Los Angeles herald., 1907-09-06
GOVERNMENT is FORCED
INTO LUMBER BUSINESS
MAKING MONEY FROM RESERVED
FOREST LANDS
Sixty-five Per Cent of Stand Of Mer-
chantable Timber Is on Pacific
Coast-Effect on
Prices

WASHINGTON, Sept. 5.-A point in
the Industrial progress of the United
States has now been reached where de-
velopment of the country Is made, not
in the face of the forest but with it's
essential aid. The old process of ex-
hausting the supply of timber in a
region and then seeking new fields is
practically over.
Already the lumber industry is turn
ing back on its tracks.
A quality of timber is eagerly sought
in the Lake states which a few years
ago was ignoped as utterly worthless,
and in the south the whole pine region
is being gone over in close search Tor
the old field pine, tree once despised
but now bought up at prices much
higher than those formerly paid for the
magnificent timber of the virgin for
ests.
publication just issued by the de-
partment of agriculture, entitled Ma
tional Forests and the Lumber Supply,
defines the important part which the
national forests are destined to play In
the economic development of the coun-
try.
Abuses have grown up under the laws
which provide for the disposition OF
public land, notably the segregation of
large holdings of timber land for specu-
lative purposes.
Timber from the national forests is
now purchased by the thousand board
feet, and payment is made upon the
actual scale of the logs when cut
Two dollars and 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 TWEEN
ty times as much for the timber as 1t
"a II, or,I -tAy af
Public opinion now demands, not that
the government should dispose of its
remaining timber lands as rapidly as
possible and leave it to private enter
prise to exploit the forest hastily, but
that what remains of the national for
ests should be more conservatively
used. The government has been forced
into the lumber business solely in order
that supply of forest products may
be guaranteed to future generations.
Much on Pacific Coast
Probably 65 per cent of the total
stand of merchantable timber within
the forests is located on the Pacific
coast, where for long time the enorm-
Gus supply of privately owned timber
will satisfy most of the demand.
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 1t is locked up
by speculators. The thing to remem-
Der, then, is that this immense body
of public timber is there as great
reserve against the time when private
timber lands will be depleted, and for
use as a weapon against monopoly.
The first effect of national forests
upon prices, particularly where there
is still a great deal of available tim
ber, is to raise the price of outside
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 upward by specu-
lative holdings, the effect of the forests
will be to check the advance of prices.
In the virgin forest, growth is just
about balanced by decay.
In the western forests, however,
natural deterioration is greatly aug
mented by forest fires. The fires usu-
ally do most harm by damaging mer-
chantable timber, but, great as this in
jury is, vastly more actual loss in for
est wealth results from the yearly
burning over of the grass and under
growth of the forest. Ground fires do
not consume the large trees, but they
destroy seedlings outright and injure
growing trees so that they quickly de-
cay. Finally, the forest floor, COM
posed of mold of needles, twigs and
mosses, is burned away.
Far beyond the present influence of
the national forests upon the lumber
supply will be their Importance in the
future. The United States is now fac
ing a shortage in the stock of avail
able timber. The yield from the ma
tional forests will aid greatly to bridge
over the period in which mature tim
Der will be lacking, a period which
will last from the time the old trees
are gone until the young trees are
large enough to take their places.
The definite result therefore, <of the
sale of timber from the forests will be
to sustain the lumber business, to
maintain steady range of timber
values and so discourage speculation.
and, far more important still, steadily
to further the uninterrupted develop
ment of the great industries dependent
upon wood.