THE ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF FORESTRY. 312 



naval stores, the production of which renders the longleaf pine the 

 most important timber tree of the South. No general statements of 

 large supplies of timber still available can disguise the gravity of the 

 situation which now confronts the limiber industry. The solution of 

 the problem can come only through a change in the policy and in the 

 methods of the lumberman. 



The history of lumbering in the United States has not differed 

 essentially from that of the same industry in other countries. In the 

 early days, the chief obstacle of the settler was the forest, while the 

 growing need both of cleared land and of timber kept pace with the 

 advance of colonization. The multiplication of demands for forest 

 products developed feverish activity in the conversion of trees iato 

 money, while the methods employed in the harvesting of timber were 

 the natural outcome of existing conditions. Forestry, with its per- 

 petual but conservative returns, offered no financial inducement to the 

 lumberman until the first crop of timber began to fail. With the forest 

 stretched before him, large enough to feed his saw-mill for his lifetime, 

 he had no need to consider the potential value of cut-over lands, often 

 allowing them to revert in default of taxes to the state. His methods 

 of lumbering were significant of his attitude. Skillful and effective 

 in the cutting and transport of logs and the manufacture of lumber, 

 he showed utter obliviousness to the productive capacity of the lum- 

 bered areas. Abuse of the lumberman is unmerited and unreasonable. 

 His utilization of natural resources has been accomplished by mistakes 

 similar to those incurred in the development of other industries in 

 this country. The necessity for modification of his methods involves 

 no emotional considerations. The question is one simply of the 

 best business policy. 



The attitude of the lumberman towards the source of his industry 

 has so far been generally similar to that of the miner towards the gold 

 mine. He has considered the value of the forest to lie only in the 

 merchantable timber it contains, just as the mine is worthless when the 

 end of the vein is reached. He has cut and burned with complete dis- 

 regard of the welfare of immature trees, with the result that he has 

 deprived the future of a supply of timber many times the value of the 

 material he has actually utilized. There has been incalculable waste, 

 (vhich in some cases could have been avoided through slight expense, 

 in others simply by the exercise of reasonable care, and which has 

 hastened enormously the approaching exhaustion of the lumber supply. 

 No one realizes more keenly than does the lumberman that the time for 

 forestry has fully arrived. 



The influence of the general adoption of practical forestry upon the 

 lumber industry will be felt gradually, but it will eventually aecom- 



