Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913, 1907-09-14
National Forests and Lumber

N aClOQal fOr0SCS ana AumD0I
| 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 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 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 for
ests.
A publication just issued by the de-
partment of agriculture, entitled 'Na-
tional Forests and the Lumber Supply"
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 DISPOSE
ton of public land, notably the segre-
cation of large holdings of cumberland
for speculative purposes. Timber from
the national forests is now purchased
by the thousand board feet, and pay
ment 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 20, 900 feet per
acre, the government receives from five
to twenty times as much f6r 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 enter
prise to exploit the forest hastily, but
that what remains of the national for
ests should be more conservatively
used. The government has been forced
into the lumber business solely in order
that a supply of forest products may be
guaranteed to future generations.
| 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 enorm-
Gus supply of privately 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 in others it is locked up by specu-
lators The thing to remember, then,
is that this immense body of public tim
Der is there as a 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
, 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 hold
ings, the effect of the forests will be tt
) check the advance of prices.
In the virgin forest, growth is just
about balanced by decay. In the west
ern forests, however, natural deteriora
ton is greatly augmented by forest
D fires. The fires usually do most harm
D 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. Grount
s fires do not consume the large trees, bu
they destroy seedlings outright and in
jure growing trees so that they quickl,
decay. Finally, the forest floor, com
: posed of mold of needles, twigs, ant
: MOSES, is burned away.
r Far beyond the present influence O
: the national forests upon the lumbe
supply will be their Importance in tn
future. The United States is now fac
ing shortage in the stock of availabl
n timber. The yield from the nationa
d forests will aid greatly to bridge owe
: the period in which mature timber vii
be lacking, period which will las
5 from the time the old trees are gon
It until the young trees are large enougl
l., RI faka their n1aces