204 PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 



the northern and eastern states had agents scouring these regions for cross-ties; 

 the Standard Oil Company had penetrated the most inaccessible portions of the 

 country and secured the cream of the white oak for cooperage. Upon every stream 

 large enough to float timber, timbermen were at work getting out logs and trees 

 for market. 



A month ago, in another trip over the same mountain country, going by rail as 

 far as possible and with a hundred mile horseback ride beyond the railway ter- 

 minus, no forests, as such, were found. The valuable timber had been removed, 

 the inferior trees were being hauled to the railway and rivers, while thousands 

 oi logs which three years ago would not have been looked at the second time, were 

 waiting for water to float them out. Many logs were hollow, others badly decayed, 

 knotty logs and anything which would give even a little fair lumber. 



Beech, inferior oaks, and trees of slight value were all that remained. The 

 present white oak region of the United States is quite limited in extent, for a 

 country which consumes and exports such a vast quantity of lumber. 



The president of a great railway system which but a few years since owned 

 and controlled millions of acres of fine oak timbered land, recently wrote the 

 author : 



"Our vast tracts of timber lands are almost entirely sold, and we are making 

 no efforts to advertise them." 



Personally we are familiar with this formerly timbered section and know this 

 to be the case. 



Just how long the oak will last as a lumber supply, cannot be estimated by 

 sny one, but the most sanguine persons cannot fix a date beyond twenty years 

 hence, with a greater probability of a practical exhaustion in half that time. 



White oak is very slow of growth and cannot be reproduced in a size suitable 

 for quarter sawing in less than a century ; much that is being cut has been standing 

 one hundred and fifty years. Red oak grows faster, but is not so handsome in 

 grain and finish, nor so varied in its utility, while no one, not even the govern- 

 ment, is planting either. 



A member of Congress recently remarked, "The government does not plant 

 trees." which is truth in a nutshell. The government investigates. 



Land owners who have oak and other timbers do not protect the young trees, 

 and hence at the very best, if the government should at once adopt a true forestry 

 policy and have millions of trees planted, there would still be a gap of almost a 

 century between the time of an exhausted forest from natural productions and the 

 incoming crop from artificial plantations. 



So the question again arises, After the oak, what? 



Some years ago a noted forestry expert of Massachusetts predicted that in two 

 decades the supply of white pine timber in the United States would be exhausted. 

 Hut Professor Sargent did not take into consideration an important factor in the 

 case. As white pine increased in value from shortage in supply, the lumber men 

 ;md builders began to use larger quantities of hard woods, birch, maple, and oak. 

 where pine had been formerly used. Yellow pine from the South came into 

 market, as the price justified long transportation, and hemlock was accepted in 

 lieu of pine for general farm stuffs. And thus the limit of pine was extended, a 

 small quantity still being in market at high prices. This prediction has been 



