FOREST PRESERVATION AND NATIONAL PROSPERITY. 27 



value of stumpage, figuring at compound interest, is a 2 per cent 

 investment; but assuming a rise in stumpage value to $5, it is a 6 

 per cent investment. Should the value of stumpage reach $10 per 

 thousand, which we confidently believe will be the case, the value 

 of the timber in twenty years' time will represent a return of 10 

 per cent. 



* * * Up to a comparatively recent date the value of pine 

 stunipage in the South was exceedingly low ; means of transporta- 

 tion to market were unsatisfactory; the market itself was re- 

 stricted and uncertain, and competition with northern pine was keen. 

 Of late years, however, the development of southern timberlands has 

 been phenomenal. The growing scarcity of longleaf pine and the 

 steadily increasing demand for it render certain a further rise in its 

 stumpage value. Many lumbermen who acquired stumpage at 50 

 cents per thousand now credit it in their operations with $2.50 to 

 $3.50, and believe that in twenty j^ears it will have a value of at least 

 $10 per thousand. This probable rise in the value of stumpage is 

 the obvious reason for the existence of companies which hold large 

 timber tracts but do not operate them. 



* * * I am free to confess that I turned to forestry with some 

 doubts. I was not entirely sure that its policy, admirable in the ab- 

 stract, concerns itself sufficiently with business considerations to 

 be of real use to the actual operator. But in taking up, on our own 

 ground, the forest problems which confronted us, the Bureau of For- 

 estry has demonstrated, on our tract at least, the eminently practical 

 character of its work. 



THE NEED OF TEE FAS NOSTHWEST. 



GEORGE H. EMERSON, 

 Vice-President Northwestern Lumber Company. 



* * * The song of the ax, the saw, and the hammer is sweet to the 

 ears of our people, for they sing of industry, prosperity, and happy 

 homes. But is there no other note in the song? Do these people 

 ever think of the centuries their crop has been growing? Does it 

 never occur to them that they are the trustees of an heritage for 

 future generations? They are leaving nearly half of the crop in 

 the woods to be burned, and in burning to destroy more; and for 

 the half they are marketing they are receiving no proper equivalent. 

 They are taking to themselves the whole of the heritage intrusted 

 to them, and in return are not even scattering a few seeds for the 

 benefit of their children. 



They can only be reached, and these grave errors corrected, by 

 making other methods to their pecuniary interest. Teach them, 



