FIFTH NATIONAL CONSERVATION CONGRESS 257 



until the select lumber, the grade that meets the favor of the consumer, 

 becomes so scarce in supply and so high in price that the consumer is com- 

 pelled to accept all of the useful lower grades. The primary reason for the 

 so-called waste of forest products, the lack of conservation, is the bountiful 

 supply of, and the low price for, lumber. Just so long as an article is 

 produced in excess of general requirements, there, will be that tendency to 

 select the better and reject the poorer. 



"Were we able to produce all good lumber, it might be different, but, as 

 heretofore explained, we must take the poor with the good. In all lumber 

 manufacturing operations there are many trees left in the forest that contain 

 a portion of select lumber, but these trees also contain a very large propor- 

 tion of poorer lumber, so much of the grade that the consumer will reject 

 that the cost of taking out these trees is much greater than the present value 

 of the lumber they will produce. The lumberman has been censured for 

 leaving these trees in the forest to be "killed by fire and be wasted entirely. 

 But who would do otherwise under present conditions? Make it profitable 

 to do so, and the lumberman will take out all the trees. 



"These trees that contain a comparatively small proportion of choice 

 lumber and a very large proportion of lower grade lumber, constitute propor- 

 tions of the whole forest, varying from 30 per cent to as much as 60 per cent, 

 depending upon the kind and locality of the forest. In some localities a tree 

 of a certain quality is considered worthless and is left in the forest, in another 

 locality a part of a tree of this quality is taken, and in still another locality 

 all of a tree of this quality is utilized, and each of the three lumbermen is 

 practicing conservation to the extent of his ability to do so. One may be 

 so located that the cost of getting the logs out to his mill, manufacturing to 

 lumber, and freighting to market, would prohibit the utilization of a tree of 

 this kind. Another may have a comparatively low logging and manufac- 

 turing cost and a comparatively high freight to market, enabling him to use 

 a part of the tree. Still another may have a logging and manufacturing cost 

 and si home market, enabling him to use all of the tree. All three apply the 

 same test as to whether they shall use all of the tree, a part of it, or none of 

 it. The action of each is determined by the question of profit, so that what 

 in one locality is valuable is worthless in another locality. 



"There probably is not more than one consumer in one hundred who 

 considers the fact that of all the lumber produced in the United States, a very 

 large proportion, in some localities more than half, is sold by the manufac- 

 turer at less than the actual cost to produce it. With this condition prevailing, 

 is it any wonder that the small proportion of the entire product that meets 

 with the favor of the discriminating consumer should be high in price? 



"With most consumers it is a question of 'Pigs is pigs,' 'Lumber is 

 high,' without any consideration of why or who is responsible for the con- 

 dition. The consumer naturally blames the 'Lumber Barons,' without con- 

 sidering that the lumber may be used 3,000 miles from where it was pro- 

 duced, that the manufacturer, the wholesaler, and the retailer must have a 

 profit, and that he must pay for not only his choice but to help to make up 

 for the loss on the large proportion he has rejected. 



"In the good old days of low-priced lumber, the days when stumpage 

 was so low-priced as to hardly be a consideration in the cost of lumber, the 

 days when the lumber manufacturer could fell the trees in his mill yard or 

 could fell them on the banks of some stream and float them to the mill with 

 but little cost, the days when the consumer drove to the mill with his own 

 team and hauled the lumber away — these were the days when the consumer 

 could pick and choose and reject to his heart's content, and how he did 

 reject ! Just how much he rejected is evidenced by the fact that in those good 

 old days as much as two-thirds of the timber was left in the forest to burn 



