AMERICAN FORESTRY 



country under the supervision of the 

 Forestry Department. 



Are we too optimistic about the value 

 of these polices to the State? A sim- 

 ple calculation, for instance, will show 

 that in New York alone there are 

 4,000,000 acres available for forestry 

 which could be made to yield an aver- 

 age income of $3.00 a year. The an- 



nual harvest tax of 5 per cent there- 

 fore would yield the State an income 

 of half a million dollars, which would 

 be a magnificent sum to expend as I 

 have outlined, to the vast advantage of 

 all concerned, for Nature is willing to 

 shower its wealth upon us if we will 

 only give it a chance. 



THE SOCIAL SIDE OF LUMBER LIFE 



BY P. F. COOK 

 Assistant Editor St. Louis Lumberman 



OURING the earlier period of 

 American industrial history there 

 was little opportunity for the 

 play of the social graces of character in 

 the industrial life of the average com- 

 munity. There was so much work to 

 be done of a pioneer nature that the 

 chances for social indulgences were few 

 and far between. As a result of this 

 there was evident on almost every side 

 a certain bigotry and lack of breadth 

 in the ordinary affairs of business. 

 Business men in the conduct of their 

 every-day affairs were as hard-headed 

 and unsociable as men could very well 

 be. Some of the uncouthness that is 

 the invariable accompaniment of an un- 

 developed state of civilization was mani- 

 fest in almost every phase of business 

 activity. The result was that business 

 lacked that warmth and geniality and 

 the sense of brotherhood which evi- 

 dently is becoming more and more 

 prominent in the industrial life of the 

 present time. 



It was only natural that as progress 

 made enlightenment possible and the 

 barriers which separated men were 

 broken down, that prejudice, bigotry, 

 and the unworthy hatreds one business 

 man felt for another should gradually 

 disappear. Railroads, telegraphs, tele- 

 phones, newspapers and the new gospel 

 of universal brotherhood have pretty 

 effectually shattered the old hard- 



headed, unforgiving and barbaric ideals 

 of even thirty years ago, and in its stead 

 today we have more kindly feeling and 

 broader ideals of the relationships be- 

 tween one man and another and a readi- 

 ness to be of assistance in helping out a 

 comrade in business. 



This change is nowhere more evi- 

 dent than in the lumber business ; in 

 fact, it is doubtful if there is any line 

 of industry in which there is so much 

 sociability between those engaged in its 

 various branches, as in the lumber in- 

 dustry. The organization of all the 

 different branches of this business dur- 

 ing the past twenty years is largely re- 

 sponsible for the change. Men who 

 hitherto were strangers to each other 

 now know each other well. Following 

 the old scriptural maxim, "Come, let us 

 reason together," men in every branch 

 of the lumber industry have formed 

 clubs and associations, city, district, 

 state and national, until there is hardly 

 a man engaged in one division of the 

 business in any section of the country 

 who is not more or less familiar with 

 his fellow working in the same line in 

 any other section of the country. 



The lumber trade newspaper has been 

 a factor in bringing this condition about. 

 Publishing all of the news of the ass*o- 

 ciations, acquainting their readers with 

 so much of the personal and social life 

 of the trade, they have served to open 



