American Forest Congress 201 



of the other timbers that are used so largely for gen- 

 eral building and manufacturing purposes. 



"It occurs to me that really one of the chief things 

 in connection with this question is to discourage the 

 useless waste of the kind of material used for cooper- 

 age. Any subject of this kind naturally concerns al- 

 most entirely the private holder of stumpage, and is 

 therefore beyond anything the general Government 

 could do, except to make suggetsions. The principal 

 manufacturers, possibly, would not be interested in 

 even any such suggestion as this to the general Govern- 

 ment, from the fact that for some time past it has been 

 apparent to them that the time was speedily coming 

 when material suitable for cooperage is going to be- 

 come quite scarce, consequently more valuable. Hence 

 they are willing to let those who are so disposed be as 

 wasteful of such timber as they please. Of course this 

 is a very selfish view, but selfishness travels hand-in- 

 hand with the commercialism which seems to have 

 possession of us at present, to an extent not believed 

 possible in the days of our forefathers and the blessed 

 era of 'The Simple Life.' " 



Another correspondent, who is a large manufacturer 

 of staves in Arkansas and Louisiana, and who is also 

 a close student of all matters pertaining to his craft, 

 writes as follows : 



"In my opinion, little can be done by the Bureau of 

 Forestry that will benefit the cooperage manufacturers 

 in business to-day. The subject of reforestation is, 

 and has always been, an interesting one, and I am glad 

 to note that it is being taken in hand, and that the peo- 

 ple have at last awakened to the necessity of taking 

 some steps toward insuring the supply of timber for 

 use in future years. Experts claim that it takes an oak 

 from 80 to 100 years to arrive at its maturity, or its 



