RESULTS OF OUR FOREST POLICY 361 



from the future needs for lumber, there are the future needs for a 

 great many important wood products — paper, cheap industrial fuel, 

 rosin and distillates of many kinds. The public interest in economical 

 lumbering methods is so great as even to demand government regu- 

 lation of lumbering on private lands, although that involves such a 

 departure from our ordinary "laissez faire" theory of government 

 that it will be difficult to secure. 



FAILURE TO REFOREST LANDS 



The waste incident to our present lumbering methods would not 

 be so serious a matter if a new crop of timber were growing up to 

 replenish the supply, but unfortunately very few lumbermen are 

 making any effort to reforest their cut-over lands. Just how extensive 

 are these cut-over lands it would be difficult to say. The National 

 Conservation Commission estimated in 1909 that there were 75,- 

 000,000 acres of non-agricultural cut-over lands which should be de- 

 voted to growing timber. Certainly there are large areas of idle stump 

 land, unfit for agriculture, and producing no timber. 



Lumbermen cannot be justly criticized for not replanting their 

 lands. Only under exceptional circumstances could it be done profit- 

 ably. In the first place, an investment of this character would be a 

 long-time investment. No return could ordinarily be expected in less 

 than fifty years, in some cases even longer, and in the meantime the 

 owner must pay taxes and protect his investment from fire and tres- 

 pass. Although these two items — fire protection and taxes — are not 

 large, they are too uncertain for a conservative investment. While 

 fire protection is a small item usually, there is always a chance that 

 fire may destroy a part of the entire investment. Taxes likewise, al- 

 though not a very large item, are uncertain and arbitrary, and, under 

 the unscientific system prevailing in most states, must be paid regard- 

 less of whether the lands are bringing in any return or not. An in- 

 vestor who undertook to predict the amount of taxes on his growing 

 timber for fifty years in advance would be dealing in very uncertain 

 quantities. 



Even if there were no element of uncertainty, reforestation would 

 seldom present an attractive field of investment. The initial cost of 

 reforesting, together with the cost of protection and taxes, com- 



