FORESTRY. 



EDITED BY DR B. E. FERNOW, 



Director of the New York School of Forestry, Cornell University, assisted by Dr. John C. Gifford of the same 



institution. 



It takes thirty years- to grow a tree and thirty minutes to cut it down and destroy it. 



CHANGE OF ATTITUDE. 



The signs of the times with regard to 

 forestry matters are rapidly changing for 

 the better. No more healthful sign could be 

 pointed out, than the reference to the sub- 

 ject in the meetings of the Lumbermen's 

 Associations. 



The National Wholesale Lumber Dealers' 

 Association held their annual convention 

 in Chicago, March 5, at which the sub- 

 ject received more elaborate attention than 

 ever before. The secretary, in his report, 

 made the following commendable recom- 

 mendation : 



"I recommend adding to our already im- 

 portant list a committee on forestry. This 

 question of forestry is occupying the atten- 

 tion of the most prominent men of the coun- 

 try, and while there is an association organ- 

 ized for the promulgation of the ideas, we 

 find that but few lumbermen are inter- 

 ested in this question. It should interest 

 every man engaged in the lumber business. 

 Therefore, I recommend that our by-laws 

 be amended so that a committee of 5 

 shall be appointed year by year in the regu- 

 lar way." 



This was followed by a more lengthy 

 argument On the part of the legal counsel 

 of the Association, from which we cull the 

 following extracts to show the attitude of 

 the legal mind toward a matter, "which 

 seems to me to vitally affect the lumber 

 trade, but which has so far received little 

 attention from lumbermen." I refer to 

 the matter of forestry, a subject which is of 

 little import to the ordinary man of affairs, 

 and which hitherto has had little attention 

 from the practical business world, but has 

 served as the hobby of a few scientific men 

 and an occasional lover of nature in its 

 wilder aspects. 



"The progress so far has been along theo- 

 retical rather than practical lines, and has 

 been the subject largely of academic thought 

 and effort. It is true that in several in- 

 stances, where the modern fancy of 

 wealthy men has induced them to acquire 

 large tracts of wild lands, experiments in 

 forestry have been attempted; but the prin- 

 ciples of forestry have yet to have their 

 first application in the realm of practical 

 business life. 



"If one gets into the frame of mind where " extend the membership of this Association 

 the lumbering business of a country can be - over the entire United States, with the 

 viewed as though from a distant standpoint, , . avowed object of making such enlarged 

 so that the mind's eye can take in the scope membership a means for handling in some 



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of an entire country's operations and can 

 extend its observation over both past, pres- 

 ent and future, it becomes clear how 

 important a part in the profitable conduct 

 of the lumber business the application of 

 approved forestry principles might play. 

 He sees a legitimate reason for such 

 change in the conditions under which 

 the business is done as will make possible 

 the application of a proper system of for- 

 estry, and will result in such system when 

 applied, adding to the economy with which 

 the industry is carried on." 



He then points out what I have again 

 and again put forward, that combinations 

 of large capital, trusts, are best suited to 

 practical forestry. 



"The proposition is that on the lumber 

 people themselves depends the preservation 

 of their own business ; that in all probabil- 

 ity they will alone determine whether they 

 will continue to carry on their operations 

 for all time to come or so misdirect their 

 efforts as to number the years of their busi- 

 ness. 



"It is evident that no single lum- 

 berman can accomplish anything along the 

 lines suggested. It is also clear that 

 in the absence of Governmental interference 

 no man or body of men, outside of the lum- 

 ber dealers themselves, can or will make 

 any progress toward the establishment of 

 better conditions in the treatment of our 

 forests. It follows inevitably that the lum- 

 bermen as a body, through themselves, or 

 some other association or organization, 

 must seriously take uo the question and 

 find proper means for its solution. 



"It seems inevitable that some closer 

 organization of the entire industry will 

 take place in the not distant future 

 and that such organization will have 

 as one of its reasons for existence the 

 enforcement, either with or without Gov- 

 ernment co-operation, of a forestry system. 

 Such a condition, however, may be in the 

 near or in the distant future or may never 

 come about. That matter need not and 

 should not interfere with immediate steps 

 to enlarge the influence of this Association, 

 with a view to making some practical study 

 and enforcement of a system of forest cul- 

 ture. 



"I suggest an immediate effort to 



