A WASTEFUL NATION 



205 



in hand their protection, and their num- 

 bers are now increasing. Forest game 

 yields over $10,000,000 worth of food 

 each year. 



Each citizen of the United States 

 owns an equal undivided interest in about 

 375,000,000 acres of public lands, exclu- 

 sive of Alaska and the insular posses- 

 sions. Besides this there are about 235,- 

 000,000 acres of national forests, national 

 parks, and other lands. 



Good business sense demands that a 

 definite land policy be formulated. The 

 national conservation commission be- 

 lieves that the following will serve as a 

 basis therefor : 



t. Every part of the public lands 

 should be devoted to the use which will 

 best subserve the interests of the whole 

 people. 



2. The classification of all public 

 lands is necessary for their administra- 

 tion in the interests of the people. 



3. The timber, the minerals, and* the 

 surface of the public lands should be 

 disposed of separately. 



4. Public lands more valuable for con- 

 serving water supply, timber, and natural 

 beauties or wonders than for agriculture 

 should be held for the use of the people 

 from all except mineral entry. 



5. Title to the surface of the remain- 

 ing non-mineral public lands should be 

 granted only to actual home-makers. 



6. Pending the transfer of title to the 

 remaining public lands they should be 

 administered by the government and 

 their use should be allowed in a way to 

 prevent or control waste and monopoly. 



The present public land laws as a 

 whole do not subserve the best interests 

 of the nation. They should be modified 

 so far as may be required to bring them 

 into conformity with the foregoing out- 

 line of policy. 



waste in forests 



We take from our forests yearly, in- 

 cluding waste in logging and in manu- 

 facture, 23,000,000,000 cubic feet of 

 wood. We use each year 100,000,000 

 cords of firewood; 40,000,000,000 feet of 

 lumber; more than 1,000,000,000 posts, 



poles, and fence rails; 118,000,000 hewn 

 ties; 1,500,000,000 staves; over 133,- 

 000,000 sets of heading; nearly 500,- 

 000,000 barrel hoops ; 3,000,000 cords of 

 native pulp wood ; 165,000,000 cubic feet 

 of round mine timbers, and 1,250,000 

 cords of wood for distillation. 



Since 1870 forest fires have destroyed 

 a yearlv average of 50 lives and $50,- 

 000,000 worth of timber. Not less than 

 50,000,000 acres of forest is burned over 

 yearly. The young growth destroyed by 

 fire is worth far more than- the merchant- 

 able timber burned. 



One- fourth of the standing timber is 

 lost in logging. The boxing of long-leaf 

 pine for turpentine has destroyed one- 

 fifth of the forests worked. The loss in 

 the mill is from one-third to two-thirds 

 of the timber sawed. The loss of the 

 mill product in seasoning and fitting for 

 use is from one-seventh to one-fourth. 



Of each 1,000 feet which stood in the 

 forest, an average of only 320 feet of 

 lumber is used. 



We take from our forests each year, 

 not counting the loss, three and a half 

 times their yearly growth. We take 40 

 cubic feet per acre for each 12 cubic feet 

 grown ; we take 260 cubic feet per capita, 

 while Germany uses 37 and France 25 

 cubic feet. 



We tax our forests under the general 

 property tax, a method abandoned long 

 ago by every other great nation. Present 

 tax laws prevent reforestation of cut- 

 over land and the perpetuation of exist- 

 ing forests by use. 



To protect our farms from wind and 

 to reforest land best suited for forest 

 growth will require tree planting on an 

 area larger than Pennsylvania, Ohio, and 

 West Virginia combined. 



An annual tax upon the land itself, 

 exclusive of the value of the timber, and 

 a tax upon the timber when cut, is well 

 adapted to actual conditions of forest 

 investment, and is practicable and certain. 



Under right management, our forests 

 will yield four times as much as now. 

 We can reduce waste in the woods and 

 in the mill at least one-third, with present 

 as well as future profit. We can perpet- 



