Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1923-07-26
Private demonstration
Not Profitable Scheme
LUMBER ASSOCIATION MAKES RE-
PORT TO U. S. SENATE ON
REFoRESTATIoN

Inc NOrCH0ru H6mIOck and Hard
ware Lumber Association has sent a
report to the U. S. Senate Committee
on Reforestation at Washington, d. c..
ashowing what it costs to grow hard
wood timber in Wisconsin and Michi-
gan. The statement shows why it
will cost the private owner from 1889
90 to $3SSS.OO per acre to hold and
protect cut over land for 100 years
while a new forest is growing on for
est land valued as low as $1.OO to S.. 90
per acre. Reports of the u. S. Forest
Service show that it requires from
so to 200 years to produce merchan-
table saw-log timber Is inches in dia,
meter in the mixed Maple, Pine and
Hemlock forests of the Lake States.
White and Norway Pine require about
80 years, Sugar Maple about 200 years
Birch $50 years, Eastwood 1870 years
and Beech 200 years. Trees will grow
faster on good agricultural soil and
slower on very poor soil. At six per-
cent interest each dollar of the origi-
nal investment will double in value
every twelve years. An annual pay
ment of thirty cents per acre i'll taxes
at s per cent compound interest
amounts to $4,000 per acre in 40
years and $1691.OO per acre in 100
years.
AS mature forest lands in this re-
gion are yielding only 6 to 10 thous-
and feet of standing timber per acre
private investors do not believe there
is any possibility that saw timber of
mixed soft woods and hardwoods can
yield return anywhere near approach
ing these costs. The time will come
when it will be possible to grow
small trees for pulp wood.
The private operator in Wisconsin
or Michigan who would attempt to
.reforest 10000 acres Of non-agricultur
al land would at the end of 100 years
have an investment of between 10
million and 80 million dollars and q
product which could be sold for only
a fraction of that sum- It would be
necessary to sell the cutting rights
on such a forest for from $4,000 to
$4,000 per thousand feet in order to
secure a return of per cent on the
investment. He would have to sell
s lses ssss1t bonds to the public to carry
the investment. The competition of
the original forests of the Western
softwoods in the United States and
Canada, of the natural Hardwood
Forest of the Tropics, of substitutes
for lumber and of much more cheaply
grown government timber which may
be available 100 years hence would
make such future values impossible
If the bonds could be sold at per
cent and taxes RENTED until the for
est matured the problem could be
worked out
Ii it is assumed that the State or
Federal Government can finance tim
Der growing on per cent basis
and omit all charges for taxes the
cost of growing timber is very con-
siderably reduced and becomes feas-
ible. At 8 per cent and without taxes
the public can carry land forv1O0 years
at cost totaling from $3.50 up to
$144.67 per acre depending upon the
original investment in land running
from $1OO to $500 per acre. The re-
port also shows that timber can be
grown much more rapidly and cheap
ly in the South and in the Northwest
than in the Lake States.
Members of the Lumber Association
have offered the Us S. Forest Service
bodies of land upon which to conduct
experiments and have also offered to
cooperate with government experts in
working out improvements in forest
utilization and in studies to discover
methods of reducing the cost of grow
ing timber