Wood and Forest Part 42

(2) Destructive Lumbering.

The Settler's Tradition.

Bruncken, pp. 40-59, 94.

Roth, _First Book_, pp. 41-45.

Pinchot, _Primer_, II, p. 82.

Taxation.

_For. and Irr._, April, '06.

Pinchot, _Agric. Yr. Bk._, 1898, p. 184.

Reckless Practices.

Pinchot, _Primer_ II, 42-47.

Pinchot, _Agric. Yr. Bk._, 1898, p. 184.

Pinchot, _For. Circ._, No. 25, p. 11.

Price, _Agric. Yr. Bk._, 1902, p. 310.

Fox, _For. Bull._, No. 34, p. 40.

Peters, _Agric. Yr. Bk._, 1905, pp. 483-494.

Graves, _Agric. Yr. Bk._, 1899, p. 415.

Suter, _For. Bull._, 26, pp. 58, 69, 76.

Mohr, _For. Bull._ No. 13, p. 61.

Bruncken, pp. 90-98.

The Timber Supply.

Kellogg, _For. Circ._, No. 97 ...

Zon, _For. Bull._, No. 83.

Fernow, _Economics_, pp. 35-45.

Report of the Commissioner of Corporations on the Lumber Industry.

Part I, Feb. 13, 1911.

[Footnote A: For general bibliography, see p. 4.]

CHAPTER VIII.

THE USE OF THE FOREST.

Man's relation to the forest has not been entirely destructive and injurious. He has exerted and is more and more exerting influences which while still enabling him to use the forest, also preserve and improve it. These activities may all be included under the term Forestry.

The objects of modern forestry then are threefold: 1. The _utilization_ of the forest and its products, the main object; 2. The _preservation_ of the forest, _i.e._, its continued reproduction; 3.

The _improvement_ of the forest.

UTILIZATION.

The uses of the forest are threefold: (1) Protective, (2) Productive, and (3) Esthetic.

(1) _Protective._ The forest may be used as a protection against floods, wind, s.h.i.+fting sand, heat, drought, etc. The National Forests of the United States, Fig. 119, with the state forests, which include one-fifth of the total forest area, are largely treated as "protection forests" to maintain the head waters of streams, Fig. 120, used for irrigation, for power or for commerce. The attempt now being made to reserve large areas in the White Mountains and southern Appalachians is chiefly for this purpose of protection.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 119. National Forests in the United States.]

A comparison of Figs. 120 and 121 shows clearly the difference between a region protected by forest and one unprotected.[1]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 120. A Protection Forest, Maintaining the Headwaters of Streams. North Carolina. _U. S. Forest Service._]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 121. Hillside Erosion. North Carolina. _U. S.

Forest Service_]

(2) _Productive._ All practical foresters have as their first aim the _yield_ of the forest. This distinguishes forestry from landscape architecture, the object of which may equally be the preservation and improvement of a given tract. The crop to be produced is as truly the prime concern of the forester as the raising of agricultural crops is the prime concern of the farmer. It is for this reason that forestry is said to be the same thing as conservative lumbering, Fig. 122.

The prejudice of lumbermen against forestry has arisen from a misunderstanding of its aim. Its aim is not to prevent the cutting down of trees, but to direct their cutting in such ways that in the future there will still be trees to cut. "Thru use to a greater use,"

is the motto of the Forest Service. The difference between destructive lumbering and conservative lumbering is that the former cuts one crop regardless of the future; while the latter plans to cut crop after crop indefinitely. In other words, in conservative lumbering, the trees to be cut are not selected solely with reference to their immediate market value. Not one crop, but many, is the forester's motto.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 122. Conservative Lumbering. Black Hills National Forest, South Dakota. Note the brush, cord-wood, and logs piled separately,--a fine clean-up. Nothing cut below 12" diameter. _U. S.

Forest Service._]

So long as the supply seemed exhaustless, forests might be and were treated as mines are, _i.e._, exploited for the sake of immediate profit; but now that lumbermen begin to realize that the end of the supply is in sight, more conservative methods are being adopted. We cannot afford to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. In order then to obtain as rich harvests as possible, the modern forester makes use of various methods, some negative, some positive.

Waste is avoided in all possible ways, stumps are cut low and tops high on the trunk, first cla.s.s trees are not used for skids, bridges, roads, etc., care is taken in "falling" trees and in dragging out logs, that they will not injure other trees. Just as economical disposal of the log has already been carried to a high degree of perfection in the saw-mill, (see _Handwork in Wood_, Chapter II,) so one object of forestry is to carry this economy back into the woods.

One of the underlying ideas in conservative lumbering is that the "yield," _i.e._, the amount of wood taken out of a healthy forest in a given time, shall be equal to the amount grown during the same period. If less is taken out than grows, some trees will overmature and decay; if more is taken out than grows, the forest will ultimately be exhausted.

This principle may be carried out in a number of ways; but in any case it is necessary to know how fast the forest is reproducing itself, and this is one of the functions of the forester. The United States Forest Service makes a definite offer of cooperation with farmers and lumbermen and owners of forests to provide them with skilled foresters for direction in this matter.

In the United States, the most practicable way of determining the yield is by area, _i.e._, a certain fraction of a forest is to be cut over once in a given length of time, a year or longer. The time between two successive cuttings on the same area must be long enough to allow the young trees left standing to ripen.

In a word, conservative lumbering involves (1) the treatment of the forest as a source of crops, (2) systematic gathering, and (3) young growth so left as to replace the outgo.

The important place that forests fill in the national economy may be realized partly by the citation of a few facts as to the forest products. The lumber industry is the fourth in value of products among the great manufacturing industries of the United States, being exceeded only by the iron and steel, the textile, and the meat industries. It turns out a finished product worth $567,000,000.00. And yet lumber const.i.tutes only about one-half of the value of the total output of forest products. Its annual value is three-fourths of a billion dollars, ($666,641,367 in 1907,) while the annual value of wood fuel, is $350,000,000. More than two-thirds of the people burn wood for fuel. The next largest single item in the list is s.h.i.+ngles and laths, $32,000,000. (See _Forestry Bulletin_ No. 74, p. 7.)

Outside of food products, no material is so universally used and so indispensable in human economy as wood. (Fernow, _Econ._, p. 21.)

The importance of forest products may also be learned from a mere list of the varied uses to which they are put. Such a list would include: fuel, wood and charcoal; houses (over half the population of the United States live in wooden houses); the wooden parts of masonry and steel buildings; scaffolding; barns, sheds and outhouses; s.h.i.+ps, with all their parts, and the masts and trim of steel s.h.i.+ps, boats and canoes; oars and paddles; railway ties (annual expenditure $50,000,000), railway cars, a million in number; trestles and bridges (more than 2,000 miles in length); posts and fencing; cooperage stock (low estimate, $25,000,000 annually); packing crates, including coffins; baskets; electric wire poles (annual cost about $10,000,000); piles and submerged structures, like ca.n.a.l locks and water-wheels; windmills; mining timbers (yearly cost, $7,500,000), indispensable in all mining operations (for every 100 tons of coal mined, 2 tons of mining timber are needed); street paving; veneers ($5,000,000.00 worth made annually); vehicles, including carriages, wagons, automobiles and sleighs; furniture; machines and their parts; patterns for metal molding; tools and tool handles; musical instruments; cigar boxes; matches; toothpicks; pencils; (315 million a year in the U. S., requiring over 7 million cubic feet of wood); engraving blocks; shoe lasts, shoe trees and parts of shoes; hat blocks; agricultural implements; hop and bean poles; playthings and toys, for both children and adults; Christmas trees and decorations; pipes; walking sticks; umbrella handles; crutches and artificial limbs; household utensils; excelsior.

Products other than wood: Turpentine and resin (worth $20,000,000 a year); tar; oils; tan-bark, 1-1/2 million cords (worth $13,000,000 a year); wood alcohol; wood pulp (worth $15,000,000 a year); nuts; cellulose for collars, combs and car wheels; balsam, medicines; lampblack; dyes; paper fiber (xylolin) for textiles; sh.e.l.lac and varnish ($8,500,000 worth imported in 1907); vinegar and acetic acid; confections (including maple sugar and syrup at $2,500,000 a year).

(3) The _Esthetic_ and sentimental uses of the forest, tho not to be estimated in dollars and cents, are nevertheless of incalculable benefit to the community. They would include the use of the forest as pleasure grounds, for hunting, fis.h.i.+ng, camping, photography, and general sightseeing. Notable instances of the growing appreciation of these uses of the forest are the reservation of the Yellowstone and Yosemite Parks as pleasure grounds.

PRESERVATION.

The second object of forestry is the preservation of the forest, or continued reproduction.

In addition to obtaining crops of trees, the forester plans to keep the forest in such condition that it will constantly reproduce itself and never become exhausted.

This does not mean that no forests are to be cut down, or that a given area, once a forest, is to be always a forest. Just as the individual farmer needs some land for fields, some for pasture, and some for woodlots, so the nation needs some for cities, some for farms, some for pleasure grounds, and some for forests. But it does mean that fruitful forests shall not be turned into wildernesses as thousands of square miles now are, by the methods of destructive lumbering.

In general, better land is necessary for agriculture than for forestry, and it is therefore only the part of wisdom to use the better land for fields and reserve the poorer land for forests. There are in the United States enormous regions that are fit for nothing but forests, but many of these, as in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan, have simply been denuded of their trees and no provision has been made for their reproduction. This then is the second aim of forestry,--to treat the forest so that it will continue to reproduce itself.