Canddian Forcstrij Journal, Mruch, 1!)I7 



1001 



Returns on Timber Investments 



By Wm. B. Greelcij, Assistant Forester, U.S. Forest Service. 



The "ifs" ill limber ownersliip in the West grow out of the vast extent of 

 its forests, their distance from tlie large consuming regions, and their abnor- 

 mal rise in value. Speculation in quantities of public timber, cheaply ac- 

 quired, and the push of sudden development carried timber values very high. 

 Borrowed money was used freely. Tax burdens rose with the price of stump- 

 age. The interest and taxes paid out on timberlands held over long periods 

 may thus mortgage liberal advances in future worth. 



On the other hand market values of stumpage have stood still for eight or 

 nine years, and even declined in 1915. Western timberlands have been over- 

 capitalized more or less, and can hardly earn in the long run the profit 

 expected of them. The large speculative gains in' buying stumpage which 

 have tided lumbermen over many tight places are mostly over. The future 

 earnings of the industry probably will have to be made in its milling and 

 merchandising. 



Southern pine timberlands have travelled much the same road, but at a 

 slower pace and with less striking results. 



One Sundau Edition Eats 15 Acres of Forest I 



I 



In an address delivered at Van- 

 couver before the first meeting of the 

 Canadian (Pacific) branch of the 

 British Society of Chemical Industrv, 

 Dr. R. H. Clark, M.A., Ph.D., of the 

 University of British Columbia, made 

 the following reference to the forest 

 wealth of British Columbia: 



"Lumbering is our third great- 

 est industry. The United States 

 forest service has estimated that 

 in from twenty to thirty years 

 their forests will be depleted. 

 In Canada and the United States 

 we use 500 feet per capita per 

 annum against 60 feet per capita 

 in Europe. 



A single issue of a New York 

 newspaper's Sunday edition 

 requires fifteen acres of forest. 

 The waste of our timber re- 

 sources is due to fire, careless 

 logging, wasteful mill operations, 

 and overproduction. In all, it is 

 claimed 75 per cent, of our forest 

 products are wasted, 20 per cent. 



of the log (the upper part) is left 

 in the woods to rot or burn, and 

 one-third of the slab residue is 

 consumed in refuse bu'rners. 

 The importance of the forests 

 arises not solely from their being 

 the source of our timbers but, 

 still more important, because of 

 their bearing upon our water 

 supply. In forest cover not only 

 is erosion impossible, but the 

 rains evaporate more slowly, the 

 snows melt less rapidly, the run- 

 off is gradual, floods cease, and 

 streams are available for water 

 power. 'When the forests fail, 

 every man, woman, and child 

 will feel the pinch.' The pro- 

 blem has been solved in Europe. 

 The forests of Germany are 300 

 per cent, better than seventy 

 years ago, and the yield per acre 

 sevenfold what it was. Let us 

 agitate to have the same problem 

 solved here while there is plenty 

 of time." 



