Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1909-07-20

destroy vast areas OF fertile farms, and
in doing 30 has added many millions oi
dollars to the National wealth in new
forests. It has removed the danger from
sand dunes and in their place has ore
ated property worth many millions OF
dollars. Applied to the State forests,
which are small In comparison with the
National Forests of this country, 1t
causes them to yield each year net rev.
enue of more than "a, 100000, though
the sum spent on each acre for manage
ment is over 100 times greater than that
spent on the forests of the United
States.
| France and Germany together have a
population of 100, 900, 900, In round num-
bers, against. our probable $4,000, 900,
and State forests of 14,500,000 acres
against our 100, ,0O0, 900 acres of National
Forests but France aud Germany spend
on their forests S11, 100000 year and
get from them In net returns $50, 600, 900
a year, while the United States spent on
the National Forests last year 81, 400, 900
and secured net return of less than
$4,000
In Switzerland, where every foot of
agricultural land is of the greatest value,
forestry has made it possible for the peO-
pie to farm all land fit for crops, and so
has assisted the country to support a
larger population and one that is more
prosperous, than would be the case II the
valleys were subjected to destructive
floods. In country as small as Switzer-
land, and one which contains so many
high and rugged mountains, this Is a
service the benefits of which cannot be
measured in dollars. 1t is in Switzer-
land, also, in the Sihlwald, that forestry
demonstrates beyond contradiction how
great yield in wood and money it may
bring about II applied consistently 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, Washington, d. c., re.
views the forest work of the leading for
eign countries. The chief lessons which
may be learned from them are sum-
married. as follows:
What forestry has done In other coun-
tries shows, first of all, that forestry pays,
and that it pays best where the most
money is expended in applying it. The
United States Is enormously behindhand
in it's expenditure for the management
of the National Forests, but nevertheless
returns have already increased with in
creased expenditure 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 suf-
flee by itself to prevent wasteful forest
use. England, 1t is true, has so far con-
sistently followed a let-alone policy.
However, England has been depending
upon foreign supplies of wood. Now
that all Europe is running behind every
year in the production of wood (2,620,-
900 tons), and there are unmistak able
signs that countries which lead as ex-
porters of wood will have to curtail their
wood exports, England is at last feeling
her dependence and is specializing un-
easily as to where she can certainly se-
cure what wood she needs in the future.
Fourth, when the forest countries are
compared as to wood imports and ex-
ports, and when 1t is realized that num-
ber of the countries which practice for
estry are even now on the wood-import-
ing list, the need of forestry In the ex-
port countries is doubly enforced.
Russia, Sweden, Austria Hungary, and
Canada, for instance, are making good
the wood deficit of large part of the
world. Sweden cuts much more wood
QO6, 100000 cubic feeD than she pro.
duces; Russia, 10 spite of her enormous
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 from three to four
times the wood which its forests pro-
duce, and in due time will doubtless tax 9
all the wood that Canada can spare. In
other words, unless the countries of
the western hemisphere apply forestry
promptly and thoroughly, they will one
day assuredly be held responsible for a
worldwide timber famine.
Fifth, in comparison with foreign
countries the prospects for forestry In
the United States are particularly bright,
for the following reasons:
Q) 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 trouble.
some property questions to settle.
(3) The results which other lands have
achieved by long struggle, often 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.
(4) 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, ex
cept to meet shortage, importations ol
wood are unnecessary. Furthermore
transportation facilities enable US to
make every forest region available. Thus
by specializing our forest management
each kind of forest may be made to yield
the kind of material for which 1t is bes
adapted, aud the wastes due to compul
sorry use of local supplies may be practi
cally eliminated.