Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1907-09-13
The National Forests and the Lum-
Der Supply.

The National Forests and the Lum'
Der Supply.
A point in the industrial progress ol
the United States has now been reach
ed where development of the country
is made, not in the face of the forest
but with it's essential aid. The ole
process of exhausting the supply Of
timber in region and then seeking
new fields is practically over. Already
the lumber industry is turning back or
i tracks. A quality of timber is eager
ly sought in the Lake States which q
few years ago was ignored as utterly
worthless, and in the South the whole
pine region is being gone over in close
search for the old field pine, a tret
once despised but now bought up al
prices much higher than those former
ly paid for the magnificent timber Of
the virgin forests
n puOliCn1ich uco ioouO~i ny ohO ~
partment of Agriculture. entitled
National Forests and the Lumbe
Supply defines the important part
which the National Forests are destin
ed to play iD the economic development
of the country. A buses have grown
up under the laws which provide fOI
the disposition of public land, notably
the segregation cf large holdings OF
tim berland for speculative 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 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 it's remaining tim berlands as rapidly
as possible and leave it TO private en-
terprise to exploit the forest hastily,
but that what remains of the National
Forests should be more conservatively
used The Government has been fore
ed into the lumber business solely i'll
order that a supply OF forest products
may be guaranteed 10 future genera
tions.
Probably 60 per cent of the total
stand of merchantable timber within
the Forests is located on Il Pacific
Coast, where for long time ae enor-
nous supply of privately owne cd timber
will satisfy most of the demand. This
more accessible private timber sur
the Forests as the meat of all.
apple surrounds the core. ] has been
entirely eaten away in man. places,
while in others it is locked up by spec
ulators. The thing to remem Der, then,
is that this immense body of public
tim ber is there as a great reserve
against the time when private timber
lands will be depleted, and tor use as
weapon against monopoly.
The first effect of National Forests
npOn prices, particularly where there
Is still great deal of available tim Der,
is to raise the price of outside stum-
page toward its actual value by with
drawing the excess supply of lo v-pric
cd timber from the market. But later,
as the supply of timber dwindles and
values are forced upward by specula-
tive 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 de-
teriOration is greatly augmented by
forest fires The fires usually do most
harm by damaging merchantable tim
Der, but, great as this Injury is, vastly
more actual loss in forest wealth re-
suits from the yearly burning over of
Gne grass and underground of the for
est. Ground fires do not consume the
large trees, but they destroy seedlings
outright and iDjure 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 lumber
supply will be their Importance In The
future. The United iStaree is now
facing a ashOrJage in the stock OF avail.
able timber. The yield from the Ma
Cional Forests will aid greatly to
bridge over the period in which mature
timber 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 Till Der from the Forests will be
to sustain Lhe lun Der business, to
maintain steady range of timber
values AID So discourage speculation,
and, far more impUI tant still, steadily
TO I ul Jner the uninterrupted develop.
ment of the great ind dustries dependent
upon wood.