730 AMERICAN FORESTRY 



able logs to the acre, we find a stump- of this valuable animal resource of suf- 



age cost of $50.00 a thousand for im- licient value to be profitably transported 



mature timber grown to order in con- and sold in competition and substitu- 



trast with a present average stumpage tion of domestic products for a like 



price of $5.00 per thousand now ob- use. It is hardly believable by the 



tained for giant forest trees that have present generation that fifty years ago 



been seeded and nurtured in Nature's a full grown buffalo, in prime condi- 



forests since Columbus discovered tion, weighing one thousand pounds, 



America. had a less market value than a single 



The above figures reveal the low esti- porterhouse steak served to-day in any 

 mate we place on a natural resource first-class hotel or restaurant, 

 that is fast being exhausted. The con- There is no immediate danger of a 

 sumers of lumber complain at any ad- serious shortage in our supply of lum- 

 vance in its price and saw mill owners ber products, but the time has come 

 confronted with annually increasing when conservation of our forest re- 

 taxes on their reserves of standing tim- sources demands thoughtful considera- 

 ber, cannot limit their operations. Their tion. The National forest reserves 

 ^tumpage must be cut into lumber and should be withdrawn from sale and 

 sold at competitive prices to pay taxes, held in cold storage just as long as 

 deferred interest and principal on his privately owned stumpage is cheap and 

 bonded raw material. Not one lumber abundant. The present sawmill owners 

 manufacturer in a hundred can afford are financially unable to practice ef- 

 to conserve his forest resources by cut- fective conservation of their stumpage 

 ting only the mature trees which would holdings. Increasing annual taxation 

 double the cost of logging operations, of forest lands, and the exceptional 

 making his product thus obtained so nature of lumbering operations, requir- 

 expensive that no profit would result. ing the purchase of extensive timber 



Stumpage values in recent years have holdings to provide raw material suf- 

 steadily increased in value, but even at ficient to keep their saw mills supplied 

 present prices, forest trees are the with logs long enough to justify the in- 

 cheapest crop that grows out of the vestment in building and equipping a 

 ground; cheaper than cotton at two modern plant to manufacture lumber, 

 cents a pound or corn at five cents a necessitating the owners of saw mills 

 bushel. Suppose wheat or corn were to borrow large sums of money, or 

 century plants like pine and oak trees ; bond their reserves of standing timber, 

 it would require an adding machine to The pressing interest charges, added 

 compute the price of a loaf of bread. to the increasing annual taxes on his 



The American people do not realize stumpage holdings, force the continu- 

 or fully appreciate the splendid quality ous operation of the saw mill, and the 

 and low price at which they have been sale of the product at whatever the 

 buying their forest products, demand- market price may be, to furnish means 

 ing clear or high grade lumber for to pay his imperative obligations. This 

 many purposes, when lower grades is not a theory but a condition govern- 

 would economically have served their ing the lumber industry, making con- 

 purpose. Extreme cheapness in any servation of privately owned forests 

 commodity always results in waste and impracticable except in rare cases 

 improvidence in its use. where ample capital enables the oper- 



Fifty years ago our western plains ator to cut only the mature trees, pre- 

 were stocked with great herds of buf- serving and protecting the younger 

 falo, a nature product, common prop- growth, hoping that advancing prices 

 erty, roaming the prairies unowned, of stumpage will repay him for present 

 costing no man anything for shelter- loss through his more expensive log- 

 ing, care or pasturage, tempting the ging operations. 



cupidity of reckless pot hunters to pro- Human nature shows very little 



ceed to their wholesale slaughter, the change since the days of Solomon; self 



bide and tongue being the only parts interest in large measure still controls 



