THE FORESTER AND THE LUMBERMAN.* 



THE FUTURE OF THE LUMBER INDUSTRY AND THE 

 SUCCESS OF FORESTRY IN A GREAT MEASURE DE- 

 PEND ON HEARTY COOPERATION BETWEEN THEM. 



BY 



GIFFORD PINCHOT, 



FORESTER, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



IT is interesting that great move- swayed by the same motives as they, 

 ments, like that for forest preserva- We understand now that forestry is a 

 tion, run in cycles ; and very curious business, and that it will be applied only 

 that this forest movement, into the cul- when it is worth while from a business 

 mination of which we are just entering, point of view. The early friends of 

 began with the landing of the first the forest advocated the introduction of 

 settlers on the Atlantic coast. They German methods in this country, and 

 came from a country where forests had proposed measures that every lumber- 

 long been protected, where the value of man knew were absolutely impossible, 

 woods was known, and as soon as they They directed their attention to the re- 

 landed on the shores of this country, placing of the forests that had already 

 with nearly three thousand miles of been destroyed, while we think first of 

 forest in front of them, one of the first all of keeping the forests from being 

 things they did waste pass laws to regu- destroyed when the ripe timber is cut. 

 late the size of timber to be cut for cord- In the first place, forestry is simply 

 wood, and to preserve the pine trees fit the application of knowledge and corn- 

 to make masts for ships. Then came mon sense to the problem of forest pres- 

 the great spread of our pioneers all over ervation. . It is a way of protecting and 

 the West, the movement of which, es- perpetuating the lumber industry, and 

 pecially in the years immediately fol- without it that industry cannot be pro- 

 lowing the civil war, carried railroad tected or long endure: It is a way of 

 building throughout our country to a securing a new crop on cut-over land, 

 point never reached anywhere before. It is treating the forest as a crop pro- 

 The old feeling of friendliness toward ducer and not as a mine. When you 

 the forest died out because there was no dig the mineral out of a mine, it is gone 

 apparent justification for it, and then for good ; when you take the timber out 

 began the greatest era of forest destruc- of a forest in a simple, common-sense 

 tion man has ever seen. That era is way of practical forestry, you get results 

 now approaching its culmination and in the second crop. 



end in the United States. It is all based on the primary question, 



When persons interested in forestry Will it pay? If forestry will not pay, 



first began to advocate forest preserva- then it is of absolutely no use talking 



tion in the United States, they were far to you, or to any other body of Ameri- 



in advance of the economic situation, can business men, about the application 



They began by calling the lumberman of forestry. We must show first that 



a vandal, and pointing the finger of re- forestry will pay. Suppose one of you 



proach at what they called his greed, gentlemen, who owns an area of forest 



not seeing that the lumberman isabusi- land, made to the Bureau of Forestry a 



ness man like other business men, en- request for practical assistance on the 



gaged in as honorable a calling, and ground in handling this land, in accord- 

 Address delivered at the eleventh annual meeting of the National Wholesale Lumber 



Dealer-, Association, Washington D. C , March 5, 1903. 



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