The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1922-05-29
FORESTRY Value
SECOND in STATE
UNIVERSITY STUDENT GIVES IN
TERESTING FACTS REGARDING
GREAT INDUSTRY

Sundays issue of The Lewiston Tri-
bune contains an interesting and, TO
many, an enlightening article, of val
ue of IdahoS forests, from the pen of
Don c. Fisher, d student in the school
of forestry at the University of Idaho.
The three great industries OF the state,
the article shows, are agriculture,
forestry and mining, in the order in
which they are named.
Two of these industries, agriculture
and forestry, can be perpetuated, If
the proper methods are employed.
/ This, according to Mr.. Fisher, is es-
pecially true of forestry.
4 The following excerpts from the ar
ticle contain facts which should in
terest every resident of the state,
and with which, in all probability,
there are not many who are famil-
lar:
The present states which are rich
est in timber are California, WASH
ington, Oregon and Idaho and before
many years the United States will be
dependent upon these four states for
its lumber supply.
The state of Idaho contains about
So 100000 acres of which nearly 43
per cent or about % 100000 are forest
lands. Of this no doubt, 100000
acres will be used for agricultural
purposes within the next few years.
leaving the future forest area of the
state at 22,OOO,OO0 acres.
1t is safe to say that only a small
per cent of the citizens of this state
realize the important part that fores-
try holds in our state. The lumber
industry last year employed 60 per
cent of the industrial population OF
the state and represents an invested
capital of $50 100000, while the tim
mer products are valued at $3O,00O,-
900 annually, 1S,000,000 is paid out
each year in wages and 4 million for
supplies The amount of money ex-
pended in supplies is very great and
a majority of the purchases are made
locally.
The lumber industry in daho pays
100000 in taxes annually and IN
some counties the lumber industry
pays rs to 60 per cent Of all the taxes
raised.
The annual freight charge amounts
to quite a figure SO it can be readily
seen that without timber the state
would be deprived of a large revenue
1t is often said that the national
forests pay no taxes, and is a burden
IN this manner, but it IS usually true
that the persons making thls state
ment do not know that 80 per cent
of the gross receipts OF the national
forest service is turned over TO the
counties Tor school purposes and for
road construction.
At the present time the timber OF
the United States is being cut nearly
four times as fast as it is grown. In
Idaho the annual cut is nearly one
and one-haIf billion feet While the
growth is about the same or Letter
annually. In foreign countries the
cut is not allowed TO exceed the
growth, thereby prolonging the timber
supply.
Reclamation in Idaho
The forest is of very great I'LL
portance to all of the otner leading
industries of the state. Since 1884,
the date of the passage OF the carey
act, there was made available TO eacn
state in the arid regions 100000
acres of land. provided the state
would in some way cause the neceS-
sarv dams and reservoirs and canals
to be built for irrigation purposes. In
1902 congress passed the reclamation
act and resulted in three federal pro-
iects in Idaho, as follows: The Mn
idoka project consisting OF l2O,0Oo
acres. the Boise project 232 1855 acres
and the King Hill project which is
much smaller projects Nineteen pro-
iects had been privately financed dur
ING the period of 1894 to 1918 consist
ing of about 969 900 acres. This IS
largely due to the fact that the water
sheds of the streams, which supply
the water to these projects, are COW
cred with timber and thereby noid the
snow for a longer period than ii these
slopes were barren of timber. Much
of the water sheds are clasSed as pro-
tective land for that reason.
The United States uses one-aa1 OF
the worlds output of lumber and OF
this, one half is used In agriculture
1t is estimated that it takes about
100 years to grow a white pine forest
and the freight charges on lumber
produced will equal the accumulated
freight charges on an equal area of
farm land for like period.
The lumber company purchases
large percentage of the products OF
agriculture grown in their localities.
There are three classes OF owners
of Idaho, large private holdings tse-
cured mainly through the homestead
law amount to 100000 acres; state
holdings. 100000; government mold
ings, 1S,000,O00 acres; rest held by
email owners, 2,250,000 acres-total
of, 23,o00,0Oo
Pullman Defeats POtlatch
Pullman WaSh-PuIlman defeated