American Forest Congre;ss 109 



the road is also taken up and moved elsewhere ; and it 

 is desirable that before this is done the logging shall be 

 thoroughly completed. Under such conditions it often 

 is very unlikely that even if the smaller trees be left 

 upon the tract there will ever again be a sufiBcient stand 

 of timber to justify the rebuilding of the logging road. 



The point aimed at in this cursory review of the 

 evolution of the pine lumber industry is to show that 

 the lumbermen all along pursued a strenuous course in 

 their endeavor to make a profit in their business. In 

 their enterprise they had to be pioneers in a vast wil- 

 derness; they had to cover wide extents of territory 

 in carrying out their plans; they were forced to clear 

 out streams, build dams, put in booms, erect mills, and 

 latterly construct railroads, build and purchase vessels, 

 equip lines of barges, and establish docks — all of 

 which required capital and necessitated great economy, 

 business acumen, and thoroughness in order to secure 

 profit in operation. It was a business that required 

 much money and credit and considerable time before 

 any profitable results could accrue. Is it any wonder, 

 then, that the lumbermen looked upon their stumpage, 

 or any stumpage, as merely raw material from which, 

 if conditions were favorable, they could extract a 

 money profit? 



Fifty years ago in this country a general application 

 of forestry methods would have been absurd. There 

 were some cases where forests in particular places 

 should have been preserved, but up to that time and 

 even later the forest as a whole was an encumbrance. 

 In the eastern part of the United States, which had the 

 people, not only the lumberman but the settler also was 

 engaged in removing the forest, with the difference, 

 however, that the settler was making little or no use 

 of it, but merely destroying it to get it out of his way. 



