St. Johns review. (Saint Johns, Or.) 1904-current, 1908-12-11
FRIDAY, DECEMBER II, 1908

that shows the predominant ualt OF
the American as does the lumber
business. The fling at the Americans
made by scion of nobility recently,
on his visit to this country that:
"Tney are all on the hog, to use one
of their own expressions has more
truth than poetry in 1t. And this
trait is more abnormally developed,
or at least IL given greater promi'
nence In the manipulations OF the
lumber manufacturers than in any
other line of business enterprises.
Absolute disregard for the future
seems 10 prevail In all these opera
tions. The one aim seems to be to
get the maximum amount OF avail.
sble timber off of a given piece OF
land at the minimum Of cost. No
thought is given to the reforestlng
OF this land In the operations OF cut
ting the timber, no protection to the
young growth is considered; simply
TO skin the land of every available
foot of stumpage at the least pos
sible expense. The result Is that be-
sides harvesting the legitimate fruit
age of mature trees the possessions
of the generations to come are be.
ing impoverished by the destruction
of the younger growth, and the ra'
pacity Of the lumber interests is 80
great that the lumber supply, which
few years ago was estimated To
be sufficient to last for loo years
will have been exhausted by the end
OF 30 years.
Troauwcll Cleveland, Jr., In n cir
cular trca,,ng upon the conhorNh'
tlon OF the forests. soil, water. ctcp
says: I'VE are now cutting timber
from the forests of the ,nitod
States at the rate OF ovO feet board
measure year for every man. wo'
man and chad. In Europe. they uSc
only 60 board feet.
AT this rate, In less than tnir'y
years all our remaining virgin timber
will be- cut. Meantime the forests
which have bocn cut over are gonor'
ally In "A bad way for want of car"
they will produce only Inferior sec
ond growth. We are clearly over the
verge Of timber famine.
"ihis is not due Ia necessity, Tor
the forests are one OF the renewable
resources. Rightly used, they 80 on
producing crop after crop, indci'
nitely. The countries OF Europe know
this. aud Japan knows u; and their
forests are becoming with time not
less. but more. productive. We prob
ably still possess sufficient foresl
land 10 grow wood enough at home to
supply our own needs. II We AZ,
not blind. or willfully wasleful. VI"
may yet preserve our forest indepen.
denco aud with II the fourth of our
great industries.
Present wastes In lumber produc'
tion are enormous. Take the case Of
ye.ow pine. which now heads the
list In tho volume OF annual cut, IN
1907 II In estimated that only one
half OF all the yellow pine cut dur
ing the season was used. aud that
the other half, amounting To A,OOo,ov'
cords, was wasted. Such waste ~
typical Mr., II, A, Long, In his adj
dress ON Forest Conservation at th"
Conference OF Governors last spring
pointed out that 20 percent Of the
yellow pine Was simply lett In '"o
woods-a waste which represents the
the timber growing ON 100000 acres,
THE rest of the waste takes place
at the mill, of course, II would never
do to speak OF the material rejected
AT the mill as waste unless this ma
terial could be turned to use by some
hotter and more thorough form OF
utilization. hut In many other cases
We know, and In many other cases
We have excellent reason 10 believe,
that most, II not all, of this material
could be used with profit, II is simpl,
a question OF intelligent Investigation
and, more than all, having the will
Ia eConomize.
but there are other ways To con-
serve the forests besides cutting IN
half the present waste OF forest pro
ducts. The forests can be made TO
produce three or four times as rapidly
as they do at present This is true
OF both the virgin forests and the cut
over lands. Virgin forests are often
fully stocked with firstolass timber
but this stock has been laid In very
slowly, ON account OF the wasteful
competition which is carried on con
stantly between the rival trees. Then
too, In the virgin forests there are
very many trees which have reached
maturity and stopped growing, and
these occupy more space which III
held by younger trees, would be lay
ing In new stock constantly. AS
regards the cut-over land, severe cut
ting, followed by fire, has checked
growth SO seriously that in most
cases reproduction is both poor and
slow, while In many other cases there
is no true forest reproduction at all
at present, and there is but little
hope for the future"
Now that Reuf has been convict
II IA l.. $50 40 tho ,Na, tI,.l hlanL lanS