Evening star., 1921-04-17
Uncle Sam Soon to Cash in
On National Forest Policy

overhead" and three million for
emergency fire lighting to the 1870
cost of direct administration, we ind
an expense bill of $7.75S.455. against
receipts of $4,793.4S2. a deficit OF 81
y64.973. The fact is disclosed. there
fore. that IL the expenses remain sta
tionary and the rate Of increased re-
ceipts since 1913 Is maintained. at
the end Of five years the deficit will
turned.
With an increasing sales business
to. handle. il is reasonable to expect
that costs of administration will in
crease. But receipts from sales are
bound to increase much more rapidly
than adm inistration costs increase.
so that the hveyear stretch TO a
profit Indicated by the 1921 figures
viii. in all probability. be reduced.
In fact. receipts for the present year
are going to take a tremendous Jump.
due to the opening up of pulp wood
stumpage in Alaska. Sales of Alas
Kan pulp wood totaling. in round figures.
million dollars. are now In process Of
negotiation. and Alaskan pulp manufac-
ture Is very juvenile infant industry.
Ihe Alaskan paper pulp resources. with
proper reforestation. are estimated to be
suf1icient to supply forever one third
OF the present needs OF the United
States. Most of the Alaskan pulp
timber lies within few miles of
navigable water. with cheap water
transportation to the centers of con-
sumption on both the west and east
coasts AS we now have to depend
SO largely on imports of pulp and
pulp paper from Canada, and even
nd 10 So 20 hn-
lieve that development of the Alas
kan pulp industry will be rapid
Nor does this end the story of
pulp wood and it's possibilities in
making the national forests profita-
BILE: In national forest lands in a
ritory running south from the Cana
dian border there is enough standing
pulp wood to make the United States
indepe ndent for all time of outside
sources of supply. A good deal of
this timber now is remote from
Transportation and cannot profitably
be exploited. But provision of trans
portation for opening up these vast
resources of wealth is only a matter
of time. Each passing year makes
it more imperative that these timber
supplies shall be drawn upon.
Now. it having been demonstrated
that making the national forests pay
profit is a probability of the near
future. the reader naturally will be
interested in knowing what the pos
sibilities of those profits are.
There are at present approximate
ly 56.ooo.0oo acres of national for
est lands. which is an area as large
as the state of Texas. with Vermont
thrown in for good measure. There
doesn't seem to be any good reason
why, in the course of the next twen-
ty-five or fifty years. these forests
should not be made as profitable
as are the national forests of Europe.
some of which pay net annual
profit of as much as So an acre.
Official statistics show that in Ger
many, before the war. national for
ests paid net profit of about IS
an acre. AS a matter of fact, the
American forests. the bulk of them
a great deal more profitable than
those of Europe. which have been
heavily cut over for generations.
But it pays always to be conserva-
tive. so let US put the possibilities
Of profit from our national forests
at SO per acre per year. With the
present area that would mean an
annual income of considerably more
tnan SoUUsUUV,UUUs duOuI eQudI u eHc
cost Of running the federal govern
ment a few years ago, when the
country was first shocked by the
discovery that it had 'bulion-dol-
lar Congress"
And, whatever the final profit may
amount to, it will be perpetual.
That's what the science Of forestry
and forest policy mean. For every
tree that is cut another tree Is plant
ed or obtained by natural regenera-
tion, so that the cutting Of trees may
go on and on forever. A half bill
lion dollars pouring into the federal
Treasury each year from the ma
tionai forests isn't at all bad
legacy to hand on to posterity.
In conclusion. a word as to the
cost Of administering the national
forests Is bound to be Of interest.
Last year. including Overhead" and
emergency fire fighting. the total
cost Of the forest service was in
the neighborhood OFFS cents an acre.
Does this seem extravagant? The
latest available figures show that in
Saxony the cost OF administering
the national forests was $3.50 an
acre a year. Yet these Saxony for
ests returned a net profit of $40 an
acre year.
Copyright. 1921. BY The Washington star.)
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