The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1907-09-13
STORING UP THE FORESTS

Day Will Come When Government
Forests Will be Used Against
Monopolies.
A point in the Industrial progress
of the United States has now been
reached where DEVELOPMENT of the
country is made, not in the face of
the forest, but with it's essential aid.
The old process of exhausting the
supply of timber in a region and
then seeking new fields is practic-
ally over. Already the lumber in
ldustry is turning back on it's tracks.
A quality OF timber is eagerly sought
In he Lake states which a few years
ago was ignored as utterly worthless.
and in the south the whole pine re-
search for the old field pine, a tree
once despised but now bought up at
prices much higher than those form
erly paid for the magnificent timber
of the virgin forests.
A publication just issued by the
department of agriculture, entitled
National Forests and the Lumber
Supply" defines the important part
which the national forests are des-
tined to play in the economic develop
ment of the country. Abuses have
grown up under the laws which pro-
vide for the disposition of public
land, notably the segregation OF
large holdings of timber land for
speculative purposes. Timber from
the national forests is now punches
ed by the thousand board feet, and
payment is made upon the actual
scale Of the logs when cut. Two
dollars and a half per thousand feet
is comparatively low as present
!charges go, but since the cut ranges
from 5000 to 10000 feet per acre,
the government receives from five
to twenty times as much for the tim
Der as it did under the timber and
stone act.
Public opinion now demands not
THAT the government should dispose
of it's remaining timberlands as rap
idly as possible and leave it to pri-
waite enterprises to exploit the forest
Hastily, but that what remains Of
the national forests should be more
conservatively used. The govern
ment has been forced into the lum-
Der business solely in order that a
supply of forest products may be
guaranteed to future generations.
Probably IS per cent of the total
stand Of merchantable timber within
the forests is located on the Pacific
coast, where for a long time the
enormous supply Of privately owned
timber will satisfy most Of the de-
mand. This more accessible private
timber surrounded the forests as the
meat of an apple surrounds the core.
1t has been entirely eaten away in
many places, while in others It is
locked up by spectators. The thing
Ito remember then, is that this i'm
mense body Of public timber is there
as a great reserve against the time
when private timberlands will be de-
lpleted and for use as a weapon
against monopoly.
The first effect of national forests
upon prices. particularly where there
lis still a great deal of available
timber, is to raise the price Of out
side stumpage toward its actual value
by Withdrawing the excess supply OF
low-priced timber from the market.
But later, as the supply Of timber
) |dwindles and values are forced up
ward by speculative holdings. the
forests will be to check the advance
lof prices.
In the virgin forest. growth Is just
about balanced by decay. In the
western forests, however, natural de-
|%terioration is greatly augmented by
forest fires. The fires usually do
most harm by damaging merchant
able timber, but, great as this injury
is, vastly more actual loss in forest
wealth results from the yearly burn
ing owe of the grass and under
fgrowth Of the forest. Ground fires
do not consume the large trees, but
they destroy seedlings outright and
injure growing trees so that they
quickly decay. Finally, the forest
floor, composed of a mold of needles,
twigs and moses, is, burned away.
Far beyond the present influence
of the national forests upon the lum-
Der supply will be their Importance
in the future. The United States is
now facing a shortage in the stock of
available timber. The yield from the
national forests will aid greatly to
bridge over the period in which ma