The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-11-19
FORESTRY ONA
HUGE SCALE
Texas Company Will Practice It on
Million and a Quarter Acres
of Pine Land.

l
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 its lands to
| be prepared by the National Bureau of
| Forestry.
| The numbering operations of the
Kirby company are probably the largest
| in the world. They extend over tract
OF million and a quarter acres of pine
| lands, which contain about so per cent.
of all the longleaf pine of TeXas-a vast
| single body of virgin forest reaching
out over seven counties, and uninter-
rupted except for the clearings around
the villages and farms which it incIoses.
This great forest is estimated to have
contained, uncut-and the estimate is
loW-siX and a quarter billion mer-
chantable feet of lumber, board meas
ure. The cuttings already made amount
to only a small percentage Of what the
great forest originally contained.
The company operates seventeen
mills. which now make an annual cut
of 250,0O0000 feet. board measure, and
supports a population of $1,000 people,
Since the forest is mature and is helped
rather than harmed by the cullng of
the larger trees, the annual cut is to be
Increased TO 400000.0O0 feet. In addition
to the trees used for lumber which arc
cut down to as low a diameter as
twelve inches, 100000 ties are being
cut out of the forest from trees he
tween nine and twelve inches in diam
eter to fill contract with the Santa Fe
railroad
Must Protect Itself.
1t is just because its operations are
on such q 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 tho obligations to the $1,000
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
eXhaustinS the timber supply.
Forestry receives little encourages
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 re- |
Versed. The company is making high |
proAt on it's timber, the demand for |
lumber is excellent and numbering opor-
atlons are made exceedingly easy by |
the lay of the land and the condition of |
the forest. The lands are in Jasper, |
Sabine, Hardin, Newton, St. Augustine,
Angellne, and Tyler counties and were
bought with an eye to simplifying and
lumber operations The la Dor
supply is steady, and railroad runs
Z yFFI h.af fT,..N
Last winter Overton w. Price, assist
ant chief, and Thomas II. Shorrard.
field assistant, OF the Bureau of For
estry, made preliminary examination
OF the lands at the company's reouest
ana returned report stating the lines
along which forestry might be prac-
ticed with profit in the Kirby company's
Forest. The company accepted the re-
port and asked that complete work.
ing plan be made. The task Of prepar-
ing this working plan began November
10, and will be in charge OF MIR. Sher-
rard, who is an expert on Southern
pines. Thirty men, established In three
camps. will make the measurements
and gather the figures on which the
plan will be based.
Several problems must be worked out |
whose solution will be of value wher-
ever numbering Is practiced in the long
Ieaf pine belt. The most important or
these is the fire problem, The first ne
nessity in planning for further crops on
numbered lands is TO protect those lands
from fires, which kill the reproduction.
Light fires repeatedly burn over the
forest floor In the longleaf forest. and
while they do no damage to the large
trees, all the young growth is killed.
The fire problem, briefly stated, is
whether 1t Is best to attempt TO pro-
-ect all the forest or to limit the pro-
lection TO cnt-over areas. Since the
ongleaf pine in five years attains a size
arge enough to protect itself from any
Dut the severest fires 1t is probable
hat the system of fire protection win
apply only to lands cut over within the
asst five years.
The cutting OF trees for railroad ties
brings up for settlement matter of
interest not only to the Kirby company.
out to every tie company in the coun-
ry. On the Kirby lands trees between
line and twelve inches in diameter are s
ised for ties. and trees above twelve
nches are cut into saw timber. The !
question has been raised by the bureau
whether IL would be better to allow all |
he trees twelve inches and under to {
'row into the more valuable saw tim ]
'er, and get the ties out of the tops of /
he larger trees. A great deal OF meas {
ring and calculating will have to be d
lone to settle this point. (