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Canadian Forestry Journal, Fcbruanj, 1918 



of this kind during the Christmas 

 holidays. In Indiana the boys in 

 some of the rural schools have or- 

 ganized "Sawbuck Clubs." In 

 Connecticut wood cutting bees are 

 being organized, in some cases by the 

 town selectmen. The town buys 

 stumpage at $1 per cord and pays the 

 men $2.50 per cord for cutting. This 

 wood is kept as a reserve for the 

 relief of the poor. Millworkers are 

 being greatly helped in their fuel 

 problem in some cities, through the 

 co-operation of the employers, who 

 have arranged for the purchase of 

 stumpage from nearby woodland 

 owners. In one town near Wor- 

 cester, Mass., millworkers have been 

 putting in Sundays cutting wood 

 which was offered them at a low 

 price. An effort has been made 

 throughout Massachusetts to mob- 

 ilize the labor thrown out of em- 

 ployment on heatless Mondays for 

 the cutting of wood. It has been 

 pointed out that a man can easily 

 cut enough wood on Monday to keep 

 his family warm for a week. 



Forestry and Wood Fuel 

 It is important that a nation-wide 

 campaign of this kind looking toward 

 the greater production of wood fuel 

 should be conducted along the lines 

 of true conservation. It is therefore 

 particularly fortunate that thf cam- 

 paign has been directed from the 

 start by the U. S. Forest Service. 

 Probably the greatest obstacle to the 

 r racticc of forestry on this continent 

 has been the lack of a market for the 

 poorer material of the forest. While 

 the straight, sound trees of the more 

 important species have been steadily 

 increasing in value, those unfit for 

 lumber have remained at practically 

 the same low value. In fact in many 

 sections cordwood has been less valu- 

 able during the lasL decade than fifty 

 years previously when the rural popu- 

 lation was greater; when people re- 

 lied entirely on wood as fuel; and 

 when railroad locomotives burned 

 wood. In order to make the practice 

 of silviculture possible it is important 

 to have a profitable market for these 

 low grade woods. It is the splendid 

 market which has prevailed in Europe 



even for branch wood that has made 

 such an intensive forestry possible. 

 The present fuel emergency, by giv- 

 ing a much better market for wood 

 than has previously prevailed, makes 

 better forestry practice possible. The 

 foresters aim to take' advantage of 

 this opportunity and direct the cut- 

 ting just as far as possible so that the 

 woodlots will not be depleted, but 

 will be improved. In co-operation 

 with the county agricultural agents 

 demonstration cuttings will be made 

 wherever practicable to serve as 

 object lessons to surrounding owners. 



Economy Forced on us. 



Certain permanent benefits should 

 result to our forests as a result of this 

 fuel emergency. The attention of the 

 nation has been focused upon the 

 coal problem. Every one realizes 

 as never before how completely we 

 are at the mercy of the railroads for 

 coal, yet how independent we may 

 be for wood, an almost ecjually good 

 fuel. We realize also that already 

 about one-fourth of the original sup- 

 ply of anthracite coal has been used 

 up, and that at the present rate of 

 consumption, 5 tons per capita, the 

 problem of coal conservation is im- 

 portant. Hereafter it will be im- 

 perative for the nation to take the 

 necessary measures to require the use 

 of local wood, a replaceable fuel, as 

 far as possible in place of coal, a non- 

 replaceable fuel. It seems that the 

 tendency must be to return more and 

 more to wood as a domestic fuel as 

 time goes on, and as the country 

 becomes more densely populated. 



Some of the organizatons at pre- 

 sent being developed will also be of 

 permanent assistance in the forestry 

 movement. There is no reason, for 

 example, why the municipal wood 

 yard should not be made permanent. 

 It might be enlarged so as to give 

 farmers an opportunity to sell not 

 only wood, but fence posts, and rough 

 lumber direct to the consumers. 

 Better methods of marketing so as 

 to give the timber grower a greater 

 share of the profit, which has hither- 

 to gone so largely to the operator, 

 will do much to establish permanent 

 forestry on this continent. 



