260 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



the cost of the long ship transit added to the 

 rail freight charges, the competition of lum- 

 ber shippers who use the all-rail routes from 

 the northwest coast states, or from the east, 

 can be successfully met at several of these 

 points by the ocean-and-rail route shippers. 

 The lumber business of the matchless for- 

 ests of the northwest has been fighting 

 against great odds in the Mississippi valley 

 and eastern markets because of the cost of 

 transportation. "In the Pacific Coast states, 

 which contain so large a part of the total 

 stand of national forest timber," says the 

 Forester of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture, in his Annual Report for 1909, 

 "sales are made only when a fair price is 

 offered and only under restrictions which 

 safeguard the future welfare of the forest. 

 Both these conditions tend to restrict sales 

 in a region where timber is at present so 

 abundant and so cheap. The open- 



ing of the Panama Canal will of itself almost 

 revolutionize the situation. Cuttings which 

 cannot now be made in the best way for the 

 welfare of the forest, because only the rela- 

 tively high grades of timber can be sold, will 

 then be practicable under much more favor- 

 able conditions." 



Mi '-* 



VZ s xC 



The Pennsylvania Railroad Company's 

 Forest Work 



The Pennsylvania Railroad has planted 

 3,482,186 trees since it undertook forestry 

 work on a comprehensive scale about eight 

 years ago. In 1909 alone more than 1,000,000 

 trees were planted along the company's right 

 of way. 



Prior to last year, the forestry operations 

 were confined to a limited area between Phil- 

 adelphia and Altoona. In 1909, however, 

 7.800 trees were planted near Pomeroy, Pa., 

 188,200 in the vicinity of Vandyke, Pa., 35,000 

 near New Brunswick, N. J.j 352,000 near 

 Eyer, Pa., 30,000 near Metuchen, N. J., 

 161,825 at Denholm, Pa., 204,500 at Conewaga, 

 Pa., and 74,500 at Parkton, Md. The total 

 number of plants shipped from the com- 

 pany's forest nursery at Morrisville, Pa., was 

 1,240,381. 



A special effort was directed to growing 

 ornamental shrubbery, and 6,000 plants, im- 

 ported from France, were placed in beds at 

 the nursery. , There are 56,000 trees and 

 shrubs which are now being held in nursery. 



This work, so far as trees are concerned, 

 has been forced upon the company by the in- 

 creasing shortage of cross-tie timber. Other 

 companies are forestalling future scarcity in 

 the same way, but none, we believe, on so 

 large a scale as the Pennsylvania. Nor does 

 this company, like some of the others confine 

 itself to the cultivation of the quick-growing 

 catalpa, but gives preference to black locust 



and red oak. And the effort is not confined 

 to the cultivation of suitable timber, but in- 

 volves the study and eradication of insect 

 enemies of different trees and the perfection 

 of wood preservative processes. 



Forest Destruction 



In his circular on the status of forestry 

 in this country, Mr. Treadwell Cleveland, jr., 

 of the Forest Service, assembles some notable 

 facts. Speaking of the stocktaking of our 

 forest resources, he says : 



"It has shown that we are still destroying 

 the forest as we used to ; that we are taking 

 from it every year three and a half times 

 as much wood as is added by the new growth. 

 It has shown that less than one-third of 

 the growing tree felled by the lumberman 

 is ever used at all, so that two-thirds of all 

 the timber cut is simply destroyed. 



"It has shown that one-eleventh of all the 

 forests are swept by fires every year, and 

 that on the average, since 1870, forest fires 

 have yearly cost $50,000,000 in timber and 

 fifty lives. 



"It has shown that over ninety-nine per 

 cent of the forests in private hands which 

 comprise three-fourths of all the forest land 

 and four-fifths of all the wood is thus dev- 

 astated by destructive use and the scourge of 

 unchecked fires, while less than one per cent 

 is properly handled for successive crops or 

 effectively protected from fire. The forest 

 as a resource is rapidly being obliterated." 



Bonds for Waterways 



Speaking of the proposal to let Congress 

 appropriate $100,000,000 for the improvement 

 of waterways, the Houston (Tex.) Post 

 says : 



"One thing is evident, however. No Con- 

 gress is apt to appropriate $100,000,000 for 

 waterways out of current revenues. The 

 revenue situation is entirely too precarious 

 for that. Still, it would be entirely feasible 

 to provide that sum, and even more, through 

 the sale of low-interest-bearing bonds, such 

 as are issued for the work on the Panama 

 Canal. 



"The sale of bonds for the purpose indi- 

 cated would be good policy, certainly as justi- 

 fiable as the sale of bonds for the work on 

 the Isthmus. The importance of the isthmian 

 canal to this country is going to be deter- 

 mined largely by the extent we improve our 

 rivers and harbors. If it were a choice be- 

 tween the two, it would be more important 

 to improve our own waterways than to dig 

 the canal, but since both tasks are within our 

 capacity, both ought to be completed as soon 

 as possible." 



