Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1907-09-05
The National Forests and the
Lumber Supply.

A point in the industrial progress of
the United States has now been reach
ed Where development of the country
is made, not in the face of the forest
but with its 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 turning back on
its tracks A quality of timber is Gag
erly sought in the Lake States which a
few years ago was ignored us utterly
worthless, and in the South the whole
pine region is being gone over in
close search Tor the old field pine,
tree once depised 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 De
partment of Agriculture, entitled "Na-
tional Forests and the Lumber Sup
ply" defines the important 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, notably the
segregation of large holdings of tim
berland for speculative purposes.
Timber from the National Forest 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
its remaining timberlands 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 in
order that supply of forest products
may be guaranteed to future genera
tions..
Probably 50 per cent of the total
stand of merchantable timber within
the Forests is located on the Pacific
Coast, where for 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. 1t has
been entirely eaten away in many
places, while in others it is locked up
by spectators. The thing to remem-
Der, then, is that this immense body of
public timber there is great reserve
against the time when private timber
lands will be depleted, and for use as
weapon against monopoly,
The first effect of National Forests
upon prices, particularly where there
is still great deal of available timber,
is to raise the price of outside stump
age toward its actual value by with
drawing 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 west
ern forests, however, natural deterior-
alton is greatly augmented by forest
fires. The fires usually do most harm
by damaging merchantable timber,
but, great as this injury is, vastly more
actual loss in forest wealth results from
the yearly burning over of the grass
and underground of the forest.
Ground fires do not consume the large
trees; but they destroy seedlings out
right and injure growing trees so that
they quickly decay. Finally, the forest
floor, composed of a mold of needles,
twigs ard 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 States is now fac
ing shortage in the stock of available
timber. The yield from the National
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 timber from the Forests will be
to sustain the lumber business, to
maintain a steady range of timber
values and 80 discourage speculation,
g.