Evening star., 1925-04-26
GRASSH0PPER WILL
FATAL T0FORESTS
Multiplying of Those Used
With Tractors Affects
South's Seed Trees.
BY Consolidated Press.

By Consolidated Press. -..--
CHICAGO, April 25.-A new factor
In the lumber industry of the South
the so-called grasshopper sawmill
hitched to a tractor and as migratory
as flea-has been brought to light
by the Southern Pine Association for
prevention as a menace to be dealt
with at the annual Forest Week OBJ
serVance here, beginning next Mon
day. Here is the way the situation
Is described:
"a Veritable swarm of small saw
mills has descended upon the second
growth pine forests of the South and
is working such destruction of the
prospects for future forests that the
Maryland to Texas, is deeply con
cerned"
The association has recently con
Quoted the most elaborate survey Of
forest conditions and lumber indus
tries ever made in the South. The
result OF the survey, disclosed here
for the first time, is to be placed be
fore the National Lumber Manufac.
turers' Association at its annual con
vention here next week in connection
with American Forest week.
1t is authoritatively stated that the
survey shows that, with three-fourths
of the virgin pine forests of the South
already gone the way of the lumber
man, the number of small sawmills
has almost trebled within the last five
years. The new mills are small
portable, powered by the tractors
which take them from place to place.
Search for Single Trees.
THE verb to hop expresses their
attack on the forests" said a spokes
man for the pine association. They
prey On the second growth pine and
the seed trees left behind by the great
commercial sawmills. They search
out remote clumps and even single
trees, attack the farm wood lots and
even the farmyard shade and orna
mental trees"
For the past three years, the pine
association claims, these small opera
tions have flooded the Southern pine
markets with enormous quantities OF
poor lumber, wastefully manufac'
tured." Their output is placed at 40
per cent of the entire production of
Southern pine lumber. and is charged
with the responsibility for making the
1924 cut the largest on record.
This output from small mills, com
parable with the coal output from So
called snowbird mines during periods
of high prices and great prosperity in
that industry, has run the production
tions by practical lumbermen tive
years ago that the 1924 cut would be
less than that of 1918.
The new mills entail the investment
of virtually no capital, $1,000 being
sufficient to set one up in business.
and pay as low as 81 for stumpage, as
compared with from $40 to Sl2 per
] 900 feet paid by larger operators.
Because of these conditions, the
"grasshopper mills" have generally
made huge profits, the survey dis
closes.
Set Back for Years.
Before the 'grasshopper mill came
along, according to the survey, ma
ture. abused and neglected, was re
producing timber at the rate of 1000
900, 900 feet a year. against an annual
out OF 1900, 1000 900 to $4,000, 900 .00f
feet, but the cleaning out of the young
new forests long before maturity and
the eradication of seed trees will tend
to set back regeneration for many
years"
The mopping up work of the small
mills comes at a time when the
larger companies, to great extent, are
engaged in reforestation. At a re
cent meeting of the pine association
| in New Orleans, a count showed that
% per cent of the largest numbering
operations in the Southern pine belt
| had adopted a reforestation policy
and that many other large operations
had it under consideration.
Fireworks will fly. it is expected
at the National Lumber Manufac
turers' convention as a result of the
submission of the Southern pine re
port. The national organization has
adopted a policy of reforestation anc
will undoubtedly study methods OF
| checking the ''grasshopper mills
/ from making further inroads on young
! timber and seed trees. Congress may
! be asked to pass a law protecting
! those classes of timber.