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. 



A FORESTRY BUREAU. 



The importance of our forestry interest 

 is constantly growing in recognition. The 

 State of Pennsylvania this year recognized 

 it by changing the Division of Forestry 

 in its Department of Agriculture into an 

 independent department, and since the first 

 of July tl: ederal Division of Forestry 

 has been r .d to the rank of a bureau. 

 It is still ider the U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture, but already talk is heard of 

 making it an independent department. 



That finally the Federal Government 

 must institute a full fledged management 

 of its 40 forest reserves, comprising over 

 40,000,000 acres, is self evident, and it is 

 only a question how soon and how this will 

 come about. At present the General Land 

 Office is still in charge of this property, 

 but already the Secretary of the Interior 

 has recognized that technical management 

 of these timber lands is necessary and has 

 called on the forestry bureau to pre- 

 pare the necessary plans. As soon as such 

 plans are formulated, their execution 

 should also be left with the forestry bu- 

 reau, for technical supervision of the cut- 

 ting of timber is as essential as technical 

 plans, and it is questionable whether 

 the General Land Office, which was insti- 

 tuted simply to dispose of the public do- 

 main, could be so organized as to furnish 

 this technical supervision and continuous 

 management. Meanwhile the forestry bu- 

 reau is also strenuously trying to extend 

 its influence over private timber land own- 

 ers by preparing working plans for them. 

 It reports to have prepared plans for 200,000 

 acres and that 50,000 acres have been put 

 under management ; a small area, to be 

 sure. As far as can be learned these 

 plans confine themselves mainly to a deter- 

 mination of the quantity of timber that may 

 be cut and yet leave enough to return for 

 another cut in a given time. It is supposed 

 that upon the basis of measurements of the 

 rate of growth such conservative lumber- 

 ing would prove more profitable. What- 

 ever flaws may be found in the method- 

 results of these measurements and calcu- 

 lations, the forestry bureau certainly de- 

 serves the credit of having brought out 

 strongly the fact that such measurements 

 and calculations are possible, that they must 

 finally be the basis of a sustained forest 

 management and that forestry is a business 

 to be carried on for business purposes on 

 business principles, We hope that the 



view which the American Lumberman ex- 

 presses applies more widely than we be- 

 lieve it does as yet when it speaks as fol- 

 lows : 



In the meantime private owners are ap- 

 proaching, if they have not already reached, 

 the stage of timber values in this country 

 when preservative methods of logging can 

 be adopted. The trouble is, we fancy, that 

 the forest has been looked on too much 

 as a quick asset or part of an operating 

 plant rather than an investment. The cap- 

 italist nowadays is looking for long-time 

 investments. If he can get one for 50 or 

 100 years that will pay 3 or 4 per cent, 

 he is well pleased Yet when he puts his 

 money into timber he wants to get it out 

 in 5 to 20 years, or as fast as he can do so, 

 and then he must look around for some 

 other place to invest it. Why not look 

 on the timber itself as the permanent in- 

 vestment? It is as devoid of risk as any 

 and pays as good a profit as any perpetual 

 investment. In fact, it pays a profit enough 

 larger than government bonds to warrant 

 the cost and annoyance of oversight. 



The view of timber ownership and of 

 the lumber business, the latter being simply 

 a means of reaping the annual dividends on 

 the former, has already been taken by a 

 few individuals, and there are indications 

 that it will grow rapidly in favor from 

 now on. It is said that the greater part of 

 the long-leaf yellow pine timber of East 

 Texas will soon be placed under forestry 

 methods. A number of large operating 

 timber owners elsewhere have adopted the 

 same principle, and so it may go until some 

 time we shall find the forests of the United 

 States being fully maintained in area and 

 stand while furnishing an enormous reve- 

 nue. 



A FORESTRY TRUST. 



There is great opportunity for good at- 

 tainable by trusts in the management of 

 our forest resources ; for forestry, to be 

 successfully and profitably carried on as 

 a business under our economic conditions 

 requires large capital, continuity of man- 

 agement for a long time and the willing- 

 ness to forego present revenue for in- 

 creased revenues in the future ; require- 

 ments which large combinations of capi- 

 talists are in condition to fulfill. 



No trust has yet formed which has in 

 view such far-reaching policices as ought to 

 be undertaken. The existing trust com- 



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