Ami^rican Forest Congress 89 



tunnels and every structure of concrete requires wooden 

 forms. So numerous and so great are the indispensa- 

 ble uses of timber in such works, that the existence of 

 a supply of timber near a, projected work frequently 

 has an important bearing upon its feasibility and cost. 

 Nor is this fact often appreciated fully. We are ac- 

 customed to estimate the utility of a lumber supply 

 on the basis of its selling price, rather than of the cost 

 of obtaining the supply elsewhere. For example, the 

 cost of sawing and hauling timber to the point of use 

 on a certain large project in the west is about twenty- 

 five ($25.00) dollars per thousand. Were it not for 

 the small forest from which this supply is obtained, 

 it would be necessary to import lumber from a distance 

 at a cost of over fifty ($50.00) dollars per thousand, 

 and this represents the real utility of the local supply 

 as a factor in the construction. It is not too much to 

 say that the feasibility of some important irrigation 

 works depends upon the proximity of ample timber 

 supplies. 



The development of irrigation will in the future 

 lead to the rapid opening and development of timbered 

 areas, which are now merely in their natural state. 

 This fact emphasizes the necessity of placing the forests 

 at once under the rigid scientific supervision of trained 

 government experts. If left to the manipulation of sel- 

 fish interests as in the past, the result will be lavish and 

 wasteful use, and probably destruction of the forest. 

 Every tree that will make lumber will be cut, the best 

 parts hauled away, the branches and part of the trunk 

 left on the ground to feed the fires that will soon follow 

 and destroy all that the axe has left. Temporary 

 profits will be reaped by a few, and the community 

 will be robbed of its natural heritage. Eventually, the 

 forest must be replanted and restored at enormous 



