The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1908-12-01
OUR VANISHING FORESTS.

ing of agricultural products? In the
face of all that the United States For
est Service has done and said to show
that at our present rate of consump'
ton of timber the supply of it will be
exhausted within 25 years, some OF the
people of Western Washington wish
the national government to help them
to pull stumps and clear land for agr1-
culture, when in the best interests OF
both state and nation such land might
better be left for raising timber. The
government holds out no hope that it
can provide any measures to avert the
already foreseen timber famine. 1t
can guard the trees on it's national
reserves. but the more these are
guarded the faster is all private and
state forest cut down.
The government can plant new for
ests, but before the new crop reaches
maturity a famine of timber will be at
hand. When we consider that four
fifths of the timber lands of the coun-
try, including practically all those east
of the Mississippi, are in private hands
nothing that the government can do,
short of purchasing on an enormous
scale. such as the total Appalachian
region (the only hardwood region left
of any consequence, can check the de-
vastation of those areas. l am sure
Washington and Oregon do not want
their western territory depleted to
such an extent by fire and the axe and
saw, as has been done in the states of
Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
Why should these states of the Pac1-
fic, where timber grows the best and
reaches it's best development in the
shortest time, want to kill the goose
that lays the golden egg, just to raise
a few potatoes or little wheat?
The timber famine, if it comes, need
not be permanent if we go at the work
of reforesting in earnest such dis
tricts as will naturally grow timber
the fastest. A look into the future
would satisfy the people of the North
west that within the next rs years the
gold and silver paid out for lumber
will be flowing into their hands, and
if they will be wise they can make
this living stream that will flow or
forever. But the frightful waste go
ing on at present, and the haste of
cutting all as quick as possible, must
be stopped. The criminal waste from
fire that has been shown during 1908,
here and elsewhere, is almost entirely
preventable if the same policy is pur-
sued as in the National Forest Re-
serves. Economy in the use for all
purposes ought to be sought not only
because of prevailing high prices, but
by the thought of the future and of our
posterity.
One thing above all others our gov
on+c both national and ctatp
tainly can do is this: They can stop
their present offerings of premiums
on forest destruction, and instead do
all they can to help forest cultivation.
At present in most of the states the
owners of forests and woodlands are
heavily taxed every year, not only on
the value of their land but on the
value of the standing trees upon 1t.
Many of those who would like to save
the trees, at least until they grow
larger, are compelled to cut them be-
fore their prime to relieve themselves
of an unbearable burden of taxation.
The national government pours out
money for the preservation of our for
estS with one hand, and with the other
offers prizes, through the tariff, for
their destruction. 1t fines every citi-
zen who brings board or tree from
abroad instead of cutting it from a
tree at home. Finally it sells as agri-
cultural land, tracts on which nothing
but trees will grow to advantage, al
lowing the second growth of timber to
be destroyed in it's infancy and secur-
ing impoverished farms instead of
fourishing forests. In the same way
after all the stumpS have been pulled
at a great expense, there will in most
cases be left poor farms that will new
er bring forth what a well-tended for
est would bring in to the owners and
the community. The only trouble is