The Holly chieftain., 1907-09-06
National Forests and Lumber
Supply.

iSSS vi lllS u oIltNb sDtalS5 mas iio"
been reached where development
OF the country is made, not in the
face of the forest but with its es-
sential aid. The old process OF
exhausting the supply OF timber
in a region and then seeking new
fields is practically over. Already
the lumber industry is turning
back on its tracks. A quality of
timber is eagerly sought in the
lake states which few years ago
was ignored as utterly worthless,
and in the south the whole pine
region is being gone over in a
close search for 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
forests.
A publication just issued by
he department of agriculture, en-
titled National Forests and the
Lumber Supply" defines the i'm
portant part which the national
forests are destined to play in the
economic development of the
country. Abuses have grown up
under the laws which provide for
the disposition of public land, no
tably the segregation of large
holdings of timber land for spec
ulative purposes. Timber from
the national forests is now pur-
chased 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 gov
ernment receives from FIVE to
twenty times as much for the
timber as it did under the timber
and stone act.
Public opinion now demands,
not that the government should
dispose of its remaining timber
lands as rapidly as possible and
leave it to private enterprise to
exploit the forest hastily. but that
what remains of the national for
ests should be more conservative
ly used. The government has
been forced into the lumber busi
ness solely in order that sup
ply of forest products may be
Probably 65 per cent OF the total
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 enormous supply of pri
vately owned timber will satisfy
most of the demand. This more
accessible private timber sur
rounded the forests as the meat
of an apple surrounds the core.
1t has been entirely eaten away
in many places, while i'll others it
is locked up by spectators. The
thing to remember, then, is that
this immense body of public tim
Der is there as great reserve
against the time when private
timber lands will be depleted,
and for use as weapon against
monopoly.
The first effect of national for
ests upon prices, particularly
where there is still a great deal of
available timber, 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 la
ter, as the supply of timber dwin-
dies and values are forced upward
by speculative holdings, the eff
feet 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, nat
ural deterioration is greatly aug
mented by forest fires. The fires
usually do most harm by damog-
usually do most harm by damag-
great as this injury is, vastly
more actual loss in forest wealth
results from the YEARLY buruiup