The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1908-03-19

net returns $50. 900 a year, while
the United States spent on the Ma
tional Forests last. year $1,400.O 900 and
secured a net return of less than $3.50,
600.
In Switzerland, where every foot of
agricultural land is of the greatest
value, forestry has made it possible TO
the people to farm all land fit for
crops. and so has assisted the country
to support larger population, and
one that is more prosperous, than
would be the case if the valleys were
subjected to destructive floods. In a
country as small as Switzerland, and
one which contains so many high and
rugged mountains, this is a service
the benefits of which can not be mea-
sured in dollars. 1t is in Switzerland
also, in the Sihlwald, that forestry
demonstrates beyond contradiction no,
great a yield in wood and money it
may bring about if applied CONSTANT
" for a number of years.
A circular entitled What Forestry
Has Done,'' just published by the
Forest Service, and obtainable upon
application to the Forester, Washing
ton, D. c., reviews the forest work
OF the leading forest countries. The
chief lessons which may be learned
from them are summarized as follows:
What forestry has done in other
countries shows, first Of all, that for
estry pays, and that it pays where
the most money is expended in apply
ing it. The United States is enormous
ly behindhand in its expenditure for
the management of the National For
ests, but nevertheless returns have
already increased with increased ex-
penditure for management.
A second lesson, clearly brought
home by foreign forestry, is the need
of timely action, since forest waste
can be repaired only at great cost.
Third, private initiative does not
suffice by itself to prevent wasteful
forest use. England, it is true, has
so far consistently followed a let-alone
policy However, England has been
depending upon foreign supplies of
wood. Now that all Europe is run
ming behind every year in the produc-
ton of wood (2,620,0OO tons), and
there Xare unmistakable signs that
countries which lead as exporters OF
wood will have to curtail their wood
exports, England is at last feeling her
dependence and is specializing uneasl-
Fourth, when the forest countries
ly as to where she can certainly secure
what wood she needs in the future.
are compared as to wood imports and
exports, and when it is realized that
a number of the countries which prac-
tice forestry are even now on the
ood-importing list. the need of for
estry in the export countries is doub-
ly enforced.
Russia, Sweden, Austria-Hupgary,
and Canada, for instance, are making
good the wood deficit of large part
OF the world Sweden cuts much more
wood QO6,0OO,0OO cubic feet than she
produces; Russia, in spite of her enor-
nous forest resources, has probably
entered the same road; and England,
the leading importer of wood, must
count more and more on Canada. But
the United States consumes every year
which it's forests produce, and in due
time will doubtless take all the wood
! from three to four times the wood
that Canada can spare. In other
| words. unless the countries of the
western hemispheres apply forestry
promptly and thoroughly, they will one
day assuredly be held responsible for
worldwide timber famine.
Fifth, in comparison with foreign
countries the prospects for forestry
in the United States are particularly
bright, for the following reasons:
Cd We start with the assurance
that success can certainly be attained.
(2) We have few of the handicaps
which have trammeled other countries
We have no ancient forest rights and
usages with which to contend, Or trou-
blesome property questions to settle.
90 The results which other lands
have achieved by long struggle, Of
ten with bitter costs. are free to us
to use as we wish. We have, it is
true, our purely National and local
forest questions, but the key to many
of them is somewhere in the keeping
of the countries which have achieved
forestry.
(D In variety combined with value
our forests are without a parallel in
the world. They produce timber
adapted to the greatest variety of
uses so that, except to meet shortage,