726 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



forest operations. Mr. Kingsford knows timber. He 

 knows the lumber business. Years ago, he started as a 

 timber cruiser in the north woods. He has seen the 

 northern forests recede and great areas of fire swept 

 desolation take their place. He has studied these north- 

 em lands and he has lived long enough to see what they 

 will do in the way of growing new crops of timber if 

 given half a chance. 



Mr. Ford's Look Ahead 



When I expressed an interest to know what led the 

 greatest of automobile manufacturers to embark upon a 

 forestry program, he replied. 



"Mr. Ford is simply looking ahead. Like a great many 

 other large manufacturers in this country, he needs lum- 

 ber. His present requirements call for over two hundred 

 nvllion feet annually. He may need more. In any event, 

 he needs lumber in very large amounts year in and year 

 out. He doesn't want his business to be in any way 

 unsettled by sudden or periodic timber shortages. He 

 doesn't intend that the production of Ford cars will cease 

 when he dies. He wants to assure the next generation a 

 Ford car at a low price. 



"In the past, Mr. Ford has been buying his lumber in 

 the general market. Following the war, circumstances 

 arose which turned his attention to the timber situation in 

 this country The lumber mills charged him $140 and 

 $150 a thousand feet for some of his lumber. Anyone 

 who knows anything about the cost of manufacturing 

 lumber, knows that such prices at the mill are unfair. 

 Why did the mills do it? Because the demand for logs 

 and lumber was far in excess of the supply. 



"That was a temporary situation, to be sure, but with 

 the supply of timber in this country disappearing at an 

 alarming rate and the demand for wood gradually in- 

 creasing, it is only a question of time until such situations 



become chronic. Mr. Ford does not desire to have his 

 business in any w^ay dependent upon a disapjiearing sup- 

 ply of raw wood. He has not taken up lumbering and 

 timber growing as a hobby. It is strictly a business 

 proposition. He is simply making permanent provision 

 for his future lumber and wood requirements. 



Starting In A Small Way 



"In our woods work, which began last winter, we are 

 starting in a small way. We logged only about a million 

 feet. That is only a drop in the bucket for our mill 

 which has a capacity of 115 million feet a year. But we 

 are buying logs on the outside from jobbers and con- 

 tractors while we can. That won't be possible long, 

 because the big lumber mills are grabbing up the remain- 

 ing patches of stumpage as fast as they can get the 

 money to buy with. And the lumber mills are not selling 

 logs. This winter we will log about three million feet 

 and then we expect gradually to expand our operations 

 so as more nearly to meet our mill requirements." 



The next day, I traveled a hundred miles northward to 

 the little village of Sidnaw and then four miles beyond to 

 the Ford logging camp, its line of freshly-painted port- 

 able houses standing out brigfht against the forest back- 

 ground. There I met Hermann Hartt, logging superin- 

 tendent. Mr. Hartt is a timber man of long experience 

 who admits that lumbering according to Ford's program 

 keeps him thinking in high gear and is opening his eyes 

 to a lot of things he didn't used to believe. 



A Modern Logging Camp 



He first took me through the camp. It is built to 

 accommodate eighty men. Sixty were then employed, 

 building logging roads, felling timber, burning brush and 

 skidding logs. The camp is modern in every respect and 

 is run in a modern way; but it is not overdone. There 

 are other logging camps, particularly in the west which 



\ 



HENRY FORD'.S SAWMILL OP STEEL AND CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION AND ONE OF THE MOST MODERN IN THE 

 WORLD, LOCATED AT IRON MOUNTAIN, MICHIGAN. IT HAS A CAPACITY OF 115 MILLION FEET A YEAR. 



