March 17, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



381 



December 21 comments on the government 

 ownership of water-power sites and timber as 

 exemplified by the national forest system. The 

 financial burdens resting on private owners 

 of uncut timber are held to have forced the 

 manufacture of lumber without regard to 

 market demands, and with consequent demor- 

 alization of the lumber industry and wasteful 

 use of timber resources; while facts and fig- 

 ures regarding the water power situation are 

 given to prove that more rapid development 

 of water power in the west is mainly prevented 

 by the lack of consumers, rather than by the 

 absence of suitable legislation. 



Water power permits taken out for National 

 Forest projects, says the report, involve a 

 total of 1,261,560 horsepower. Free permits 

 cover Y0,628 horsepower and the plants actu- 

 ally constructed or operating June 30 had an 

 output capacity of 341,276 horsepower, the 

 rentals paying $89,000 during the year. The 

 report comments on the water power situation 

 as follows: 



New legislation permitting tlie government to 

 grant a more secure tenure for tlie lands used, 

 tlirough the issuance of fifty-year leases, would, 

 without doubt, make the financing of power de- 

 velopments on the public lands both easier and 

 cheaper, and is very desirable; but the main ob- 

 stacle to more rapid development than that which 

 is now taking place is not lact of a new law but 

 lack of a broader market for power. It is at least 

 doubtful if either an amended law or private 

 ownership of the public power sites would result in 

 any general or material increase in power develop- 

 ment in the western states in the immediate fu- 

 ture. With rare and minor exceptions, existing 

 power developments in these states are far in ex- 

 cess of market demands. The Forest Service is 

 being constantly importuned to extend periods of 

 construction on power permits on the plea that 

 there would be no market available for the power 

 if the project were developed. The per capita use 

 of water power in electrical development in the 

 three Pacific and the eight Mountain states is far 

 in excess of that in any other section of the 

 United States, and more than five times the aver- 

 age for the United States, as a whole. The de- 

 velopment of the Pacific States is about 180 horse- 

 power, per thousand of population, and in the 

 Mountain states 120 horsepower, with a balanced 

 average of 160 horsepower. New England, which 



is next in order, has less than 40 horsepower per 

 thousand of population, and the whole United 

 States about 30 horsepower. 



The report goes on to say : 



The drop of thirty per cent, in the demands for 

 national forest stumpage, as indicated by the fall- 

 ing off in new sales, is a significant index of the 

 unstable market for lumber and the serious condi- 

 tions now obtaining in the forest-using industries. 



These conditions which are now the subject 

 of a special study conducted by the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture in cooperation with the 

 Federal Trade Commission and the Bureau 

 of Foreign and Domestic Commerce 



are related primarily to the carrying of enormous 

 quantities of raw material, exploitable only dur- 

 ing a long period of time, in private ownership. 

 This load of uncut timber, with its far-reaching 

 financial burdens, hampers or prevents the private 

 operator from adapting his business to the changed 

 conditions of his market and to the competitive 

 factors of more or less recent development. Hence 

 a tendency toward a lumber output governed not 

 by the requirements of the country, but by the 

 financial necessities of the owners of stumpage, 

 with its resultant market demoralization and 

 wasteful use of timber resources. Had the na- 

 tional forests never been created, the conditions. 

 of trade depression and wasteful exploitation,, 

 detrimental alike to the interests of the lumber 

 industry and the public, would have been mark- 

 edly accentuated. The value of public ownership 

 of a considerable part of the timber resources of 

 the nation has never been demonstrated more 

 strikingly than by the results of private owner- 

 ship now manifest. 



Although large commercial sales fell off, due 

 to the depressed condition of the lumber 

 market, says the report, the number of sales to 

 settlers, farmers and small dealers at cost 

 rates nearly doubled in number, while more 

 than 40,000 free timber permits were issued, 

 an increase of 549. The steady increase of 

 this use, the forester adds, indicates the im- 

 portance of the national forests to the com- 

 munities in which they lie and the stability of 

 the local demand for their products. 



The report discusses in detail the work of 

 the Forest Service during the fiscal year 

 ended June 30 last, showing a general increase 



