262 



WOOD AND FOREST. 



than one forest crop. Only corporations and States can be expected 

 to have an interest long enough continued to justify the methods of 

 conservative lumbering. 



As a matter of fact, nearly one-half of the privately owned tim- 

 ber of the United States is held by 195 great holders, the principal 

 ones being the Southern Pacific Company, the Weyerhauser Timber 

 Company, and the Northern Pacific Railway Company, which to- 

 gether own nearly 11 per cent, of the privately owned forests of the 

 country. These large holders are cutting little of their timber, their 



Fig-. 113. Red Spruce Used in Building- Skidway, and Left in the Woods. 

 Hamilton Co., New York. 



object, however, being not so much to conserve the forests as to re- 

 serve to themselves the incalculable private profits which are ex- 

 pected to come with the future enormous increase in the value of 

 timber. 



Over against this policy, stands that of the United States Forest 

 Service of increasing the area of the National Forests in order to 

 conserve them for the public welfare. The pity is that the govern- 

 ment ever let the forests pass out of its hands. Only forty years ago 

 seventy-five per cent, of the timber now standing was publicly owned. 



