Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1912-02-23
Short Sighted laundering in Yer
mont.

BYA. F. HAYES, STATE FORESTER.
prepared at the request of the YER
mont Commission on the Conservation
of Natural Resources.)
The subjects upon which the Conser-
ton Commission has asked me to write
may be discussed under two headings:
l. Are the present methods of lum-
boring short sighted from the stand
point of the lumberman?
2. Or are they simply short sighted
from the stand point of the state
| think there can be no question in
any ones mind that the present methods
are short sighted from the states
stand point and, therefore, from the
stand point of the public and especially
of the next generation of Vermonters
The most obvious evil of the present
methods is a gradual depreciation Of
real estate throughout the mountainous
districts. To be sure the rise in stump
age values owing to the growing scarcity
of lumber have in measure offset this
depreciation, but with the growing area
of waste lands the taxable property in
many of the back towns must decline.
This results necessarily in an increased
rate of taxation on all farm, woodland
and other property.
Another direct result is the decline of
industry in many of the towns. Not
only are farmers dependent upon woods
work for remunerative labor in the
winter, but many villages are largely
dependant upon wood working IN
dustries. With the decline of these in
dustries the most progressive people
usually move, while the others remain
in partial idleness, which of course, is
dangerous condit ton. The conservation
of the forests is, therefore, intimately
linked with the conservation of charac-
ter.
1t will be readily seen that decrease
in population such as is still taking
place in many parts of Vermont, and
falling off of remunerative labor due to
forest destruction, combined with an
increasing tax rate, is situation any
thing but encouraging. The situation
is similar to the one which has long
obtained in Italy and which has driven
millions of Italians to North and South
America. In Vermont the people are
driven into the better agricultural
towns or to the cities.
There are indirect evil results of the
present methods of numbering. An
important one is the effect of deforesta-
ton on the drying up of springs and the
run-off of our brooks and rivers; with
the damage which these do to water
powers; the hardships which they en-
force on farming; and the destruction
of our fish. The summer resort bust
ness, which ought to be of increasing
Importance to Vermont can only be
developed in a we'll forested region.
In these and other ways the present
methods of numbering are short-sighted
from the public standpoint. Are they
short sighted from the stand point of
the lumberman himself? We have not
yet come in this country to any perma
nent system of land ownership. The
great tracts of land, with the exception
of the national forests in the west,
belong at present to lumber companies
who acquired them cheap when lumber
values were rising rapidly. In the past
these concerns have found it paid best
to skin these lands, give them up and
acquire others covered with timber.
The day of great bargains in timber
land in New England has passed. The
incentive will be stronger continually
for concerns to maintain their lands in
a growing condition, if they wish to
continue numbering. Many small mill
men will naturally change their business
when the available tracts of timber