530 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



course of a season manufactures five million feet of birch 

 for spool stock. Thirty per cent of the lumber proves 

 to be so-called red-heart, but sound and perfectly suit- 

 able for spools. The spool factory refuses to accept it. 

 The wood is oiT-color. Our grandmothers were edu- 

 cated to white wood spools and white wood spools our 

 women folks must continue to have until there is no more 

 white wood left. So the million feet of otherwise good 

 spool stock goes into a burner or is sold to a pulp mill 

 at fuel wood prices, while foresters, lumbermen, con- 

 gressmen and statesmen disagree as to who will spend 

 50 to 100 years growing a new forest to make good the 

 loss. Fine economics ! 



False Gods and Lack of a National Conscience 

 That example is not extreme. It is a modest conserva- 

 tive one. Others of similar tenor might be cited ad in- 

 finitum. In the aggregate, we are sacrificing one and 

 perhaps two years' supply of wood every four years to 

 false Gods of forest utilization. No single industry or 

 set of individuals are to blame. The problem is a com- 

 mon one of research, education, and the determination to 

 remove senseless obstacles. Forest utilization begins 

 with the lumbermen and ends with the consumer, but 

 back of it all there must be a public conscience against 

 wood extravagance. If we wait for timber shortage to 

 develop that conscience, it will be too late. The great 

 need is now. The public must be brought to a new con- 

 ception of the use of our forests. It must be enlightened 

 as to the evil consequences of its present disregard for 



forest waste. Instead of complacency and ignorance, 

 there must be a national sentiment to husband our re- 

 maining forests and to make them go as far as possible. 



Removing Public Ignorance 



For years, the Forest Service has been studying forest 

 utilization and seeking to educate the wood conversion 

 industries to needed and possible economies. Progress 

 has been made, but it has been slow. Within recent 

 years, there has been a marked awakening among lum- 

 bermen and wood manufacturers to the opportunities for 

 saving wood and money through better utilization prac- 

 tices. Their biggest handicap, in many cases, is lack of 

 public understanding and cooperation, and a public fail- 

 ure to show any interest or responsibility for wood ex- 

 travagance or forest waste. So far as the public goes, 

 ignorance is probably at the bottom of it all. Take the 

 case of spools. It is inconceivable that the women of 

 this country, if they realized the waste incidental to 

 white spool traditions, would continue to demand that 

 their thread be wound upon white wood spools. 



In many of the larger utilization problems, the indus- 

 tries can get just so far and no further without the pub- 

 lic's cooperation. There is a loud call and a great oppor- 

 tunity for the government and the states to expand their 

 utilization work with a more extensive, aggressive and 

 definite program to educate the public to the situation 

 and to make different classes of consumers see and feel 

 their responsibilities. 



THE RED DRAGON OF NEW JERSEY'S FORESTS 



'INHERE are two million acres of forest land in New 

 * Jersey which, as transportation goes today, are 

 almost within trucking distance of the greatest lumber 

 market in the world. Sooner or later the people of the 

 state will awaken to the economic significance of that 

 fact, but unless they hasten their steps, the awakening 

 may be too late. New Jersey's forests are being burned 

 at the rate of 70,000 acres a year, all of which is tending 

 to reduce the area of growing forests and to convert 

 land which naturally would become a public asset of 

 great value into a public liability of unsightly and em- 

 barrassing proportions. 



No Lack of Forest Land 

 The state has never ranked as a great lumber produc- 

 ing state but this may be attributed to its size and and 

 not to its lack of forests and forest lands. Approxi- 

 mately forty per cent of the land area of the state today 

 is forest land and the soils and climate of New Jersey 

 are such that timber grows rapidly wherever it is given 

 a chance. But more than that, these good forest grow- 

 ing lands are about as close to great diversified markets 

 as it is possible for wild land to be. Lumber prices in 

 these markets are every year more and more being set 

 by the cost of importing lumber from the extreme south 

 and the far west. The raiser of timber in New Jersey 

 has no $25 freight bill to pay on every thousand feet 

 of lumber he manufactures, but in years to come his 



selling price will be based upon these long haul costs. 

 He will reap the advantage and his state will be en- 

 riched. 



Fire The Red Dragon 

 The people of New Jersey need lumber the same as the 

 people of New York, Pennsylvania or any other state. 

 They are today economically dependent upon the forests 

 of the south and the far west, while at their very door- 

 steps they have two million acres of excellent forest 

 growing land which with proper fire protection will 

 largely take care of the state's future timber needs. 

 Already the state is paying a five million dollar bill an- 

 nually on lumber imported from the south and the west. 

 This bill is increasing year by year while the area of 

 growing timber within the state grows smaller with 

 every fire season, for fire is the Red Dragon of New 

 Jersey's forests. The State Department of Conservation 

 and Development is authority for the statement that, 

 "Each year we cut timber worth about ten million 

 dollars on the stump. Under present forest fire con- 

 ditions this production will continually decrease to- 

 ward zero and our freight bill will correspondingly 

 increase. With fire protection we could, as we ought 

 to, cut timber annually with a fifty million dollar 

 market value at pre-war prices and not overcut in 

 doing so, but do it year after year indefinitely." 



