370 REPORT OF THE FORESTRY COMMITTEE 



No blame for the failure of these working plans can be attached to any one, 

 and in several respects they have proved of lasting value through indicating the 

 possibilities of close utilization and of protection. The Federal Forestry Bureau 

 first of all lacked experienced men who could outline plans and methods which 

 would be considered practical by the hard-headed lumbermen. Timberland 

 owners, on the other hand, have to meet very strict commercial conditions, and 

 if advanced methods of operation could not be made to pay, they obviously could 

 not be followed. Moreover, they had to be made to pay then and continuously 

 to fully the extent possible under the usual methods, and not in the distant future, 

 even though the ultimate profits would have been greater than by their usual 

 methods. Stockholders, even in lumber companies, want dividends now, not 

 fifty years hence. In other words, we seem to be rather slow to appraise and 

 appreciate the commercial conditions under which private forestry is possible, 

 and to work out and apply the unvarying principles of forest economics upon 

 which private forestry in America must be based. 



PUBEIC DEMAND HEEPFUL. 



The public demand for forest conservation has been helpful in calling atten- 

 tion to the national importance of the question and to the direct personal interest 

 which it has for every citizen. On the other hand, the somewhat unreasonable 

 clamor of enthusiasts who have no personal interests at stake, has retarded 

 progress, because it has put the lumbermen on the defensive, by accusing them of 

 deliberately wasteful and reckless methods. 



For some ten years there has been a ceaseless propaganda for better manage- 

 ment and wiser use of timberland and a constant controversy as to what should 

 be done, most of it being the well-intentiond agitation of those who could do little 

 more than talk; while the lumbermen, who really control the destinies of our 

 private forest lands, sat back and said nothing. While this has been going on, 

 industrial conditions as they affect the forests have materially changed, so that 

 with the awakened public interest as it now exists, there is greater hope of 

 definite accomplishment. 



Present tendencies indicate a more helpful and logical development than at 

 any time since forest conservation became an issue. Instead of attempting to 

 put immediately into effect the complete policies and intensive methods of manage- 

 ment which are scientifically correct, at least in older countries, things are now 

 being done which are logical steps in the development which may ultimately lead 

 to intensive forest management on private forest lands. Instead of asking the 

 private owner to cut by a system which will curtail his output and reduce present 

 profits for the sake of perpetuating new growth, by merely stating in an indefinite 

 way that fire protection, for example, is essential in applying these methods, the 

 private owner is now being shown that protection from fire is possible by sys- 

 tematic methods and thorough organization, and that it pays. He is also learning 

 by what means and in what ways he can utilize material which was formerly 

 wasted, and at the same time maintain a more effective organization. AA'hile these 

 are not the things which theoretically constitute complete forest management, 



