LUMBERMEN AND LUMBER JOURNALS 



American Pulp Association on Forestry 



As long ago as 1898 the officers of the 

 American Paper and Pulp Association, real- 

 izing the importance of maintaing a per- 

 petual supply of pulp wood, devoted the an- 

 nual meeting of that year principally to a 

 discussion of the science and practice of 

 forestry, then almost unknown in the Uni- 

 ted States. At that meeting addresses were 

 delivered by Doctor Fernow, then the Chief 

 of the Government Forestry Department, by 

 Gifford Pinchot, his successor^ and Austin 

 Carey, recently connected with the Forestry 

 Department of the State of New York. 

 Hugh J. Chisholm. then president of the 

 association, in his annual message said : 



"Those among us who have weighed the 

 matter carefully are well aware that if we 

 as a nation are to take and permanently 

 hold the foremost place in paper making, 

 we must begin at once to husband our re- 

 sources. Fortunately, the science of fores- 

 try, until recently but little known, and 

 heeded less, is ready to point out the way. 

 and we shall learn from three of the best 

 authorities in the country, not only why 

 we should but how we may put in practice 

 the principles of forestry. I hope that 

 every one will go away resolved directly 

 or indirectly to do what he can to secure 

 a rational use of this mainstay of our busi- 

 ness." 



The attitude of the association, in the 

 past twelve years, has been to exert its in- 

 fluence in every way possible in the en- 

 couragement of forestry conservation. Ev- 

 ery year resolutions have been adopted urg- 

 ing timberland owners in the paper industry 

 to practice conservative methods, and at 

 the same time attention has been called to 

 the vital importance of preventing forest 

 fires, and in more recent years the subject 

 of taxation of timberlands lias also re- 

 ceived attention. 



Not only has a universal sentiment, in fa- 

 vor of conservation been created in the in- 

 dustry, but practical results have been ac- 

 complished. It is not too much to say that 

 our timberland owners, with possibly here 

 and there an exception, have been for a 

 number of years all conducting their opera- 

 tions so as not to impair tlie reproductive 

 capacity of their lands. In the first place, 

 they have carefully studied their holdings, 

 in many instances being assisted bv the For- 

 estry Service at Washington. They have 

 thus become enlightened as to how far cut- 

 ting timber can go without jeopardizing the 



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future. In the next place, they have volun- 

 tarily limited the size or the diameter of 

 trees, below which no cutting shall be done. 

 They have very generally, although to just 

 what extent cannot be definitely estimated, 

 adopted the method of felling trees with the 

 saw instead of the axe, and have in other 

 ways sought to bring the waste down to a 

 minimum. But perhaps in no way have they 

 done better service than by encouraging 

 legislation and the enforcement of it for the 

 prevention of fires. 



It is roughly estimated that the paper 

 makers own in the United States about 

 5,000,000 acres, consisting mostly of spruce 

 timberlands. While this is insufficient to 

 afford a natural growth equal to the de- 

 mands, the deficit is made up by purchases 

 in the United States and by importations 

 from Canada and the use of other kinds 

 of wood. There is still much more spruce 

 cut for lumber than for pulp wood, but the 

 paper makers are continually adding to 

 their holdings, and there appears to be a 

 readjustment of prices going on which is 

 leading to the substitution of pulp wood 

 production for lumber production. 



The example set by paper makers is be- 

 ing followed by other timberland owners, 

 so that we may confidently say that no tim- 

 berlands of any moment are in any sense 

 being denuded for the production of pulp 

 wood. Less than 2 per cent, of the con- 

 sumption of wood in this country is domes- 

 tic pulp wood, and with a continuation of 

 the conservative methods now in vogue, 

 there need be no fear of diminution of our 

 forests by the paper industry. In fact, the 

 perpetuation of the industry in the United 

 States depends largely upon the perpetua- 

 tion of the forests of the United States., so 

 that the paper manufacturers have every 

 incentive to maintain them. The use of 

 hemlock and other kinds of wood for pulp 

 making has greatly increased, thus tending 

 to relieve any drain there might be upon 

 the supply of spruce. As most of the paper 

 mills are dependent upon water power, the 

 manufacturers have still further incentive 

 to protect the watersheds. 



The Forest Commission of Maine has 

 stated : 



"Since the advent of the pulp and paper 

 industry in Maine, covering a period of less 

 than twenty years, the system of handling 

 our forest lands has been completely revo- 

 lutionized. Prior to ten years in cutting 

 logs in the .woods, it has been demonstrated 

 bv actual tests and measurements that onlv 



