The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-04-02

of $e per thousand feet on all grades, and g per thousand feet on some grades, a net advance of from to 10 per cent.
 No man can say now many years it will take to exhaust the yellow r'ne stumpagc of the South, but we do know that between thirty and eighty years must elapse before we can cut the sec. opd growth" said J. Piatt Underwood of Chicago. an extensive dealer in southern timber lands. yesterday at the St. Charles.
 "Permanency of the lumber industry will depend upon reforestation. To il- lustrate the disparity of opinion" con- tinued MT. Underwood, T attended conference of lumber men interested in the industry in <the South in Chicago one month ago. Three said they be- lieved the Government estimate was as nearly correct as it was possible to get it. Four others declared that the Government was far away from the mark. They firmly believed that the estimate fell fully one-third short. But here is the proposition and the way to look at 1t: We have fair idea of how much yellow pine there is standing on the stump. I do not recall the esti- mate, but for example we will say that there are 10,00o,O0 bales of cotton in the world. That is all that will be pro- duced for leo years. Tho annual con sumption is 100000 bales. What do you suppose the last 3,0o0,000 bales would be worth, comparing the price with that which the first 100000 brought?
 There you have exactly the yellow pine situation. We know that it will be thirty to eighty years before we will have a second growth. We know pretty close what we have got now. The answer only can be that yellow pine IS to continue to increase in price The demand is growing and the supply is being reduced every year. This year the prices are better than they were last This mas occasioned surprise among some of the millers. It should not. They have something that the world must have. and will continue to consume to the end of time.
 All that we must look out for is keeping the trees coming. The pine supply of the North is very low. The majority of the mills of the Mississippi Valley have been abandoned. Those that are in operation mostly arc To- cated closer to the base of supply at the headwater of the Mississippi. There will be no second-growth pine in that section. The soil will not produce t. It has been attempted, and the result has been silver leaf poplar or scrub oak. Hence we can see that it is only a question of time when tine North will be denuded of its pine forests. and they will never return again. We do know that second growth can be produced in the South, for here we have the soiI containing the necessary essentials. have been interested in the South for thirty years, aud the timber outlook is brighter today than 1t ever has been.
 The expressed opinion that the white nine of the North will not be repro 1duced is true, but not for he reason given by MT. Underwood. It is mis- taken idea which shuuid not go undis- puted The soil of Wisconsin, Miehi- gan and Minnesota, as well as that or New England, which has produced such vast quantities of white pine and main tained innumerable great saw milling industries until the final nnd has come from exhaustion of the supply of trees, will if practically and earnestly re- planted. grow as grand forests as it ever did. The soil has not changed Trees do not exhaust the soil of It's fer tiIity but constantly increase It.
 It is simply this. The grasping, heartless, thoughtless corporations. whose sole object has been to destroy those great forests as quickly as pos sible and get as much money out ot the timber as possible, stripping away every tree which might produce seed and reforest the land, have destroyed the young growths, cutting even baby sapIings V Inch could be cut into a by 4 stick which, If left for few years would produce profitable saving timber They have been so powerful, politically as to control both State and National legislation, and have stripped the land and made it forever barren.
 By proper distribution of seed and the planting of pine tree seedlings sys- tematicaIly, the land will again become productive. But who is tc do this" Certainly not the men who made 1t barren.
 A similar situation exists In the South in he yellow pine region. The saw mills take the large trees. and tur- pentine operators ruin the small grow;hs. VI ile every man feo;s 1t part of hts duty to burn over tb> forest, killing the young seedlings atd de- stroying the seed which falls.
 So long as legislators fail to take any action toward forest perpetuation. and neglect to protect the rights of pos terity. and land owners refuse to con- slider their perpetual interests. only thinking of how soon they can clear the land and bank the money, just so long yellow pine will increase in price and the trees disappear, never to re- turn
 If the lumber men and timber own CTS want their industries to become permanent they should use the inhu- ence they have with State Legislatures to secure protection of the young pine growths, keep down annual fires. and forbid the boxing of immature trees for turpentine. Otherwise 1t will be but a very brief period that American lum- bermen will supply tine world with for est products s-Arborculture.
 STORY OF JAY EYE SEE.