PRACTICAL FORESTRY FOR LUMBERMEN, 



RFASONS FOR CONSERVATIVE HANDLING OF REMAINING TIM- 



B!RLANDS AND FINANCIAL RESULTS THAT MAY BE EXPECTED. 



BY 



OVERTON W. PRICE, 



ASSISTANT FORESTER, BUREAU OF FORESTRY. 



IT is not the province nor the purpose 

 of the Bureau of Forestry to attempt 

 to teach the Southern lumberman the 

 details of his business. I think that 

 every man who has looked into it must 

 realize that the United States owes its 

 interior development, more than to any- 

 thing else, to the enterprise, the industry, 

 and the skill, of those whose efforts have 

 put the lumber industry upon the plane 

 which it occupies today. If lumbering 

 had not opened the way, the South would 

 never have reached the commercial and 

 industrial activity which she is now en- 

 joying. 



From the first attack upon the forest 

 of your earliest forerunner, the colonist, 

 your industry has increased steadily, 

 until it is now fourth among the great 

 industries of the United States. It has 

 grown rapidly from small beginnings, 

 fostered by the presence of an apparently 

 inexhaustible supply of timber and by 

 the impetus of an insistent demand. 

 From ' ' \vhip-sawing ' to the modern 

 steam sawmill is a long step, but it has 

 not taken much over fifty years to ac- 

 complish it. 



The present tendency of your industry 

 is strongly toward economy. This is 

 shown in your mills and in your methods 

 for the transportation of lumber, but it 

 is shown least of all in your dealings with 

 the forest. This is the line of economy 

 which it is the business of the forester 

 to develop. The urgent need for such 

 economy requires no statistics to prove 

 it. You all know far better than I what 

 is the situation confronting your in- 

 dustry today : that species and grades 

 not long ago unknown in the market are 

 now bought eagerly; that, in spite of the 



decrease in the cost of logging and of 

 sawing, the price of lumber climbs 

 steadily higher, and that there are 

 already certain kinds of wood of high 

 commercial value which are practically 

 out of existence as a factor in the lumber 

 supply. 



Hitherto you have not had to consider 

 the production of a second crop upon 

 lands on which you have lumbered. So 

 long as sufficient merchantable timber 

 stood in sight to keep your mill running 

 long enough to pay for it, and to yield 

 in addition a generous return upon the 

 capital invested in it, you naturally were 

 not led to consider the future. That 

 fact has been used by many enthusiasts 

 as cause for criticism of lumbermen's 

 methods as intemperate as it has been 

 unjust. The question whether you shall 

 cut with a view to immediate returns 

 only or whether you shall cut also with 

 a view to cutting over the same land 

 again involves no emotional consider- 

 ations, but is a question of business and 

 of business only. I want to make it very 

 clear that the forester and by forester 

 I refer not to the mere enthusiast, but 

 to the man who deals with practical 

 forest problems at first hand is not an 

 enemy to the lumberman. On the other 

 hand, the highest effectiveness of the 

 forester's work is impossible without the 

 cooperation of the lumberman. The 

 proof of the soundness of the forester's 

 methods lies in the success of their prac- 

 tical application. Unless the forester 

 can prove to you that forestry pays, and 

 cooperate with you in putting it into 

 effect, then his efforts have been in large 

 part fruitless. 



There are a good many kinds of for- 



. \dilress delivered January 19 before the Southern Lumbermen's annual meeting, at New 

 Orleans, I<a. 



(60) 



