EXHAUSTION OF THE FOREST. 



263 



about eighty per cent, of it is privately owned. In the meanwhile 

 its value has increased anywhere from ten to fifty fold, according to 

 locality. 3 Some large corporations, however, like the Pennsylvania 

 Railroad, the Kirby Lumber Company, of Texas, and the Interna- 

 tional Paper Company, have entered upon a policy of conservative 

 lumbering. 



Of the actual practices which distinguish destructive lumbering, a 

 few may be cited. Stumps are cut too high and tops too low. Good 

 lumber is wasted on lumber roads and bridges, Fig. 113. Saplings are 



Fig. 114. Turpentine Boxing, Cup System. 

 Georgia. U. S. Forest Service. 



torn down in dragging out logs. Slash is left in condition to foster 

 fires and left with no shade protection. Seedlings are smothered 

 with slash. Seed trees are all cut out leaving no chance for repro- 

 duction. Only poorer sorts of trees are left standing, thus insuring 

 deterioration. Paper pulp cutting goes even farther than lumbering, 

 and ordinarily leaves nothing behind but a howling wilderness. 



The production of turpentine from the long-leaf pine, Fig. 114, 

 at the annual rate of 40,000 barrels has meant the devastation of 

 70,000 acres of virgin forest. 



3 See Summary of Report of the Commissioner of Corporations on the 

 Lumber Industry. February 13, 1911. Washington, D. C. 



