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 30 years to grow a tree and 30 minutes to cut it down and destroy it. 



THE OUTLOOK FOR WOOD SUPPLIES. 



Not more then 15 years ago most of the 

 lumber journals were still expressing 

 amusement at the efforts of those who at- 

 tempted to influence methods of forest ex- 

 ploitation, on the ground that wood sup- 

 plies are waning and that attention should 

 be paid to their reproduction. At last it 

 has dawned on the editors of these peri- 

 odicals that even such "inexhaustible" sup- 

 plies as the white pine were supposed to be 

 come to an end. At present hardly a week's 

 issue of these same journals is without 

 some comment or some statement of fact 

 which indicates the change of attitude. 

 That the white pine, which is to date still 

 the largest furnisher of wood material in 

 the market, is doomed soon to be one of the 

 rarer woods has for some time been ad- 

 mitted by the trade journals, and dates for 

 its final exhaustion have been figured ; a 

 futile proceeding, since the rate of decima- 

 tion must necessarily change as the sup- 

 plies become smaller and the prices higher. 

 It is interesting to note how one region 

 after another is playing out, the latest be- 

 ing referred to by a lumber journal as fol- 

 lows : 



La Crosse will not much longer be a lumber 

 manufacturing point. For 50 years La Crosse 

 was a great lumber city. Some of the finest white 

 pine logs that ever grew in Wisconsin came down 

 the old Black river and were sawed into lumber 

 here. The lumber went out by rail and, previous 

 to the days of railroads, by rafts, down the river 

 to wholesale points. Those were busy days for 

 this old town. Still, with the lumber manufactur- 

 ing gone, other things have come to take its place, 

 and La Crosse 'to-day is a more solid and sub- 

 stantial city than ever before. It is a practical 

 illustration of the changes that are bound to 

 come to all the Northern Wisconsin lumber towns 

 of to-day, and if they all fare as well as La Crosse 

 there can be no cause for complaint. 



There will be no more logging of any import- 

 ance done on Black river. The Black River Im- 

 provement Company has disposed of its interests 

 to A. S. Trow & Co., who will hereafter personally 

 take care of what logs they have coming down the 

 river and those in the water belonging to other 

 concerns. The next season will probably see all 

 these logs down and sawed at La Crosse. What 

 remains is mostly a few million feet of hemlock 

 logs. The last white pine sawing will be done next 

 year by the C. L. Colman Lumber Company. . . . 



On another page the coming change is 

 foreshadowed as follows : 



While yellow pine and the Pacific coast woods 

 are encroaching on the old white pine territory, 

 the producers of the latter can comfort them- 

 selves with the reflection that their own home 

 demand is fast increasing. The rapid settle- 



ment of Minnesota and Northern Wisconsin 

 and parts of Michigan, and the development of 

 local industries, are annually requiring not only a 

 much larger portion of the total lumber product of 

 those States, but a much greater actual quantity. 

 The time is not far distant when there will be 

 what is practically a local demand for nearly the 

 entire product. 



The following editorial comment on the 

 growing use of hard wood is also signifi- 

 cant: 



The present value of hard wood lumber, and 

 particularly the value of hard wood stumpage, rests 

 essentially on the same grounds on which have 

 been established higher bases of value for South- 

 ern pine and Pacific coast timbers, namely, the 

 waning supply • of Northern pine. As white pine 

 has become higher in price, substitutes have been 

 sought, and while these have been found largely 

 in other soft woods, hard woods also have con- 

 tributed in no small degree. 



In the year covered by the census reports, 1899, 

 the hard wood output of the country was just 

 about one-third that of the soft woods. It is 

 probable that if a census could be taken for 1902 

 it would be found that the hard wood product 

 might be two-fifths that of the conifers. . 



It may be objected that the hard wood forests 

 are disappearing as rapidly as those of pine. It is 

 doubtful, however, if this be true, and certainly 

 it is not true as regards many of the hard woods. 

 They cover, more or less densely or mixed with 

 coniferous growth, a large portion of the timbered 

 area of the country. From the great lakes South 

 to the Gulf States hard wood is the prevailing 

 growth. Broad leaved trees are found mixed in 

 larger or smaller proportions with the conifers in 

 most States where the latter are the leading 

 growth. 



Some hard woods have been nearly wiped out. 

 Such are walnut and cherry. Others have only 

 begun to be utilized, like gum. It is probable that 

 the present drain on the hard wood resources of 

 the country will be met for a much longer period 

 than will that on the pine resources, except on the 

 Pacific coast, where the timber is almost entirely 

 coniferous, and where, by its location, the conifer- 

 ous woods lumber industry will be prolonged for 

 generations. 



The confidence in the holding out of 

 these other resources to supply our present 

 enormous demand is not based on safe 

 grounds. 



The same number of this trade journal 

 contains reflections by a contributor which 

 are worth quoting in this connection : 



Few of the retail dealers appear to take any 

 interest in the timber supply of the country. 

 The merchant, as a rule, studies this subject less 

 than the manufacturer. Let the saw mill man 

 worry over the ammunition for his old mill! The 

 yard man will buy one kind of lumber as long as 

 he can get it and then he will buy some other 

 kind. The merchant is the dispenser to the people, 

 not the producer, and he most interests himself 

 with his own line of work. Our lumber supply 

 years hence will come from the West coast. Get 



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