The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1899-10-16
.A SCIENTIFIC FORESTRY
REQUIRED BY ALL TREE GROW
ING COUNTRIES.
Forests Should be cultivated and Cared
for-Great Loss Entaled by Indis-
criminate Tree Telling.

Forestry is the rational use of the soil
for wood crops just as agriculture is the |
rational use of the soil for food crops, !
said E. b. Fernow, at meeting OF the
American Statistical Association. Ra-
tional use of the soil requires a division
of the same and the assignment of diff |
ferent portions to food crops and 10
wood crops. In the well ordered state
the soils most fit for agriculture are ce-
voted to systematic cultivation of food
crops, as fields and pastures; but just
so should the agricultural soils the
absolute forest soils, be devoted to the
systematic cultivation of wood crops.
When such disposition or distribution
and use of soils is accomplished the
highest state of civilization from the
cultural point of view is reached. Since,
then, the statistican, especially the cen
sus statistican has for his fiscal task to
measure the state of our civilization,
the distribution of farm and forest area
forms a proper object of his inquiry.
Wood growth fulfills a twofold func-
ton; not only does it supply materials
most necessary to civilization, but II
forms condition of the earth's surface,
which is known or believed to have
determinative influence on other Gull
tural conditions, namely, those of eli
mate, soil and waterflow. Especially In
the last two directions the forest cover
in certain situations, on hills, slopes
and mountains exercises potent IN
fluence in preventing erosion of soils
and in regulating the drainage of rain
and snow waters, thereby decreasing
the excess and frequency of high and
low water stages, both in the water
channels and the subterranean ground
waters.
The forest, therefore, forms a special
cultural element aside from the mater
| ial which it supplies, and hence forestry
] Of a have OBJECTS
view, namely, to furnish information
| regarding the material supplies OF the
forest resource and information regard
! ing it's conditions with reference to the
other mentioned conditions which the
! forest cover influences or predicates.
We may at once distinguish supply for
ests and protective forests. As rule
| the two functions are or should be eX-
ercised simultaneously.
! AS a result of the method of culling,
which our lumbermen have pursued IN
harvesting the valuable virgin growth,
We shall find that large areas, which TO
| the unprofessional eye appear an un-
broken forest, contain in reality hardly
any kinds or individual trees fit for In
dustrial uses. Worse, by this gradual
culling out of the useful kinds, the
ground is left to the occupancy of the
tree weeds, which must first be remoV-
! ed to give room for a valuable forest
moved to make room for the agricul-
tural use of the soil
The question of profitableness in our
country has so far been determined
only from the standpoint of the harves-
ter, the cost to the logger and millman
by no means from the standpoint of
the forest owner or wood producer and
much less from the standpoint of nat
ional economy. OF the wood standing
on an average acre of virgin growth
which is being cut for lumber under our
present methods, at best not more than
so per cent of the total wood volume,
and usually less than 90 or % per cent is
utilized: the balance is waste or left to
grow, the waste being due to avoidable
and unavoidable causes on account OF
absence of market for inferior parts,
tops etc. on account of defects, care
less telling, uneconomical handlin" etc
The layman and the average mex
pert statistiCian can hardly realize how
much difference the size of the log
makes in the output at the mill. Thus
in the average mill practice, while from
log thirty inches in diameter u pei
cent may be realized in lumber, log
of ten inches will yield only 30 per cen
of its volume in the shape of lumber
and of a log of five inches diameter the
smallest now cut, three quarters more
goes into the slab and sawdust pile. a
consideration of this kind will forciblN
impress the statistician and economis
with the fact that whatever small pro
fit the logger may make from the cut
ting of small trees, it is an enormou!
loss to the national capital, for the
available quantity as well as the value
of the accumulated wood crop increas
by the mere annual accretions of wood
in geometTic, not in arithmetical, ratio
l for quite a time.