Betz Sliips More Trees Than the 
Forestry Depts. of 7 Great States 
WITHOUT IT COSTING TAXPAYERS $1.00 
THE U. S. WALNUT SE CTION 
Betz Sets tlie Face 
Sent Out By the Indiana Division of 
Forestry, 1929 
The subject of this News Bulletin is to 
recognize the valuable assistance of one of 
the first private individuals in Indiana who 
took off his coat, rolled up his sleeves in 
1928 and went to work without pay on the 
tremendous problem of reforestation. 
The varied career of Mr. Frank S. Betz 
will be interesting to friends of forestry. 
Mr. Betz was raised on a farm in Wis¬ 
consin and knows forest conditions in prac¬ 
tically every foreign country north of the 
Equator. He worked in a lumber mill and 
ran logs on the Chippewa river fifty-one 
years ago. For seven years beginning 1884 
he sold hospital insurance to men working 
in sawmills, lumber yards and lumber jacks 
in over 300 logging camps in Michigan, Wis¬ 
consin and Minnesota, traveling alone 
through miles of wilderness 
After accumulating a small fortune dur¬ 
ing the World’s Fair in Chicago in 1893 and 
losing it he started the Frank S. Betz Com¬ 
pany in a coal shed in Chicago in 1895. The 
Dusiness prospered from the start. In a few 
months he moved to a vacant store building. 
Eater he was occupying five rented build¬ 
ings. He then built a plant in Chicago and 
as larger quarters were required in 1904 he 
purchased twelve acres of land in Hammond 
and built the first section of the Hammond 
plant which was increased every year until 
it became the largest medical equipment in¬ 
dustry in the world. 
On his many trips abroad and while trav¬ 
eling through the farming districts in 
China, Japan, India, Palestine and Egypt 
he was impressed with the great social econ¬ 
omic value of forests to mankind. Where 
there were no trees there was in impover¬ 
ished nation. The condition can be traced 
directly to the destruction of their forests. 
The people live in mud huts without 
floors, doors or windows. The children fol¬ 
low the cattle day alter day gathering their 
offal which is the only fuel the family have. 
Mr. Betz bought a farm five years ago 
where he raises all kinds of trees from seed. 
While experimenting he wanted trees for 
the Betz Boy Scout Camp. 
He then took up the matte; 
with the Hammond Superintendent of 
Schools and offered to furdlsh a half million 
pine, spruce and arbor vitae tree seeds for 
the pupils to experiment with, free of 
charge. Mr. Caldwell, Superintendent of 
Schools, agreed to this, and over 2,000,000 
were planted by the pupils in Lake County 
in 1929, and over 8,000,000 by these same 
pupils this year. 
Up to the present time Mr. Betz has sent 
out over 62,500,000 tree seeds which were 
planted by over 400,000 pupils in this coun¬ 
try. His offer to the Indiana Department of 
Conservation last week will mean millions 
of dollars added to the wealth of the state. 
This must not be overlooked 
Mr. Betz’s offer is to turn over free of 
charge as many water tested walnuts as 
there were walnut seedlings planted by all 
the nurseries in the United States last year. 
These walnuts are to be planted by school 
children, and Boy and Girl Scouts, etc., etc. 
Division of Forestry Supports Plan 
The future economic value of five million 
walnut trees, worth even $25 each, would 
amount to $125,000,000 
R. F. WILCOX, State Forester 
School children of Indiana and Illinois 
will on Saturday share in the distribution 
of 18,000,000 tree seeds, donated by Frank 
3. Betz, Hammond’s reforestation enthusi¬ 
ast. 3,000,000 seeds for growing the flow¬ 
er known as Love Lies Bleeding will be in¬ 
cluded. 
Mr. Betz has arranged to distribute the 
seeds at the Hammond Public Library. Sim¬ 
ple directions for planting in order to insure 
success in growing the trees will be publish¬ 
ed in the Times. 
He has investigated past failures on the 
part of children in attempts at growing trees 
and attributes the poor results to not follow¬ 
ing directions in preparing the seed bed or 
caring for the young trees during the first 
60 days. 
The tree seed consist of pine, spruce, 
cedar, camphor, coffee, tea, dogwood, pago¬ 
da, etc. 
SINCE SEPTEMBER 8, 1931, MR. BETZ 
HAS SHIPPED OVER 50,000 MORE 2, 3, 
‘‘limber We Once Had” 
Original 
Remaining 
acres virgin 
acres virgin 
STATE 
Timber 
Timber 
Alabama . 
. 32,000,000 
2,000,000 
Arizona . 
. 16,320,000 
4,675,000 
Arkansas . 
. 32,000,000 
2,130,000 
California .. 
_ 23,000,000 
13,200,000 
Connecticut . 
. 3,068,000 
Delaware .- 
.. 1,130,000 
9,000 
1< lorida . 
. 28,800,000 
4,700,000 
Georgia . 
. 36,480,000 
1,200,000 
Illinois .. 
. 16,000,000 
5,000 
Indiana .. 
. 19,840,000 
1,000 
Iowa .. 
. 5,120,000 
100,000 
Kansas .. 
. 4,480,000 
180,000 
Kentucky . 
. 24,320,000 
2,020,000 
Louisiana . 
. 25,600,000 
4,685,000 
Maine . 
.. 18,560,000 
1,750,000 
Massachusetts_ 
_ 5,120,000 
Maryland _ 
.. 5,760,000 
111,000 
Michigan _ 
- 35,200,000 
4,500,000 
Minnesota .. 
. 38,400,000 
3,500,000 
Mississippi _ 
_ 28,800,000 
5,000,000 
Missouri .. 
. 32,000,000 
830,000 
Montana . 
_ 25,000,000 
13,198,000 
Nebraska .. 
. 1,600,000 
110,000 
New Hampshire . 
. 5,760,000 
100,000 
New Jersey . 
.. 4,480,000 
20,000 
New Mexico . 
. 14,528,000 
4,529,000 
New York _ 
_ 30,080,000 
1,500,000 
North Carolina _ 
.. 30,080,000 
1,700,000 
Ohio . 
. 25,600,000 
200,000 
Oklahoma . 
. 12,000,000 
1,450,000 
Oregon . 
_ 35,200,000 
21,000,000 
Pennsylvania _ 
_ 28,160,000 
250,000 
South Carolina ... 
. 17,920,000 
700,000 
Tennessee .. 
. 25,600,000 
2,000,000 
Texas . 
. 30,000,000 
1,200,000 
Vermont . 
.. 5,760,000 
150,000 
Virginia . 
. 24,960,000 
1,000,000 
Washington _ 
.. 22,000,000 
14,000„000 
West Virginia .... 
... 15,360,000 
1,700,000 
Wisconsin . 
. 30,080,000 
2,100,000 
and 4 YEAR OLD TREES WITHOUT IT 
COSTING TAXPAYERS ONE DOLLAR 
THAN WERE SHIPPED BY THE FORES¬ 
TRY DEPARTMENTS OF THE STATES 
OF IOWA, KANSAS, KENTUCKY, MISS¬ 
ISSIPPI, UTAH, CALIFORNIA, AND 
WASHINGTON COMBINED, ACCORDING 
TO THE LAST REPORT FROM THE DE¬ 
PARTMENT AT WASHINGTON, AND 
NUTS AND TREE SEEDS FURNISHED 
BY MR. BEZ DURING THE LAST FOUR 
YEARS PLANTED BY OVER 500,000 PU¬ 
PILS IN EVERY STATE IN THE UNION. 
As an example of the value of trees which 
could be raised on the 3,000,000 acres of idle 
land in Indiana, he has the original contract 
entered into by the City of Attica with a 
veneer manufacturing firm of Indianapolis, 
in which sixteen walnut trees growing in 
the city park were recently sold for $1,000. 
Old residents recall when these trees were 
planted. 
—Lake County Times, May 26, 1932. 
THE 
LUMBER CUT 
FROM 1839 
Date 
Population 
Timber Cut 
1839 
12,866,020 
1,604,000,000 ft. 
1849 
22,893,147 
5,392,000,000 ft. 
1859 
31,443,321 
8,029,000,000 ft. 
1869 
38,558,371 
12,755,543,000 ft. 
1879 
50,155,783 
18,091,356,000 ft. 
1889 
62,947,714 
23,845,046,000 ft. 
1899 
75,994,575 
35,084,166,000 ft. 
1909 
91,972,266 
44,509,761,000 ft. 
1919 
105,710,620 
33,798,800,000 ft. 
1928 
119,000,000 
34,142,000,000 ft. 
The figures above showing our original 
stand of timber and what we have left 
should open the eyes of those who regard 
President Roosevelt’s idea of reforesting 
our millions of acres of idle land and 
abandoned farms as foolish and ridiculous. 
The table above from 1839 shows we use 
about 35 billion ft. yearly. There are 925 
billion ft. standing on the Pacific Coast and 
125 billion in the south. Divide by 35 and see 
if it will last for 75 years, as some expert's 
claim. 
With a freight charge from the Pacific coast 
-<f $24 per 1000 ft. we will in a few years pay 
$100 for poorer lumber than formerly came 
from M irhigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, 
which sold for $8 and $10 and when the Pa¬ 
cific coast softwood lumber is gone, we will 
nay $200 for lumber from Norway, Sweden, 
Finland and Russia and pay it for many years. 
Write the Government Printing Office, 
Washington, □. C. for SEPARATE NO. 1, 
MAJOR PROBLEMS OF THE NEXT BIG 
STEP IN AMERICAN FORESTRY, from 
SENATE DOCUMENT NO. 12. It is free and 
is a summary of SENATE RESOLUTION 175, 
72nd Congres 5 . Read Page 81 first, and re¬ 
member that from 1900 to 1930 we used about 
35 billion ft. of lumber yearly. 
