The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-10-14
TIMBER DAMAGE
 |S EXAGGERATED Even Lumbermen Are Some what in the Dark MANY IMPROVEMENT MEN TALK Mississippi Lunbermen Are Getting Benefits of Organization by
 Taking Stand on the
 Car Situation.

timber lands that were devastated by this storm, which swept the timber country of Mississippi from one end to the other, would by this time have ascertained with some dehntteness the extent of their losses, 1t is a fact that the greatest d. versity of opinion prevails among the lumbermen themselves as to the extent of the injury done to the timber.
 The story of the storm has been told m the daily papers, but there is every req son to believe that so far as the timber and lumber interests of this section are concerned, there have been embelllsh- ments to suit the demand for sensational news, and the extent of the damage has been exaggerated. This is not surprising however, when it is found that among the lumbermen themselves are to be found many who are convinced that the loss Is irreparable
 The storm covered the area in Misss- sippi from Meridian to the gulf, and from the Alabama line to the Mississippi river If every tree blown down in all that area shall prove a dead loss the damage will be immense, though, distributed among so many individual losers, many of
  cial loss, the injury will not be seriously felt. But such estimates of loss as 95 per cent, which have been published in some cases. Over the whole area the loss will not be more than to per cent. In some unfortunate sections the loss may go to 10 or 10 per cent, and in some narrow swaths the loss may be even greater than that. These figures are gleaned from in- terviews with conservative lumbermen railroad men and others who have been over the country somewhat.
 Mllmen Are Sufferers.
 The millllen have suffered a great deal from damages to their plants. It is safe 10 say that not a single mill in all this lumber country escaped damage of some kind. nearly all of them were put out of business for several days while repairs were making.
 An unusual number of the m1llmen have gathered in Hattiesburg of late to dis the situation. 1t is found that the action of the storm has brought about a condition that cannot be handled to ad- vantage without Joint action on the part of the manufactur and the individual mill owners have been anxious to learn what their confreres in other sections were going to do in the emergency. The 
 myriads of fallen trees. What is to be done with this fallen timber? Of course, every mill will apply itself at once to cutting up the trees that have fallen and they will put them through the saws as fast as the work can be done, so as 10 cut up as much of the timber as pos sible before 1t deteriorates. Portable mills will be introduced wherever practicable, and the full force of men and machinery will be applied to the fallen material Few trees will be felled with the ax and saw for many months to come. But it is feared that if so much lumber shall be thrown on the market at this time the effect will be to bring down prices with q dull thud.
 This latter apprehension is dissipated hy MT J. F. Wilder, the well-known Epps ndllman who says: 'All the mills in this territory were working up to full capacity before the trees fell. They were working as many hands as they could hire or steal from their neighbors. Well. there will be no more hands to employ after the storm than before, and though all the mills shall devote themselves exclusively to cutting the fallen timber, they can not turn out more lumber for the mar ket than they did before. If the market was not swamped before, it will not be in the future.
 Worms Are Factor.
 Fallen pine that Is not cut up begins to deteriorate from worms in d period of six to eleven months after it falls That Is the experience of practical lum- bermen. The length of time depends somewhat upon the weather and the sea son. In cold weather the worms suspend operations If this wind had not oc cured for another month the worms would not have been a factor till next spring and the millmen would have had an additional three or four months time in which to clear up their woods. But as Il is they do not allow themselves more than six or seven months in which to work up all the timber that Is on the ground. AH71WTF
 Then arises the question with the mili- man whether to put his saw on the large trees or on the small trees first. Each side of the case has it's supporters. The natural inclination of pretty nearly every nillman is to cut up the large trees first. pn the principal of saving the best of it. But if that Is done generally. there is apt to be q flood on the market of par ticular kinds of lumber, with a conse- auent decline of prices. On the other hand it is said that the large trees keep better than do the small ones, so that it may be possible to cut the smaller trees first, preserving them ahead of the worms and later get to the large ones before they go to the bad. The question is one of acute interest to the milimen who have their millions lnNeslt1 III tue DuSlIeSS and on it's settlement may depend the course of the yellow pine market for the next year or so.
 Would Put Logs in Ponds.
 The l. J. Newman Lumber company, all ways progressive and resourceful, is credited with an original scheme for pre- serving the fallen tmbers on it's inn mense holdings It is represented to be figuring on the construction Of dams and
 oil ifc ifo1ha area. into which the fallen trees, cut into logs. would be dumped, and there held in water until they could be reached hy the mill. This plan Is open to the criticism that it may not be possible to get the labor sufficient 10 make so many ponds.
 It is generally conceded that the con dition of the timber country will encour- age the moving of logs by the rivers and bayous and the prediction is made that the supply of yellow pine rushing to Moss Point for export. in the shape of rough logs and sawn and hewn timber will pass all past records.
 Thinks Reports Exaggerated.
 Mir P R. Perkins vice president and general mana rer of the Imperial Naval Stores compar. of Ceasar. Miss. which owns 350H 'eS of yellow pine in that section gr"- very reliable and con servative s- r2ent of conditions as the result of the storm as he knows them to exist. He says that the reports of dam are lone hove been exaggerated, and that people themselves have overestimated