I 



PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 311 



on sales, all of which must be deducted from the small margin of one dollar per 

 thousand feet, the difference between the selling price of lumber and cost of manu- 

 facture. 



San Francisco, Columbia River points, and Puget Sound operators are 

 striving to undersell each other, and every mill in the various localities is in strong 

 competition. This is all wrong. The output should be greatly reduced and a 

 severe economy in clearing and manufacturing the product be adopted, with a 

 view to the perpetuation of the lumbering industries. 



The government authorities, whose estimates are surprisingly inaccurate and 

 overdrawn as to the amount of standing timber, only allow fifty years for the 

 Pacific forests to become exhausted. If we recognize this to be correct, the State 

 and nation will be the great losers, and should take legal steps to prevent further 

 vandalism, and compel a reasonable method of lumbering as well as to check the 

 annual burnings. 



LUMBERING ON THE PACIFIC COAST. 



We present three pictures which vividly represent the grossly wasteful 

 methods of Pacific Coast lumbermen. In one view is a giant tree which 

 is being felled by the usual mode, the choppers standing upon spring boards, 

 which are fitted into notches cut with the axe into the tree several feet above the 

 ground. The waste in these stumps is enormous where the trees are of such giant 

 size as those of Puget Sound, the Columbia, and in California. In the tree shown 

 in our illustration there are 7,775 feet b. m., which is a total loss. As this practice 

 is universal in Oregon and Washington, it is seen that a serious loss is incurred 

 upon every section of land. 



Since the loggers are paid by the day, they will chop where it is easiest cut- 

 ting, and as the mills receive their remuneration by lumber measure, they bear 

 no loss. The owner of the land does not complain, because there is so large a 

 quantity of timber on the ground and it has cost him so small a sum. 



In Pennsylvania and other locations it was a former practice to cut trees in 

 winter, when snow was several feet deep, thus leaving high stumps. They are 

 now using this stumpage, sawing it close to the ground, although several years 

 have elapsed since the trees were removed. 



Cordwood for fuel in Seattle is six dollars per cord, while but fifteen miles 

 away is a mill where for almost half a century there has been enough wood burned 

 in the fire that is never quenched to supply a large city with fuel. 



Another view is of a fallen forest. The trees have all been felled, the young 

 undergrouths entirely destroyed, and after the choicest logs have been removed, 

 the remainder will be burned to clear the land. 



This terrific waste, added to the forest fires which prevail every summer, will 

 very soon make barren this once wonderful wealth of forest. 



Lumbermen fear these forest fires, and anticipate serious losses at any time 

 when some miscreant may apply the torch, hence all are using their utmost 

 exertions to market the timber as quickly as possible, without regard to economy 

 of the product. 



