Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1907-09-04
NATIONAL FORESTS AND LUMBER.

| 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 its essential aid.
The old process of exhausting the
supply of timber in 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 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, 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
Department of Agriculture. entitled
National Forests and the Lumber
Sapply, defines the important part
which the National Forests are des-
tined to play in the economic develop
ment of the country. Abuses have
grown up under the laws which pro-
vide for the disposition of public
land, notably the segration of large
holdings of timberland for specula-
tive 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 compara-
lively low as present charges go, but
since the cut ranges from 5000 to
20, 600 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
forced into the lumber business solely
in order that a supply of forest pro-
ducts may be guaranteed to future
generations. s
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 If privately owned
timber will satisfy most of the de-
mand. 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 spectators. The thing
to remember, then. is that. this inn
mense body of public timber is there
as great reserve against the time
when private timberlands 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
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 dwindles
and values are forced upward by
speculative 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, ", ST
ly 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 seed
lings outright and injure 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 States is now
facing shortage in the stock of avail
able timber. The yield from the
National Forests will aid greatly to
bridge over the period in which
mature timber will be lacking,
period which will last from the time
the old trees are gone until the young
tees are large enough to take their
places.
The definite result. therefore, of the
sale of timber from the forests will be-
i A. -