber- 

 men can learn much of interest from a 

 study of what the Norwegians have 

 done and are doing to "squeeze all 

 waste out of the business and to make 

 every effort count. He says the 

 scientific utilization of so-called waste 

 products is largely respon- 

 sible for the greater pro- 

 fit realized by the lumber- 

 men of that country in 

 international trade. 

 This shows in concrete form 

 what is the result of scientific 

 prosecution of the lumber bus- 

 iness, and scientific conserva- 

 tion of the forests where the 

 lumber grows. 



With the continuation of 

 present methods of criminal 

 destruction in America, who is 

 foolish enough to suppose a 

 single sawlog will be found in 

 the United States outside a 

 museum one thousand years 

 hence. 



McGill, in the Atlanta Georgian. 



Norway has been extensively engaged in 

 the export lumber trade for over 1,000 

 years ; that this is at present one of the 

 country's most important industries, with 

 nothing to indicate that the forests are 

 about to be exhausted. 

 Two paragraphs from the report follow : 



Norway started in the lumber export 

 trade 600 years before Columbus land- 

 ed in -America. The industry has de- 

 veloped until today it is one of the 

 country's most important sources of in- 

 come. Adequate shipping facilities, 

 careful attention to waste elimination 

 and development of the planing mill in- 

 dustry to a remarkable degree of 

 efficiency, supplemented by the coun- 

 try's position close to the principal mar- 

 kets of the world, with ice-free oorts 



Providence Journal: .Ameri- 

 cans are no less intellig|ent 

 than the people of Europe; all 

 that is necessary is to impress 

 upon thein the fact that unless 

 something is done at once the 

 country in a few years will 

 be unable to get lumber except at prohibi- 

 tive prices and eventually cannot find it 

 at any price. 



The American Forestry Association is 

 doing praiseworthy work in broadcasting 

 the facts on our timber supply. But some- 

 thing more than publicity campaigning is 

 needed. There must be action. The time 

 to plant trees is now. The longer refores- 

 tation is postponed the greater will be the 

 public loss. Too long we have been paying 

 the penalty of waste and neglect. 



Rochester Democrat Chronicle: When a 

 $10 bill is counterfeited the government ex- 

 pends prodigious effort and unlimited mon- 

 ey to run down the counterfeiter, and if 

 caught he is given a long sentence in prison. 

 If he has had exceptional luck he may have 



