284 FORESTS, RESERVOIRS, AND STREAM FLOW 
way development. Will it not be better in every way for forestry if 
it is promoted solely on the basis of producing trees for human use 
and enjoyment, and not at all for any supposed influence upon flow 
of streams? Is it really a wise move, so far as forestry is concerned, 
to single out the rugged and inaccessible mountains as localities where 
our future supply of timber must come from? The availability of 
forests to human needs depends very largely upon the situation in 
which they grow. Few people understand the exceeding importance 
of this matter. The converting of a forest tree into form for use 
involves two distinct processes, the conversion of the tree into lum- 
ber or other product and its transportation to the place of con- 
sumption. The cost of logging operations is immensely increased 
by the roughness of the ground. In our Western forests, for example, 
it requires a higher grade of skill, commanding higher wages, to 
“lay” a tree on a steep hillside than on even ground. The losses from 
breakage in falling are much higher, and the difficulty and expense 
of getting the logs out much greater. In fact, the increase of cost 
runs all the way from $1 to $10 per 1000, depending upon the situa- 
tion. Engineering News stated the case very forcibly in regard to 
the Appalachian forests (though it did not have this particular thought 
in mind), when it said in a recent issue that “the cutting off of 
forests on the remote mountain slopes has only become possible with 
the high price of lumber that has prevailed for ten years past.” This 
increase of cost represents the perpetual tax that the public must pay 
for timber from these regions as compared with that from the low- 
lands. And a great deal of it can never be gotten out at all. The 
poet’s “gem of purest ray serene” was not more lost to human needs 
than are tens of thousands of noble trees in the rugged fastnesses 
of our mountains, east and west. Benefit? To convert them into 
lumber will cost more than they are worth. Enjoyment? Only the 
solitary hunter or mountaineer ever sees them. These are not the 
places to rear up forests for the good of the people. 
Consider the question of transportation and take Chicago as 
being practically on the meridian through the center of population 
of the country. The rate on fir from the Cascades to Chicago is 55 
cents per 100, or $16.50 per 1000 ft. B.M. The average rate from the 
Appalachian forests is about 18 cents, or about $9 per 1000 for green 
oak. By a proper distribution of our forests, these rates on the average 
