Bisbee daily review., 1907-09-05
FORESTS A GREAT AID ID THE
 COUNTRY
Report Just issued by the For eSty Service of Agricultural Department Throws Inter eSting Light on Subject,

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 practically over. Already the lumber industry is turn ing back on it's tracks. A quality of timber is eagerly sught in the Lake States which a few years ago was ig- nOred as utterly worthless, and in the south the whole pine region is being gone over in a close search for the old field pine, a 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 the De partment of Agriculture. entitled Ma tional Forests and the Lumber Sup ply" defines the important part which the National Forests are des- tined to play iu the economic develop mcnt 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 timberland for specula- tive purposes. Timber from the Ma tiOnal 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 a half per thousand feet is comparative ly low as present charges go, but since the cut ranges from 5000 to 20 DOn foot tho C1E-nrr, ceiyes 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 timberlands as rapid ly as possible and leave it to private enterprise to exploit the forest hastily, but that what remains of the National forests should be more con- servatively used The Government has been forced into the lumber busi- ness solely in order that a supply Of forest products may be guaranteed to future generations.
 Probably 65 per cent of the total stand of meTchantable timber within the Forests is located on the Pacific Coast, where for a long time the enor- nous supply of privately owned tim Der will satisfy most of the demand This more accessible private timber surrounded the Forests as the meat of an apple surrounds the core. It has been entirely eaten away in many places. while in others it is locked up by speculatOrs. The thing to re- member. then, is that this immense body of public timber is there as a great reserve against the time when private timberIands will be depleted, and for use as a weapon against mon opOly.
 The first effect of National Forests upon prices, particularly where there is still a great deal of available tim Der. is to raise the price of outside stumpage toward it's actual value by withdrawing the excess supply of low priced timber from the market. But later, as the supply of timber dwin- dies and values are forced upward by speculative holdings, the effect on 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 de , teriOTation is greatly augmented by 1 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 th6 yearly burn ing over of the grass and undergrowth .! as sha faEast / Grniihd- fires do not
 consume the large tress. but they
 destroy the seedlings outright and in | jure growing trees so that they quick ! ly decay. Finally, the forest floor i composed of mold of needles, twigs, and mosses is burned away.
 Far beyond the present influence / of the National Forests upon the lum 1 Der supplN will be a shortage in N stock of available timber. The yield from the National Forests will aid ' greatly to bridge over the period iT which mature timber will be lacking
 a period which will last from the time the old trees are gone until tht
 young trees are large enough to takt
 their places.
 | The definite result, therefore of the
 sale of timber from the Forests vii
 be to sutain the lumber buiness, tt
 maintain a steady range of timbe values and so discourage speculation
 and, far more important still, steadil,