Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1902-10-03
ON A HUGE SCALE.

ON A HUGE SCALE.
A TEXAS COMPANY WILL PRAC-
TlCE IT ON A MILLION AND A
QUARTER ACRES OF PINE LAND.
Washington, Oct. /, 1902
Forestry on a huger scale than has
ever been attempted before in this
country by a private corporation will
be practiced in southeast Texas when
the Kirby Lumber Company puts into
use the working plan for it's lands to
be prepared by the bureau of forestry.
The numbering operations of the
Kirby company are probably the larg-
est in the world. They extend over a
tract of a million and d quarter acres
OF pine lands, which contain about 80
per cent of all the longleaf pine
OF Texas-a vast single body Of virgin
forest reaching out over seven coun-
ties. and uninterrupted except for the
clearings around the villages and farms
which it incloses. ja:T5r 3 -
his great forest is estimated to have
contained, uncut-and the estimate is
loW-six and a quarter billion mer-
charitable feet of lumber. board meas
ure. The cuttings already made
amount to only a small percentage of
what the great forest originally con-
tanned. b @s . #
The 9 company operates seventeen
mills, which now make an annual cut
Of 25O,O00,0O0 feet, board measure, and
supports a population of $1,000 people.
Since the forest is mature and is helped
rather than harmed by the culling of
the larger trees, the annual cut is to
be increased to 4OO, 900, 900 feet. In
addition to the trees used for lumber,
which are cut down to as low a diam
eter as ~ inches 100000 ties are
being cut out of the forest from trees
between 9 and II inches in diameter
to fill a contract with the Santa Fe
railroad. 1A
1t is just because it's operations are
on such a huge scale that the Kirby
company has decided it must protect
itself by adopting some system of for
estry.. Large as its holdings are, un-
less they are properly managed and
protected they must sooner or later be
exhausted.
Even if the obligations to the $4,000
people dependent for a living on the
numbering operations should be ignored
the investment made in mills and
equipment is too great to imperil by
eXhausting the timber supply.
Forestry receives little encourage.
ment when the profits of numbering
are small, the markets poor, and the
operations conducted with difficulty:
but on the Kirby tract these conditions
are reversed. The company is making
a high profit on its timber. the demand
for lumber is excellent and numbering
operations are made, exceedingly easy
by the lay of the land and the condi-
ton OF the forest. The lands are in
Jasper, Sabine, Hardin, Newton. St.
Augustine, Angelina. and Tyler coun-
ties, and were bought with an eye to
CITATIONS. The labor supply is steady.
simplifying and cheapening lumber op-
CREATIONS. The labor supply is steady.
and a railroad runs through the forest
from north to south.
Last winter Overton W. Price, assist
ant chief, and Thomas H. Sherlard,
field assistant, of the bureau of fores-
try, made a preliminary examination
of the lands at the company's request
and returned a report stating the lines
along which forestry might be prac-
ticed with profit in the Kirby com
pany's forest. The company accepted
the report and asked that a complete
working plan be made.
The task OF preparing this working
plan will begin November 10. and will
be in charge OF MI Sherrard, who is an
expert on Southern pines. Thirty
men, established in three camps, will
make the measurements and gather
Ethe figures on which the plan will be
based. -
Several problems must be worked
out, whose solution will be of value
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