Arizona republican., 1902-10-01
FORESTRY ON A BIG SCALE.
Company Will Put Into Practice Plans
 Affecting Pine Lands.

AneCllllR Fine
 The bureau of forestry of the depart ment of agriculture will. on November l5. begin the preparation of a working plan for the extensive timber lands Of the Kirby Lumber company, in south east Texas.
 Messrs. Price and Sherrard of the bu- reau made a preliminary examination last winter and the proposition by them has been accepted by the company. The task of preparing the working plan will he under the direction of MT. Sherrard. who will establish three camps on the Kirby property and will have thirty men under him. They will consider, among other matters, the protection of the forests from fires, large and small, which kill the production. The idea at present seems to be to apply the sys- tenn of fire protection to those sections which have been cut over within the mast five years Another matter which will receive particular attention is the cutting of trees for railroad ties. The bureau wishes to ascertain whether it will be better to cut trees between nine and twelve inches in diameter for ties, or to allow these trees to grow into the more valuable saw timber and get the ties out of the upper parts of the larger trees. On the whole, the work will be along more extensive lines than ever before known as far as a private com pany is concerned.
 The numbering operations of the Kirby company are probably the largest in the world. They extend over tract of one and quarter million acres of pine lands. which contain about 80 per cent of all the long leaf pine of Texas a vast single body of virgin forest reaching out over seven counties, and uninterrupted except for the clearings around the villages and farms which it incloses.
 This great forest ia estimated to have contained, uncut-and the estimate Is iow-six and quarter billion mer- chantable feet of lumber. board meas ure. The cuttings already made amount to only small percentage of what the great forest originally contained.
 The company operates seventeen mills. which now make all annual cut of 250 million feet. board measure. and supports a population of 15.OOO people Since the forest is mature and Is helped rather than harmed by culling off the larger trees. the annual cut is 10 be in- creased to 400 million feet. In addition to the trees. used for lumber, which are cut down to as low a diameter as Twelve inches. seven million ties are being cut out of the forest from trees between nine and twelve inches in di- ameter to fill a contract with the Santa Fe railroad.
 If is lust 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.
 Even if the obligations to the 15.OO0 people dependent for a living on the numbering operations should be fg nored. the investment made in mills and equipment is too great to imperil by exhausting the lumber supply.
 Forestry receives little encourage ment when the profits of numbering are small. the markets poor and the oper- ations conducted with difficulty but on the Kirby tract these conditions are reversed. The company is making d high profit on its timber, the demand for lumber is excellent and numbering operations are made exceedingly easy by the lay or tne ldHu anu thc of the forest The lands are in Jasper Sabine. Hardin, Newton, St. Augustine Angeline and Tyler counties and were bought with an eye to simplifying and cheapen.ng lumber operations. The labor supply is steady and a railroad runs through the forest from north to south.
 s. w. s. Duncan and R. F.. Cowart or Dallas have been informed at the pu- reau of forestry that several attaches of the bureau will be sent into Texas during the coming winter for the pur- pose of delivering lectures in the state university. the agricultural and me chanicaI college and the high schools of the state, and to give pracucal III : formation regarding forestry matters to all interested.-San Antonio Express.
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