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PROCEEDINGS
OF THE
American Forest Congress
Held at Washington, D.C., January 2 to 6, 1905,
under the auspices of the
AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION
‘Published for the Association
by the
H. M. SUTER PUBLISHING COMPANY
WASHINGTON, D.C.
1905
Gift,
2 0'05
PREFACE
The American Forest Congress, the proceedings of
which make up this volume, was held at Washington,
D. C., January 2 to 6, 1905, under the auspices of the
American Forestry Association. The purpose of this
Congress, as stated in the official call, was “to estab-
lish a broader understanding of the forest in its rela-
tion to the great industries depending upon it; to
advance the conservative use of forest resources for
both the present and future need of these industries;
to stimulate and unite all efforts to perpetuate the
forest as a permanent resource of the nation.”
That the time was ripe for such a meeting was
proven by the splendid attendance, both in numbers
and personnel, from every section of the country.
From its inception the plan for the Congress had the
approval of the President of the United States, as well
as many of the most prominent persons in the official
and industrial life of the country. As a result the
American Forest Congress turned out to be not only
the most important meeting ever devoted to forestry
in the United States, but one of the most influential
gatherings that has given its attention to an economic
subject. It is not too much to say that from the date
of this Congress forestry has come to have a new
meaning to the American people.
It was the wish of the delegates that, in view of the
very comprehensive treatment of the subject of forestry
at the several sessions of the Congress, that the pro-
ceedings should be collected in permanent form, which
explains the making of this volume. The plan fol-
iv PREFACE
lowed in its compilation has not been to produce a ver-
batim report of the several sessions of the Congress,
but to collect the full list of papers read and the more
important impromptu addresses into convenient form
for reading and ready reference.
ORGANIZATION OF THE CONGRESS
HHonorary President,
THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
President of the Congress,
HON. JAMES WILSON
Committee of Arrangements,
JAMES WILSON,
Secretary of Agriculture.
A. J. CASSATT, ;
President, Pennsylvania Rail-
road.
HowARD ELLiomTT, :
President, Northern Pacific Ry.
JOHN Hays HAMMOND,
Mining Engineer.
T. J. GRIER,
Supt. Homestake Mining Co.,
Lead, S. Dak.
FRED WEYERHAEUSER,
St. Paul, Minn.
N. W. McLEopD,
President, Nat’]1 Lumber Manu-
facturers Association.
V. H. BECKMAN,
Editor, Pacific Lumber Trade
Journal.
R. A. LONG
Bresitent: Southern Lumber
Manufacturers Association.
GEORGE K. SMITH,
Secretary, Nat’l] Lumber Manu-
facturers Association.
GARRET SCHENCK,
President, Great Northern Paper
Co.
THOMAS F, WALSH, |
President, National Irrigation
Association.
H. B. F. MACFARLAND,
President, Board of District Com-
missioners.
W.S. HARVEY,
Vice - President, Pennsylvania
Forestry Association.
JOHN JOY EDSON,
President, Washington Loan &
Trust Co.
ALBERT SHAW,
Editor, Review of Reviews.
WHITELAW REID,
Publisher, New York Tribune.
REDFIELD PROCTOR,
United States Senator from Ver-
mont.
HENRY C. HANSBROUGH,
United States Senator from North
Dakota.
NATHAN B. Scott,
United States Senator from West
Virginia.
THOMAS R. BARD
United States’ Senator from Cali-
fornia.
JAMES W. WADSWORTH,
Member of Congress from New
York.
JOHN F, LACEY,
Member of Congress from Iowa.
FRANK W. MONDELL,
Member of Congress from Wyo-
ming.
CHARLES D. WALCOTT,
Director, U. S. Geological Survey.
GIFFORD PINCHOT,
Forester, U. S. Department of
Agriculture.
F. H. NEWELL,
Chief Engineer, U. 8S. Reclama-
tion Service.
GEORGE H. MAXWELL,
Executive Chairman, The Na-
tional Irrigation Association.
B. L. WIGGINS,
Vice-Chancellor,
the South.
GEORGE P. WHITTLESEY,
Director, American Forestry As-
sociation.
University of
vi ORGANIZATION OF ‘THE CONGRESS
F. J. HAGENBARTH,
President, National Live Stock
Association.
JESSE SMITH,
President, Utah Wool Growers’
Association,
H. A. JASTRO,
General Supt., Kern County Land
Co., California.
EB. S. GOSNEY,
Manager, Gosney & Perkins
Bank, Flagstaff, Ariz.
W. A. RICHARDS,
Commissioner, General Land Of-
fice.
B. T. GALLOWAY,
Chief, Bureau of Plant Industry.
OVERTON W. PRICE,
Associate Forester,
Forestry.
Bureau of
H. S. GRAVES
Director, ‘Yale Forest School.
FILIBERT ROTH,
Director, Forestry Department
University of Michigan.
F. V. COVILLE,
Botanist, U. S. Department of
cA ieee
Wo. L. HA
Ass’t apcater: Bureau of Forestry
JAMES B, ADAMS,
In charge of. Records, Bureau of
Forestry.
HERMANN VON SCHRENKE,
Expert, Bureau of Forestry.
H. M. SUTER,
Editor, Forestry and Irrigation.
C. J. BLANCHARD,
Statistician, U. S. Reclamation
Service.
CONTENTES:
PART OE
FORESTRY AS A NATIONAL QUESTION
Toe. PORES IN’ THE Lier OF A NATION |c6 oi ijc lui ce ane ke 3
President Roosevelt.
THE GENERAL, NEED OF ForEST PRESERVATION............- 13
James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture.
dire: MORES T EGEICN, Oby FRANCE Coe Shows eee etek A 22
J. J. Jusserand, Ambassador from France.
ATTITUDE OF EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS TOWARD FoRESTRY 29
B. L. Wiggins, Vice-Chancellor, University of the
South.
IMPORTANCE OF THE ForEstS To AGRICULTURE............ 42
John Lamb, Member of Congress from Virginia.
DEPENDENCE OF BusINESS INTERESTS UPON THE FoRESTS.. 51
Howard Elliott, President, Northern Pacific
Railroad.
PART:“Ve
IMPORTANCE OF THE PUBLIC FOREST LANDS
TO IRRIGATION.
THE CLosE RELATION BETWEEN FoRESTRY AND IRRIGATION 53
Guy FE. Mitchell.
Miensis AND) RESERVOIRS. : i. 60204 bone cl cok whe dbo baeek es 60
F. H. Newell.
RELATION OF ForEst CovER To STREAMFLOW.............. 67
J. B. Lippincott.
mieceTS OF .WAY IN: FOREST) RESERVES. 00). 4 050235 SP e5 81
Morris Bien.
Vili ConTENTS
IRRIGATION CONSTRUCTION AND TIMBER SUPPLIES......... 87
Arthur P. Davis.
IMPROMPTU ADDRESSES:
a ME? Walean era oo cae keke eee ee tee eee QI
he AS. TOURER eth talerch, Ge ncale Boe pane cole ae eee 93
PART ai:
THE LUMBER INDUSTRY AND THE FORESTS.
THE LUMBERMAN’S INTEREST IN FORESTRY............-- 99
N. W. McLeod.
CHANGED AT?riTUuDE OF LUMBERMEN TOWARD ForEsSTRY.... 103
J. E. Defebaugh.
Is ForEstrY PRACTICABLE ON LonNG LEAF PINE LANDS?.... 124
John L. Kaul. :
Is ForEstRY PRACTICABLE IN THE NORTHWEST?........... 132
Victor H. Beckman.
INTEREST OF LUUMBERMEN IN CONSERVATIVE FORESTRY..... 137
‘F. E. Weyerhaeuser.
IMPORTANCE OF FoRESTRY TO WOODWORKING INDUSTRIES... 142
M. C. Moore.
Is Forestry PRACTICABLE IN THE NORTHEAST?........... 147
John A. Dix.
Our Paciric Coast Forests AND LUMBERING AS DIFFER-
ING FROM OTHER FORESTS. .../... 00s 1:60 oe merece
George P. Emerson. ,
Risk IN VALS OF STUMPAGES os i0 (525 cece ae ce eee 163
James T. Barber.
IMPORTANCE OF LUMBER STATISTICS... 00.000 c0cecccs sees 166
George K. Smith.
OPppoRTUNITIES FOR L,UMBERING IN THE PHILIPPINES.....- 173
George P. Ahern.
Tur LuMBER DEALERS’ In’rEREST IN Forest PRESERVATION 189
George W. Hotchkiss.
CoopERACE AND Its RELATION TO FORESTRY.........-+---- 194
John A. McCann.
CoNTENTS ix
PART IV.
IMPORTANCE OF THE PUBLIC FOREST LANDS, TO
GRAZING.
PracticAL RESULTS OF THE REGULATION OF GRAZING IN
MEE POREST RESERVES | c50 o'r oh ceuite ae ae esas 210
A. F. Potter.
Tur Protection oF Home BUILDERS IN THE REGULATION OF
GRAZING ON FOREST RESERVES: ...- 0.0.5.2 .8.% 218
E. S. Gosney.
Tur ApVANTAGE OF COOPERATION BETWEEN THE GOVERN-
MENT AND THE LIVE Stock ASSOCIATIONS IN THE
REGULATION AND ContRoL oF GRAZING........ 228
Fred P. Johnson.
NEcEssity oF Usinc THE Forest RESERVES FOR GRAZING
PURPOSE Sse Acs had aie oe Ain A ORNS GN ge conte 232
Francis E. Warren.
Surep GRAZING IN THE Forest RESERVES, From a Lay-
RAIN S) (STA NDPOUNTU ? idee ne aka bm Sit tan aero ae 242
L. H. Pammel.
PEMEPROMEP TU ADDRESS 6 50d 2 os sins Walnteys & pe ee ee eles ofgce steel rele 249
R. H. Campbell.
PAE E V-
RAILROADS IN RELATION TO THE FOREST.
Wuat INFORMATION 18s Most URGENTLY NEEDED BY RAIL-
ROADS REGARDING TIMBER RESOURCES........... 253
Charles F. Manderson.
Work OF THE PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD IN PLANTING TIM-
BER) PDR CROSS? LIBG. 6 (steer eee at acmustee eas 260
Joseph T. Richards.
Is rt PRACTICABLE FoR RarLroaps To Horp Forest LANps
FoR FuTURE SUPPLIES OF TIMBER?.............- 265
L. E. Johnson.
x CoNTENTS
RESULTS IN THE PRESERVATIVE TREATMENT OF RAILROAD
TIMBERS To PROLONG DURABILITY.............. 276
Herman von Schrenk.
LETTER BROM “Wire JAMES Jf SELILD C2 os ethan see ssc ke noe 290
PART VI.
IMPORTANCE OF PUBLIC FOREST LANDS TO
MINING.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF Water Power As RELATED TO
POREST UR ESERVES. (ues Poult Paco e eee 293
A. L. Fellows.
WILL THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE ForEst RESERVES ON
A CONSERVATIVE BAsiIs RETARD THE DEVELOP-
MENT OF: NEINENG! (7.24 25 3o 7. oss eee 302
Seth Bullock.
IMPORTANCE OF THE PuBLic Forest LANps To MINING.... 307
Po Grier.
MINING IN "tae BOREST RESERVES. 00 6. Joie... oe eee 318
F. A. Fenn.
THE VALUE oF Forestry TO COMMERCIAL INTERESTS...... 332
George H. Maxwell.
TRCPROMPIY “ADDRESS. 5), oa.) diss kuch so ke Rano eee Cee 349
David T. Day.
PART VII.
NATIONAL AND STATE FOREST POLICY.
Work OF THE BUBBAU OF FORESTRY: .oo0 00 boc. > oe ee 355
Overton W. Price.
Work OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY IN MAPPING THE
RESERVES ¢ o usuies win eahdoed kek oa aie nie ena ae 304
Charles D. Walcott.
Work oF THE GENERAL LAND OFFICE IN THE ADMINISTRA-
TION “OE EE! FRESE RVR 06 oe Goo G fips ale eee 381
W. A. Richards.
CONTENTS xi
Av PEDERAT, FOREST: SERVICE. 1) 055056) h 20s an a ALAR 301
Gifford Pinchot.
PROGRESS IN FoREST RESERVATION IN PENNSYLVANIA...... 306
J. T. Rothrock.
IMPROMPTU ADDRESSES:
WON ccLACy oka une enacaeeuslechae amen mares 403
Ws CNG RECR Chi orate Mie ates ire oa BET ope ako See 409
Baward Everett: ‘blales: Shciucee ie ie ee Ane
1 i Res ties ig ss pute a es ye he feet Estar aio Canta 413
Aubrey White........ Staite er tama retaace see erate 419
es, Ee, PCA ONT Ss Fo 05.2 kU PEER ee ae OLED wate A24
IVES ol Ee ON RERPATIEG y o.c, crake cue torical en bossa ete 428
| Des) cra sna 02 ol «Roe pee tn ary ec Rn aa ahat Gr cap yrL ay aS ESN 435
(BEE easel hr (c) - SNOMO te Blame Nel OMA SE aE RUN HABE FCs Celera A 437
Ruthettord Py Prayesss Vis oes o eae oc eae 439
PARE SLO MELG SA Bee CE ks a eee nae 442
Cai Cha OMIPlGS: oa ceiesia es tana ee ae halts 4AA
Chmibles Wa alge GEN Pe oe es eee Niue state a Ou 3 446
CLES SOU SITS. is RR DAR eRe pea he tee’ eee aA pe as eI a BL pain 448
et Ee ET REA TRS: rue rads a eee Mole eicieinte havigies. 66 aaa Sas 454
ANNOUNCEMENT OF AMERICAN ForEstRY ASSOCIATION.... 473
PART I.
FORESTRY AS A NATIONAL QUESTION.
ner
aes |
-
ie
fie FOREST. IN. THE, LIFE? OF A
NATION
BY
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT
T IS a pleasure to greet all of you here this
' afternoon, but, of course, especially the members
of the American Forest Congress. You have made,
by your coming, a meeting which is without parallel
in the history of forestry. And, Mr. Secretary, I
must take this opportunity of saying to you what you
so amply deserve, that no man in this country has
done so much as you have done in the last eight years
to make it possible to take a business view from the
standpoint of all the country of just such ques-
tions as this. It is not many years since such
a meeting as this would have been regarded as
chimerical ; the thought of it would have been regarded
as absolutely chimerical. In the old pioneer days the
American had but one thought about a tree, and that
was to cut it down; and the mental attitude of the
nation toward the forests was largely conditioned upon
the fact that the life work of the earlier generations
of our people had been of necessity to hew down the .
forests, for they had to make clearings on which to
live; and it was not until half a century of our national
life had passed that any considerable body of American
citizens began to live under conditions where the tree
ceased to be something to be cleared off the earth.
4 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
It always takes time to get the mind of a people
accustomed to any change in conditions, and it took
a long time to get the mind of our people, as a whole,
accustomed to the fact that they had to alter their
attitude toward the forests. For the first time the
great business and the forest interests of the nation
have joined together, through delegates altogether
worthy of the organizations they represent, to consider
their individaul and their common interests in the
forest. This Congress may well be called a meeting
of forest users, for that the users of the forest come
together to consider how best to combine use with
preservation is the significant fact of the meeting, the
fact full of powerful promise for the forests of the
future.
The producers, the manufacturers, and the great
common carriers of the nation had long failed to
realize their true and vital relation to the great forests
of the United States, and the forests and industries
both suffered from that failure. The suffering of the
industries in such case comes after the destruction
of the forests, but it is just as inevitable as that
destruction. If the forest is destroyed it is only a
question of a relatively short time before the business
interests suffer in consequence. All of you know
that there is opportunity in any new country for the
development of the type of temporary inhabitant whose
idea is to skin the country and go somewhere else.
You all know, and especially those of you from the
West, the individual whose idea of developing the
country is to cut every stick of timber off of it and
then leave a barren desert for the homemaker who
comes in after him. That man is a curse and not a
blessing to the country. The prop of the country
must be the business man who intends so to run his
AMERICAN ForEST CONGRESS 5
business that it will be profitable for his children
after him. That is the type of business that it is
worth while to develop. The time of indifference and
misunderstanding has gone by.
Your coming is a very great step toward the solution
of the forest problem—a problem which cannot be
settled until it is settled right. And it cannot be settled
right until the forces which bring that settlement about
come, not from the Government, not even from the
newspapers and from public sentiment in general, but
from the active, intelligent, and effective interest of
the men to whom the forest is important from the
business point of view, because they use it and its
product, and whose interest is therefore concrete
instead of general and diffuse. I do not in the least
underrate the power of an awakened public opinion;
but in the final test it will be the attitude of the
industries of the country which more than anything
else will determine whether or not our forests are to
be preserved. It is because of their recognition of
that prime material fact that so much has been accom-
plished, Mr. Wilson, by those interested under you
and in the other departments of the Government in
the preservation of the forests. We want the active
and zealous help of every man farsighted enough to
realize the importance from the standpoint of the
nation’s welfare in the future of preserving the forests ;
but that help by itself will not avail. It will not even
be the main factor in bringing about the result toward
which we are striving ; the main factor must come from
the intelligence of the business interests concerned, so
that the manufacturer, the railway man, the miner,
the lumberman, the dealer in lumber, shall appreciate
that it is of direct interest to them to preserve through
use instead of waste the great resources upon which
6 PROCEEDINGS OF THE:
they depend for the successful development of their
business. This is true because by far the greater part
of all our forests must pass into the hands of forest
users, whether directly or through the Government,
which will continue to hold some of them but only as
trustee. The forest is for use, and its users will decide
its future. It was only a few years ago that the
practical lumberman felt that the forest expert was a
man who wished to see the forests preserved as bric-a-
brac, and the American business man was not prepared
to do much from the bric-a-brac standpoint. Now I
think we have got a working agreement between the
forester and the business man whose business is the
use of the forest. We have got them to come together
with the understanding that they must work for a
common end—work to see the forest preserved for
use. The great significance of this Congress comes
from the fact that henceforth the movement for the
conservative use of the forest is to come mainly from
within, not from without; from the men who are
actively interested in the use of the forest in one way
or another, even more than from those whose interest
is philanthropic and general. The difference means,
as the difference in such a case always does mean, to
a large extent the difference between mere agitation
and actual execution, between the hope of accomplish-
ment and the thing done. We believe that at last
forces have been set in motion which will convert the
once distant prospect of the conservation of the forest
by wise use into the practical accomplishment of that
great end; and of this most hopeful and significant fact
the coming together of this Congress is the sufficient
proof.
I shall not pretend this afternoon to even describe
to you the place of the forest in the life of any nation,
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 7
and especially of its place in the United States. The
great industries of agriculture, transportation, mining,
grazing, and, of course, lumbering, are each one of
them vitally and immediately dependent upon wood,
water, or grass from the forest. The manufacturing
industries, whether or not wood enters directly into
their finished product, are scarcely, if at all, less
dependent upon the forest than those whose connection
with it is obvious and direct. Wood is an indispensable
part of the material structure upon which civilization
rests; and it is to be remembered always that the
immense increase of the use of iron and substitutes for
wood in many structures, while it has meant a relative
decrease in the amount of wood used, has been accom-
panied by an absolute increase in the amount of wood
used. More wood is used than ever before in our
history. Thus, the consumption of wood in shipbuild-
ing is far larger than it was before the discovery of the
art of building iron ships, because vastly more ships
are built. Larger supplies of building lumber are
required, directly or indirectly, for use in the construc-
tion of the brick and steel and stone structures of great
modern cities than were consumed by the compara-
tively few and comparatively small wooden buildings
in the earlier stages of these same cities. It is as sure
as anything can be that we will see in the future a
steadily increasing demand for wood in our manufac-
turing industries.
There is one point I want to speak about in addition
to the uses of the forest to which I have already
alluded. Those of us who have lived on the great
plains, who are acquainted with the conditions in parts
of Oklahoma, Nebraska, Kansas, and the Dakotas,
know that wood forms an immensely portentous ele-
ment in helping the farmer on these plains battle
8 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
against his worst enemy—wind. The use of forests
as windbreaks out on the plains, where the tree does
not grow unless men help it, is of enormous impor-
tance, and, Mr. Wilson, among the many services
performed by the public-spirited statesman who once
occupied the position that you now hold, none was
greater than what the late Secretary of Agriculture,
Mr. Morton, did in teaching, by actual example as
well as by precept, the people of the treeless regions
the immense advantage of the cultivation of trees.
When wood, dead or alive, is demanded in so
many ways, and when this demand will undoubt-
edly increase, it is a fair question, then, whether the
vast demands of the future upon our forests are likely
to be met. You are mighty poor Americans if your
care for the well-being of this country is limited to
hoping that that well-being will last out your own
generation. No man, here or elsewhere, is entitled
to call himself a decent citizen if he does not try to do
his part toward seeing that our national policies are
shaped for the advantage of our children and our
children’s children. Our country, we have faith
to believe, is only at the beginning of its growth.
Unless the forests of the United States can be
made ready to meet the vast demands which this
growth will inevitably bring, commercial disaster, that
means disaster to the whole country, is inevitable.
The railroads must have ties, and the general opinion
is that no efficient substitute for wood for this purpose
has been devised. The miner must have timber or he
cannot operate his mine, and in very many cases the
profit which mining yields is directly proportionate to
the cost of timber supply. The farmer, east and west,
must have timber for numberless uses on his farm, and
he must be protected, by forest cover upon the head-
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 9
waters of the streams he uses, against floods in the
Fast and the lack of water for irrigation in the West.
The stockman must have fence posts, and very often
he must have summer range for his stock in the
national forest reserves. In a word, both the pro-
duction of the great staples upon which our prosperity
depends, and their movement in commerce throughout
the United States, are inseparably dependent upon the
existence of permanent and suitable supplies from the
forest at a reasonable cost.
If the present rate of forest destruction is allowed to
continue, with nothing to offset it, a timber famine in
the future is inevitable. Fire, wasteful and destructive
forms of lumbering, and the legitimate use, taken
together, are destroying our forest resources far more
rapidly than they are being replaced. It is difficult
to imagine what such a timber famine would mean to
our resources. And the period of recovery from the
injuries which a timber famine would entail would be
measured by the slow growth of the trees themselves.
Remember, that you can prevent such a timber famine
occurring by wise action taken in time, but once the
famine occurs there is no possible way of hurrying the
growth of the trees necessary to relieve it. You have
got to act in time or else the nation would have to
submit to prolonged suffering after it had become too
late for forethought to avail. Fortunately, the remedy
is a simple one, and your presence here to-day is a
most encouraging sign that there will be such fore-
thought. It is the great merit of the Department of
Agriculture in the forest work that its efforts have
been directed to enlist the sympathy and cooperation
of the users of wood, water, and grass, and to show
that forestry will and does pay, rather than to exhaust
itself in the futile attempt to introduce conservative
10 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
methods by any other means. I believe most emphat-
ically in sentiment, but I want the sentiment to be put
into cooperation with the business interests, and that
is what is being done. The policy is one of helpfulness
throughout, and never of hostility or coercion toward
any legitimate interest whatever. In the very nature
of things it can make little progress apart from you.
Whatever it may be possible for the Government to
accomplish, its work must ultimately fail unless your
interest and support give it permanence and power. It
is only as the producing and commercial interests of
the country come to realize that they need to have trees
growing up in the forest no less than they need the
product of the trees cut down, that we may hope to
see the permanent prosperity of both safely secured.
This statement is true not only as to forests in
private ownership, but as to the national forests as
well. Unless the men from the West believe in forest
preservation the western forests cannot be preserved.
We here at the headquarters of the National Govern-
ment recognize that absolutely. We believe, we know,
that it is essential for the well-being of the people of
the states of the great plains, the states of the Rockies,
the states of the Pacific slope, that the forests shall be
preserved, and we know also that our belief will count
for nothing unless the people of those states themselves
wish to preserve the forests. If they do we can help
materially ; we can direct their efforts, but we cannot
save the forests unless they wish them to be saved.
I ask, with all the intensity that I am capable, that
the men of the West will remember the sharp distinc-
tion I have just drawn between the man who
skins the land and the man who develops the
country. I am going to work with, and only with,
the man who develops the country. I am against the
AMERICAN ForESt CONGRESS II
land skinner every time. Our policy is consistent to
give to every portion of the public domain its highest
possible amount of use, and, of course, that can be
given only through the hearty cooperation of the west-
ern people.
I would like to add one word as to the creation of a
national forest service which I have recommended
repeatedly in messages to Congress, and especially in
my last. I wish to see all the forest work of the
Government concentrated in the Department of
Agriculture. It is folly to scatter such work,
as I have said over and over again, and the policy
which this administration is trying to carry out through
the creation of such a service is that of making the
national forests more actively and more permanently
useful to the people of the West, and I am heartily
glad to know that the western sentiment supports more
and more vigorously the policy of setting aside national
forests, the creation of a national forest service, and
especially the policy of increasing the permanent use-
fulness of these forest lands to all who come in contact
with them. With what is rapidly getting to be a
practically unbroken sentiment in the West behind
such a forest policy, with what is rapidly getting to be
a practically unbroken support by the great staple
interests behind the general policy of the conservative
use of the forests, we have a right to feel that we have
entered on an era of great and lasting progress. Only
entered upon it; much, very much, remains to be done;
and as in every other department of human activity
our debt of gratitude will be due, not to the amiable
but shortsighted optimist who thinks you have made a
good beginning and the end may take care of itself;
still less to the man who sits at one side and says how
poorly the work is being done by those who are doing
12 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
it; but to the men who try, each in his own place,
practically to forward this great work. That is the
type of man who is going to do the work, and it is
because I believe that we have enlisted the active,
practical sympathy of just that kind of man in this
work that I believe the future of this policy to be bright
and the permanence of our timber supplies more nearly
assured than at any previous time in our history. To
the men represented in this Congress this great result
is primarily due.
In closing I wish to thank you who are here, not
merely for what you are doing in this particular move-
ment, but for the fact that you are illustrating what
I hope I may call the typically American method of
meeting questions of great and vital importance to the
nation —the method of seeing whether the individuals
particularly concerned cannot by getting together and
cooperating with the Government do infinitely more
for themselves than it would be possible for any gov-
ernment under the sun to do for them. I believe in
the future of this movement, because I think you have
the right combination of qualities—the quality of
individual initiative, the quality of individual resource-
fulness, combined with the quality that enables you
to come together for mutual help, and having so come
to work with the Government; and I pledge you in the
fullest measure the support of the Government in what
you are doing.
THE GENERAL NEED OF FOREST
PRESERVATION
BY
JAMES WILSON
Secretary of Agriculture and President of the American Forest Congress
| MAKE you welcome to the Federal seat of Gov-
ernment, to consider the state of our forests, and
of our lands that cry aloud for want of trees and the
peculiar forest conditions that cannot exist without
their presence.
Forestry is not a local question. It is as wide as
American jurisdiction. It is not a class question; it
affects everybody. It is not limited by latitude or
longitude, by State lines or thermal lines, by rivers
or mountain ranges, by seas or lakes.
Steel has taken the place of wood for fencing to a
large extent. It has taken the place of wood for ships
to some extent, it is being introduced in house-building,
and is replacing wood extensively in the making of
machinery and for other purposes. Coal and gas are
taking the place of wood as fuel, and cement is taking
its place for building. The use of wood, notwithstand-
ing these substitutes, increases every year and our
forests steadily vanish before the axeman.
The extension of railroads, the settlement of the
public domain, the building of cities, towns and vil-
lages, the use of wood in paper-making and the open-
ing of mines, call for more wood every year, and the
forests respond to the demand. There are but a few
large reserves left from which to draw supplies. The
extreme east, the extreme west, and the Gulf coast are
now sources of commercial supply. The industries
14 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
of our country will be carried on at greater expense
as wood becomes scarcer and its substitutes become
dearer. Agriculture, commerce and mining will great-
ly miss the cheap supply of wood to which they have
been accustomed.
The nation is awakening to the necessity of planting
trees and making the most of those that are mature.
Our institutions of learning are taking up the study
of forestry. State societies are inquiring. ‘The ex-
periment stations of the several States and Territories
are making research. The Department of Agriculture
is training a Bureau of forest experts in woodcraft
to serve the nation, the States, companies and indi-
viduals along forestry lines.
There are hopeful forestry signs:
A disposition among lumber companies to hold cut-
over lands, protect them from fire, encourage a new
growth, and harvest the young forest, requires the es-
tablishment of forestry schools in colleges and univer-
sities where the science of forestry is being taught in
the light of experience.
The employment of foresters by large private own-
ers, who find that educated supervision is a prime
necessity.
Reforesting of large areas is being carried on by the
Bureau of Forestry and by several States, for the
purpose of giving object lessons to our people with
regard to methods of planting and varieties of trees.
The farmer is inquiring and planting for wind-breaks,
fuel, and in many cases he is planting valuable varieties
for coming generations.
Scientific study is preparing a reliable foundation
for practical forestry, with regard to the principles
that govern the life of trees in different conditions of
soil and climate.
Cooperation between the Department of Agriculture
AMERICAN ForREST CONGRESS 15
and the States, and with companies and individuals,
is progressing rapidly. Our trained foresters are get-
ting into touch with the college and experiment station
forces of the States, with companies that hold wood-
land for present and future use, and with individuals.
The Congress is giving liberally to forest research,
enabling us to do systematic work with wood in all its
uses.
The future requires planting in the uplands, at the
sources of all our streams, that should never be de-
nuded, to make the hills store water against times of
drouth and to modify the flooding of the lowlands.
We have to tell the people of the lower Mississippi
every few years to raise their levees to hold the floods
that exceed themselves as the forest ceases to hold
waters that in previous years were directed into the
hills and held back.
Every tree is beautiful, every grove is pleasant, and
every forest is grand; the planting and care of trees
is exhilarating and a pledge of faith in the future;
but these esthetic features, though elevating, are inci-
dental; the people need wood. They have had it in
abundance and have been prodigal in its use, as we
are too often careless of blessings that seem to have
no end. Our history, poetry and romance are inti-
mately associated with the woods. Our industries
have developed more rapidly because we have had
plenty of cheap timber. Millions of acres of bare
hillsides, that produce nothing profitably, should be
growing trees.
We are beginning a meeting which is national in
its significance. Never before in this country, nor
so far I know in any other country, has a body of men
representing such great and varied interests come to-
gether to discuss, temperately and foresightedly, the
policy and the methods under which the highest per-
16 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
manent usefulness of the forest can be maintained.
That we, men as varied in our occupations as are the
industries and interests we represent, are drawn to-
gether by this common cause, may well mark the
beginning of a new era in our treatment of the forest.
Your presence here is itself the best possible proof
that forestry is rapidly taking its appropriate place as
an active and indispensable factor in the national
economy. The era of forest agitation alone has en-
tirely passed. We are talking less and doing more.
The forest problem, as President Roosevelt has de-
scribed it, is recognized as the most vital internal
problem in the United States, and we are at work upon
it.
Free discussion here will aid greatly towards the
best solution of this problem. Above all, this Con-
gress affords us an opportunity to formulate a forest
policy broad enough to cover all minor points of differ-
ence, but definite and clear cut enough to give force
and direction to the great movement behind it. In the
very nature of things, these minor points of difference
will continue to exist; and this is necessary for the
highest effectiveness of our forest work in the long
run. But we are facing a problem which can be met
squarely only by vigorous and united action.
I look for excellent results from the deliberations
of this Congress, for more light upon vexed questions,
and for the statement of new and useful points of view.
But above all, I hope from our meeting here there
will come a more complete awakening to the vastness
of our common interest in the forest, a wider under-
standing of the great problem before us, and a still
more active and more earnest spirit of cooperation.
Because of your individual achievement in your
chosen fields this is a great gathering and a most
AMERICAN ForEst CONGRESS 17
effective one. It is upon you and others like you that
the future of our forests mainly depends. Unless
you, who represent the business interests of the coun-
try, take hold and help, forestry can be nothing but
an exotic, a purely Government enterprise, outside our
industrial life, and insignificant in its influence upon
the life of the nation. With your help, it will become,
and is becoming, one of the greater powers for good.
Without forestry, the permanent prosperity of the in-
dustries you represent is impossible, because a perma-
nent supply of wood and water can come only from
the wise use of the forest, and in no other way, and
that supply you must have.
I am glad to see the irrigation interests so strongly
represented here, because forestry and irrigation go
hand in hand in the agricultural development of the
West. ‘The West must have water, and that in a sure
and permanent supply. Unless the forests at the head-
waters of the streams used in irrigation are protected,
that is impossible, and irrigation will fail. Unless
we practice forestry in the mountain forests of the
West, the expenditure under the national irrigation
law will be fruitless, and the wise policy of the Gov-
ernment in the agricultural development of the arid
regions will utterly fail. Without forestry, national
irrigation will be merely a national mistake. The re-
lation in the arid regions between the area under
forest and the area in farms will always be constant.
We can maintain the present water supply of the
West by the protection of existing forests. In exactly
the same way, we can increase this supply by the for-
esting of denuded watersheds. The full development
of the irrigation policy requires more than the protec-
tion of existing forests—it demands their extension
also.
18 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
In the value of its invested capital and its product,
lumbering ranks fourth among our great industries.
But in its relation to the forest it stands first. To
bring the lumberman and the forester together has
been the earnest and constant endeavor of the Depart-
ment of Agriculture. Ten years ago, or even five
years ago, we did not fully understand each other.
To-day, in every great forest region in the United
States, lumbermen and foresters are working together
in active, hearty, and effective cooperation on the same
ground.
It is true that the area under conservative forest
management is still small, but the leaven is working
- and the inauguration of new, more conservative, and
better paying methods has fully begun. What the
general adoption of conservative lumbering will mean
to the individual lumberman, to the lumber industry,
and to the country as a whole, is beyond estimate.
And it is coming, because it will pay.
The vast area of the timber lands of the United
States is mainly in your hands. You have it in your
power, by putting forestry into effect upon the lands
you own and control, to make the lumber industry
permanent, and you will lose nothing by it. If you
do not, then the lumber industry will go the way of
the buffalo and the placer mines of the Sierra Nevada.
But I anticipate no such result. For the fact is that ©
practical forestry is being adopted by American lum-
bermen. In its results it will surpass the forestry
practiced in any other country. The development
of practical forestry for the private owner has been
more rapid here than in any other country, and I look
for a final achievement better than any that has been
reached elsewhere.
The regulation of grazing upon the public forest
a
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 19
lands is a forest question, and like all other national
forest questions its settlement should always be for the
best interests of the people most deeply interested.
Forest reserves are essential to the permanent produc-
tiveness of that portion of the public range which they
enclose. The question of grazing has from the be-
ginning been the chief problem in the management of
the forest reserves. The principles which control the
conservative use of the public range are identical with
those which control the conservative use of the public
forests. The objects are a constant supply of wood
and water on the one hand and of forage on the other.
Just as the saw mills must eventually shut down unless
forestry is applied to the forest from which the saw
logs come, so the horses, the cattle, and the sheep of
the West must decrease both in quality and number,
unless the range lands of the arid region are wisely
used. Over-grazing is just as fatal to the live stock
industry as destructive logging is to the lumber in-
dustry. The highest returns from the forest can be
had only through recognizing it as invested capital,
capable, under wise management, of a steady and
increasing yield, and the permanent carrying power
of the range can be maintained or increased only by
the wise regulation of, grazing.
The relation of railroads to the forest is no less vital
than that of the lumberman. The development of
systems of transportation upon a secure basis depends
directly upon the preservation and wise use of the
forest. Without a permanent supply of wood and
water, the business of the railroads will decline, be-
cause those industries upon whose production that
business mainly depends cannot prosper. But the
railroads are interested in a still more vital way. As
great and increasing consumers of wood for ties, con-
20 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
struction timbers, poles, and cars, they are in direct
and urgent need of permanent sources of these sup-
plies. The problem directly before the railroads is,
therefore, the forest problem in all its parts. Much
may be done by the preservative treatment of ties and
railroad timbers, which not only prolongs their life,
but also leads to the profitable use of wood of inferior
kinds and a corresponding decrease in the drain upon
the forest and the cost of its product. But, important
as this is, it merely mitigates the danger instead of
removing it. For their own protection the railroads
must see to it that the supply of ties and timbers in
the forest itself is renewed and not destroyed.
The importance of the public forest lands to mining
is direct and intimate. Mines cannot be developed
without wood any more than arid lands can become
productive without water. The public forest lands
are, and must continue to be, the chief source of tim-
bers used in our western mines. ‘The national forest
reserves are thus vital in their relation to mining;
and where mining is the chief industry, their resources
should be jealously guarded against other and less
productive use. Forest reserves impose no hampering
restrictions upon the development of mineral wealth,
either within their borders or their neighborhood, and
they alone can give the western mining industry a
permanent supply of wood, and so assure its safety
now and its largest development in the future. ,
I am particularly glad that this Congress will in-
clude a full discussion of national and State forest
policy. The forest movement in several States has
already resulted in the adoption of definite State forest
policies. In many others, the time is ripe for useful
work because of the existence of a strong sentiment
for the best use of the forest. The forest problems
AMERICAN Forest Concress 2I
in different States cannot all be solved in exactly the
same way. The methods will in each case have to
be worked out on the ground where they will be used.
But we have before us here the same Opportunity in
State forest matters as in other phases of the forest
problem, for full discussion of methods and results.
Above all we must find the most effective means of
working together towards the same great ends.
THE FOREST POLICY OF FRANCE.
BY
Mr. J. J. JUSSERAND
Ambassador from France
| AM very happy to be enabled, by the flattering
invitation of the Hon. Secretary of Agriculture,
to add French congratulations to the American con-
gratulations and American advice which this Congress
has just received from the most popular and most
eloquent voice in the United States.
The subject of your studies is one indeed which
appeals most powerfully to man’s mind, not to say
man’s heart. The forest is the great friend which
supplied the early wants of mankind, giving the first
fuel, helping to the rearing of the first real house.
And now, after the lapse of thousands of years, the
forest continues the great friend, so adaptable it is to
our wants. The more we invent, the greater become
our new needs, and the more necessary is the forest
for us. Railroads are called in French “chemins de
fer,’ but for all the iron in them, where would we be
without the forest? It supplies the dozen million cubic
meters of wood spent every. year in the world for
railways.
The forest has one singular and providential advan-
tage over most of the earth-produced elements of our
industries. When we have exhausted an iron mine,
a gold mine, an oil well, a supply of natural gas; when
the oil has been carried in immense pipes from Chicago
to New York and from thence to our private lamps, it
is finished; we can consume the thing; we cannot
make it. Not so with the forests. It is in our hands
AMERICAN Forest! CONGRESS 23
to improve or impair them, to kill them or to make
them live. As to which of these fates is in store for
American forests your presence here supplies a suf-
ficient answer.
But is there need to do anything, or have we plenty
of time to think of it? The country is immense, its
resources prodigious. The nation is a young one;
should not something be allowed to youth? Certainly,
anything, except what might maim and cramp a splen-
did future.
That something is allowed, especially in the matter
of forests, cannot be doubted. One of the first things
which struck me, coming over to America, was how
much was allowed. Going north, west or south, sights
of the same sort met my eyes and my French eyes
opened with surprise. Going to Saint Louis last year,
I noticed large spaces where big trees had been cut,
the stumps remaining as high as a man’s shoulder. So
much wood lost, I thought; so much land untillable
because of those stumps remaining in place! Coming
from Canada on another occasion the train was fol-
lowing a succession of what should have been beautiful
valleys. But they were valleys of the shadow of death.
The view was saddened by the corpses of innumerable
trees which had been cut, for what cause I do not
know; was it for their bark, or for something else?
I could not surmise. But the fact was that they were
there, crumbling to pieces, rotten and unavailable,
spoiling the landscape, and making the soil useless by
their thousands of dead bodies. Going to Louisiana,
in another case, my heart bled truly at seeing the blue
sky blackened by the smoke of forests in flames. This
terrible mode of clearing the ground seems to be still
in use; and I noticed places where the fire, being not
violent enough, had not cleared the ground, but had
24 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
ruined and killed the trees, so that it was havoc pure
and simple.
All this, of course, are a foreigner’s impressions,
and perhaps they may be considered unreasonable.
You are young and wealthy; you can afford to spend.
You can afford to spend to-day, and to-day is certainly
as bright as itcan be. But, as you know, squandering
habits, when once taken, are most difficult to check, at
a moment’s notice, just at the time wanted; and, as
your eminent President remarked, the nation should
think of to-morrow.
In France, we think much about to-morrows, because
we have known so many yesterdays. Our case is very
different. We have not your boundless resources; we
must husband what we possess. Our land is limited,
our mines of small importance; our fields have been
furrowed by the plough for’ eighteen centuries more
than yours; the accumulated public debts, left by past
regimes or caused by present necessities, weigh on our
shoulders; and yet with this weight, at this day, we
stand, and, if I may believe what I hear reported, our
friendship is still worth having, as well worth as it
was ever in times past.
There is only one explanation: What we do, we try
to do it with method; what we do, we do with care.
We have no other secret.
There is nothing lost in France, nothing thrown
away—not a rag, not a bit of bread, not a stick of
wood. Many think we are a laughing, singing nation.
If we were such, and nothing more, we should have
long since disappeared. We are a living example that
people may love to have their laugh and their song,
and yet keep their forests in good order. Method and
gloom do not go necessarily together.
That great philosopher, Bacon, who was no particu-
AMERICAN ForEsStT CONGRESS 25
lar friend of the French (he ended badly, you know),
paid us, in one of his essays, this half-hearted com-
pliment: “The French are wiser than they seem.”
Well, such as it is, I accept his saying ; to have wisdom
is the thing, and it little imports whether it is apparent
or concealed. Roots are not visible, and you know,
you foresters, that it is the root that feeds.
Our policy in the matter of forests is a time-honored
one. Like the rest of the inhabitants of our land, they
have their own code of laws, the “Code forestier,’
framed and issued in 1827, itself, in its main lines, an
adaptation of Colbert’s famous ordinance of 16609,
which ordinance, in its turn, reproduced other laws,
some dating back from the time of Charles-the-Wise,
fourteenth century.
We were early struck by the necessity of preserving
forests, and more and more so as we acquired a better
knowledge of the use and wants of these friends of
man. We have a National School of Forestry at
Nancy, where the sound principles of forestry are
taught. The practical importance of this teaching is
testified to by so many foreign students whom we are
happy to welcome there, some coming from America
—one, an eminent one, whom I would name, if he was
not so near me on this platform (Mr. Pinchot).
Our forests have not only a code, but an army of
their own, an army of six thousand men, foresters,
rangers and keepers—a real army, submitted to mili-
tary discipline, so much so that in time of war this
troop is transferred from the Ministry of Agriculture,
where all the forestry services are centered, to the
Department of War.
Several laws have been passed since the code was
promulgated, not at all to relax its rules, but to make
them more practical and efficient. In 1860 a law was
26 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
enacted making it obligatory for the owner of moun-
tains or mountain slopes to reforest them if denuded.
The application of this law is one of my earliest
souvenirs. In 1860, I was not very, very old, and I
went often with my grandfather to see our Govern-
ment-ordered plantation. The Government supplied
the seed and we had to do all the rest. For years I
went to see our trees, and I had difficulty in seeing
them, they were so small. Now when I go, the trees
can scarcely perceive me, they are so tall.
A new law was passed in 1862, giving more liberty
to the landowner. He is allowed to refuse to do the
work. The Government has then the right to pay him
a fair sum for his land and expel him and plant the
trees, so important is it considered for the whole com-
munity. For the importance of such plantations is~
more and more apparent. We see destruction and
poverty invade the parts where the rules have not been
applied; wealth and comfort grow in those where the
rules have been followed. Where there is a just pro-
portion of forest ground the temperature is more equal,
the yielding of water more regular, and, as President
Rooseveit has so well shown a moment ago, forests
have a most beneficent effect with regard to winds.
Observations in the South of France have shown that,
since the E'sterel has been reforested, the destructions
caused by that terrible wind called the mistral have
diminished.
The seacoasts of France were being gradually
invaded by the sand, and the wind carried this death
powder further inland, as years passed on. In 1810,
we tried forestry, and the forest showed itself, as usual,
the friend of man. The sand country has entirely
disappeared, as well on the Ocean as on the Channel,
and the desolate regions of yore are now wealthy,
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 27
pleasant ones, where people even flock for their recre-
ation and their health.
The same careful and methodical policy is being
introduced in our colonial dominions. ‘There the dif-
ficulties are sometimes very great, because the havoc
has been more complete. We try, for example, to
reinduce trees to give back to Southern Tunis its
pristine fertility. Most of it is now a sand desert.
What it was in Roman times we know by the ruins and
the inscriptions. The capital of the South, Suffetula,
as it was called, consists now in scattered ruins in the
midst of absolute desert. One of the inscriptions dis-
covered contains a description given by an old Roman
veteran of what his villa was. He had retired there
after his campaigns, and describes the trees, the plots
of grass, and the fluent waters which adorned his
retreat—now buried under the shroud of the desert
sand.
The Arab conquest destroyed all the trees there, and
killed the forest. The punishment was not long to
follow. No forest there. No men. Not long after
the conquest, the mischief was already considerable,
the land was desolate, and an Arab chronicler, seeing
the havoc done, recalled in his book the former times
of prosperity, adding: “But in those days, one couid
walk from Tripoli to Tunis im the shade.”
I shall add only one word. There are, as you know
full well, two great classes of forests, and no more.
There is the wild forest and there is the civilized forest.
People who know forests only through books—I mean
through bad books, not the books written by members
of this assembly—fancy that the wild forest is the
thing. A time there was, too, when people thought
that the wild man, the man in the state of nature, was
a nest of virtues, and that, leading a kind of simple
28 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
life, he led also, of necessity, a model life. The truth
is quite different: Virtue, like all plants of price, needs
cultivation; forests need the eye, the mind, and the
heart of man. Instead of being full of the most
beautiful and useful trees, the wild forest offers, by
comparison, a prodigiously small quantity of good
trees ; any have outlived their period of use, and they
prevent the growth of others; many have grown
crooked; wicked ones have injured the righteous.
Now the question is, which sort of forest is to be
favored here? It is a great thing for this country to
know what your intentions are, and what you mean
to do. In doing it, in fulfilling your duty as good
foresters, it so happens that you will, at the same time,
second what is uppermost in the mind of every good
American—that is, to help, so far as is in you, to the
spreading of civilization.
THE ATTITUDE OF EDUCATIONAL IN-
STITUTIONS TOWARD FORESTRY
BY
B. LAWTON WIGGINS, LL. D.
Vice-Chancellor, University of the South.
FE HE attitude of at least one educational institution
toward forestry will be best appreciated through
the statement of the following few facts:
The University of the South has at Sewanee, Ten-
nessee, what is perhaps the largest university campus
in the world. It comprises 7,250 acres of land, of
which 6,500 acres are wooded. In 1898, Mr. Gifford
Pinchot, Forester of the United States Department of
Agriculture, inspected the university domain and made
with the university one of the agreements which the
Bureau of Forestry has for codperating with timber-
land owners in the management of their tracts. To be
acceptable to the university, the scheme of management
had to provide for good net financial returns, for we
are in the position of most small owners of timberland
—unable to leave much merchantable timber in the
woods or to reinvest much of our profit in forest
improvements. ‘To comply with the requirements of
the Bureau of Forestry, the working plan had to pro-
vide for leaving the forest in better condition than
‘before; in other words, the working plan had to cover
the judicious selection of the trees to be cut, so as to
favor the reproduction and growth of the desirable
kinds, the avoidance of damage to small growth and of
waste in cutting logs, and protection against fire, while
at the same time assuring a profit to the university.
30 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
And what has been the result? I recall quite dis-.
tinctly that when a little while previously a lumberman
offered $2,000 for the major portion of our timber,
there were those in authority who regarded that sum
as a fair valuation. We began operations under the
direction of foresters in 1900, and have cut a little over
two million board feet of logs, at a net profit of about
$7,250. Two years more of cutting—and profit—
remain. And the condition of the forest is satisfactory
to the Bureau of Forestry, which finds that there are
plenty of vigorous small trees over the logged area
given a new lease of life owing to increased light and
erowing space, and that reproduction of the best kind
has taken place, even little yellow poplars, white ashes,
and white elms being found.
This has furnished an object lesson for our imme-
diate neighbors and for representatives of the entire
South, who visit our beautiful plateau in large numbers
every summer. They can see and hear of results from
the practice of conservative logging, and readily under-
stand the attitude of the University of the South. It
is a zealous missionary, preaching everywhere and at
all times the gospel of forestry.
I speak to you this afternoon not as a trained pro-
fessional forester, but as one whose interest in the
proper management of timberland has been quickened
and strengthened by the above-mentioned association
with foresters. President Roosevelt has told us that
the forest problem is in many ways the most vital
internal problem in the United States; that “the United
States is exhausting its forest supplies far more rapidly
than they are being produced; that the situation is
grave, and there is only one remedy; that that remedy
is the introduction of practical forestry on a large scale,
which is, of course, impossible without trained men,
AMERICAN ForEst CONGRESS 31
men trained in the closet and also by actual field work
under practical conditions.” The economic peril is
coming to be realized everywhere—less so in the South
perhaps than in any other section, though even there
the far-seeing men are now convinced that something
should be done to prevent the diminution of water
supplies, the occurrence of disastrous floods, and the
almost inevitable and speedy exhaustion of the timber
supply; and that for this purpose the trained hands
and heads of several thousand men will be required to
start and continue the work of improving our woods.
The calls for the assistance of the Bureau of Fores-
try indicate the demand for the services of trained
men, and this constant and increasing need is bound to
grow larger and more insistent each time a forester
has a chance to create practical examples of his useful
and necessary sphere in the welfare of the nation.
How are they to be supplied?
Europe has long since discovered the value and
necessity of “forest schools,” not only for turning out
trained specialists in the art of forestry, but of diffusing
among the people a general and genuine interest in
forestry; for creating a healthful public sentiment,
which constitutes the best possible protection for the
woods; for leading men to regard forests as their
friends and to understand their influence in staying
spring torrents and preventing summer droughts, and
their economic value in supplying lumber and fuel.
Recent federal and state legislation evidences a
growing public sentiment in favor of forestry, but we
must not fail to realize that all laws which are not
supported by a general public sentiment are difficult
of operation.
Ever since the founding of the American Forestry
Association in 1882 the need of providing for educa-
32 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
tion in forestry has been stressed more and more from
year to year. Yet only six years ago Doctor Fernow
spoke of the New York College of Forestry as “this
novel institution.” ‘To the bounty of the State of New
York the first professional college of forestry in the
United States owed its existence, and to Cornell Uni-
versity belongs the credit of administering it. It
began its first course, which covered four years of
undergraduate work, in 1898 with five students. When
it closed in 1902, on account of the omission from the
state appropriation bill of the clause providing funds
for its maintenance owing to misguided and selfish
opposition, it had forty-four students enrolled. All
who completed their courses promptly secured good
positions. In fact, the pressure for the services of
educated foresters was so great that leaves of absence
before graduation were allowed to some graduates,
and one senior yielded to the temptation to accept a
position before completing his course.
The Yale Forest School, opened in 1900, was the
first graduate school of forestry organized in this
country. ‘To quote Professor Graves’ own language:
“The organization had in mind the needs of two
classes of men required to carry on the work of for-
estry in the United States: First, thoroughly trained
experts, who are competent to organize and administer
the work in government, state, or private forests, or
to pursue the necessary scientific study of our forests;
and second, men with a general knowledge of forestry
and special skill as woodsmen, qualified to act as
rangers, inspectors, foremen, etc. The first class of
men will be called upon to assist in the organization
of the work of forestry on government, state, or
private tracts; to direct legislation; to creat public
sentiment in favor of forestry; to pursue the scientific
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS a3
study of our trees and forests; to solve the difficult
problems of the influence of fire, grazing, and excessive
lumbering on forests, as well as the problems connected
with the protection of the head waters of rivers; and
to carry on and direct the practical management of
forests of every character and size. In order to do
this work intelligently and successfully a thorough
special training in forestry is required, in addition to
a general education. ‘The forest school has been made
a graduate department, to which only college gradu-
ates are admitted without examination, in order to
attract educated men to forestry and to produce men
of the highest possible training for the work of devel-
oping the profession. The fact, however, was not
overlooked that there is a class of work for which so
thorough a training is required, and the summer school
is especially designed to furnish instruction sufficiently
comprehensive for this work.”
Notwithstanding the high standing required for
admission, the registration has increased from a begin-
ning of five to sixty-three at present. The students
have come from thirty-three of the United States and
from the Philippines, Japan, South Africa, Canada,
and Sweden. In one respect, says President Hadley,
the Yale Forest School is a model to the other depart-
ments of the university, in that it is in active touch
with the demands of practical life and the opportunities
for employment therein. It gives the students of Yale
an assurance that side by side with their training in
general culture and public spirit, they are adapting
themselves to speedy usefulness in the complex organi-
zation of modern commercial life.
The Biltmore Forest School opened in 1897, and is
therefore the oldest in the United States. Although
not connected with an established educational institu-
34 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
tion, it has the great advantage of being located on
Biltmore estate, where Mr. Pinchot introduced scien-
tific forest management into the United States in 1891,
which good work has been kept going by the able
founder and director of the school, Doctor Schenck.
The two years of graduate forest work afforded
‘by the University of Michigan began in 1903, and the
department has grown in every way.
Harvard, Maine, Minnesota, and Nebraska univer-
sities, and Iowa State College of Agriculture and
Mechanical Arts have departments of forestry. Most
of the agricultural colleges offer some instruction in
forestry in connection with the courses in botany,
horticulture, or the like.
In several cases high schools are following the lead
of the universities, and more would doubtless do so if
the teachers were properly equipped. ‘The Secretary
of Agriculture declares that the rapid increase of inter-
est in forestry throughout the country is nowhere more
noticeable than in educational circles.
Such is the attitude of many of our educational
institutions toward forestry, and yet only a short time
ago I heard it argued that instruction in forestry
should be given in isolated, independent schools; that
it should constitute no part of a university course.
Continental Europe settled that question more than
a quarter of a century ago, when, says Mr. B. G.
Northrup, ‘‘a congress of foresters, which was at Frei-
burg and attended by nearly four hundred members,
representing all parts of Germany, Switzerland, Aus-
tria, and Russia, after a long and spirited discussion
by prominent professors from both classes of forest
schools, decided by an almost unanimous vote (only
sixteen dissenting) in favor of combining instruction
in forestry with other departments in the university ;
AMERICAN Forest! CONGRESS 35
and this leads me to the question, “What should be the
attitude of our universities toward forestry?”
Is not a university a place of universal search for
universal truth? Let whoever is disposed to be impa-
tient of the progress that is being made reflect upon
the history of recent university development. We must
look backward in order to look forward.
It was not until late in the last century that science
received recognition, and provision was made for its
teaching. When graduates of American colleges real-
ized that they had failed to get what they needed for
their life work and that there was a strong prejudice
against the admission of applied sciences on a proper
basis, they began to endow coordinate faculties, which
continued for a long time as separate faculties, and
are not even now completely assimiliated. It was some
time also before pure science, which had been taught
in a most elementary way, met with a suitable response
—that chairs were established and equipments pur-
chased. Who does not recall the crusade of science
against philology and the conflict which was waged
almost unremittingly for half a century or more
between the advocates of classical and scientific study ;
the latter claiming that we must reconstruct our aca-
demic and university systems after the inspiration of
modern ideas, and must substitute those studies which
would be more efficient in their disciplinary value and
more useful by reason of their closer affinities with the
practical tendencies of our modern scientific life; the
former, while admitting freely the claims of science,
maintaining that the classics were needed more than
ever to resist the utilitarian and materialistic tendencies
of the age, and that an education cannot be full-orbed
and rounded off without the classics. Greek and Latin
had been supreme for so many centuries that the physi-
36 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
cal and natural sciences were not without a struggle
admitted to equal rank.
This led to a readjustment of the long-established
and closely articulated curriculum, which resulted
finally in the adoption of the elective system. And this
was the beginning of a recognition granted to what
one might call the new learning—modern science,
economics, political science, and the like, which proved,
when properly taught, in no respect inferior to the
subjects of the old curriculum, either in training the
mind or preparing for future careers. ‘The limitations
of the traditional college education of the past, which
was intended for only certain of the learned profes-
sions—law, medicine, and particularly theology—soon
became apparent. The world was moving on. New
constituences and new demands were arising, new
problems were being projected on the economic and
political horizons, new questions were pressing for
answer. Must we not readjust our education forces
to meet the needs of that large majority of men pre-
paring to engage in banking, railways, insurance, trade
and industry, forestry, diplomacy, journalism, and pol-
itics? Are not these several callings as important to
the life of the nation as the traditional professions?
State universities derive their support from the taxa-
tion of the whole people, representing in a large meas-
ure the fruits of the toil and self-denial—whether
voluntary or enforced, whether direct or indirect—of
the common people. Are they justified in spending so
much money to furnish a certain kind of education for
the benefit of a privileged class, where there is this
growing demand for the diffusion of higher learning,
for its much wider application to the daily life and
institutions of the whole people?
Do not all professions and callings require, and will
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 37
they not more and more require, thought and discip-
linary training as well as technical training? Is it
true, as Mr. Carnegie and Mr. Schwab have said, that
the most efficient school of business is business? If
so, ought it not be otherwise? We are told that
President Thwing, who has been looking into the
matter of salaries received by graduates of regular
colleges and scientific schools, finds that in the long
run the college graduates do the best; that scientific
methods are supposed to fit men for immediate employ-
ment; that graduates of these schools seem to find
employment somewhat more readily and at somewhat
higher pay than the college graduate; but that the
difference is not great even at first, and that after a
few years the college graduate has the best of it. Only
a few years ago a director of the Pennsylvania system
of railroads remarked that in future promotions pref-
erence would be given college men—men who had
been trained in the principles as well as in the practice
of the profession, and who had acquired not only the
technique, but also the capacity to think and to com-
prehend all the problems which might arise. For, as
Mr. Laughlin expressed it, “While a school of mechan-
ical engineering is required to fit a man for the
practical parts of railroading, there exists in that pro-
fession a far more important career for the man who
is competent to direct the traffic, classify goods, fix
rates, watch the coming financial depression, know the
signs of coming prosperity, have insight into as well
as experience with the questions of labor and the rela-
tions of employers to employees, who can understand
the duties as well as the privileges of corporations, and
who has the masterly mind to direct and carry out
great financial operations involved in the management
of securities on a scale hitherto unprecedented.”
38 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
Purely technical or engineering training will not then
suffice the man who aspires to leadership in railroading
or in any like calling; he must be schooled in legal,
political, and economic science as well.
There is no profession I know of that requires wider
knowledge than does forestry. All the things which
the best railroad man needs, the successful forester
must have, with more besides. Since he deals scien-
tifically with the soil and a product of it, he must be
much of a geologist, botanist, zoologist, and chemist.
The harvesting and manufacture of his crop calls for
no mean engineering skill and knowledge. The
managing of his property is likely to call for legal
knowledge. And so on through many other essentials
in his education, which only a real university can give
him.
Another and most important reason why forestry
should be a university course and not a separate school
is that the forester is above all a man with practical
problems to handle—a man who must come in contact
with men. So he needs the democratizing influence
of university life, the broadening of his point of view
from association with men from everywhere and with
different aims in life. Without this breadth of view
how could foresters properly handle the many prob-
lems discussed before this Congress? It will take men
far more catholic than those who academically settle
affairs on the basis of knowledge acquired in their
back yards to give a square deal to all the interests
concerned in the creation of forest reserves and in the
granting of timber and grazing permits on them; to
devise schemes of fire prevention and extinction for
all parts of our overburned country; to insure the
crowing of the right kind of trees in the right places ;
to improve our already expert logging and milling
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 39
operations—no easy task, for the skill of our loggers
and lumbermen is proverbial.
If I may as a Southerner use my section of the
country as an example of the varied problems confront-
ing the forester, I will say that we need him to point
out our natural forest areas, and thus save us the time,
effort, and substance which we otherwise might waste
in clearing them only to find through bitter experience
that they would grow nothing else than trees; to
indicate the methods of logging which would insure
the perpetuation of our standard trees, the yellow
poplar, oaks, hickories, gums, cypress, and pines. One
has already shown us a way to gather turpentine
which has added millions to the revenues of the pine
belt through improving the product, and which has
greatly lengthened the period during which trees may
be bled. We need him to solve our fire problem and
devise means for prevention of and protection from
this arch enemy of forest management. Huis scientifi-
cally established facts regarding tree growth, influ-
ences, and value present and future will strengthen
our pleas to state legislatures for wisely conceived,
far-sighted tax laws.
So we repeat this question: Why should not our
universities offer courses which will fit men for all,
instead of a few, professions? I know there are dan-
gers to be apprehended, and that it will require the
utmost care to avoid the Scylla and Charybdis of a
narrow utilitarianism and the pursuit of art and science
as ends in themselves; but of the many advantages,
not the least will be the introduction of a vitalizing
and democratizing element into the student community
which will cause our universities to come forth from
their cloistered seclusion into a closer touch with the
activities of life.
40 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
This is the great problem of the twentieth century.
It overshadows all others. Signs are not wanting that
we shall witness the full realization of all that
President Hadley has so admirably expressed in the
following words:
“Our brotherhood knows no bounds of: occupation.
The day when people thought of the learned profes-
sions as something set apart from all others, the
exclusive property of a privileged few, is past. Opin-
ions may differ as to the achievements of democracy ;
but none can fail to value that growing democracy of
letters which makes of every calling a learned and
noble profession, when it is pursued with the clearness
of vision which is furnished by science or history and
with the disinterested devotion to the public welfare
which true learning inspires. We are proud to have
with us not only the theologian, the jurist, or the
physician ; not merely the historical investigator or the
scientific discoverer ; but the men of every name, who,
by arms or arts, in letters or in commerce, have con-
tributed to bring all callings equally within the scope
of university life.”
We are about to see the proper university recogni-
tion given to the callings upon which so much of our
national welfare depends—agriculture, the production
and harvesting of field crops; silviculture, the produc-
tion and harvesting of forest crops.
For the fulfilment of this prophecy, the recent utter-
ances of our educational leaders and the munificent
gifts of our men of wealth give us hope and encour-
agement. It is of the very spirit and life of our
democracy, and it must come. Of all the great move-
ments of the twentieth century, none will prove more
characteristic of democracy and more vital and vivify-
ing than the establishment of “an elementary school
AMERICAN ForEST CONGRESS AI
in every home, of a secondary school in every city,
township or incorporated village, and of a university
in every state’”—a university which will be the insepa-
rable adjunct as it is the apex of the whole educational
system, where all branches of human learning are
taught and all professions and callings—law and medi-
cine, theology and teaching, commerce, trade, and
industry, agriculture and silviculture—are made equal,
a federation of them all being recognized as the only
basis of educational solidarity. Then there will be
coordination and cooperation instead of competition
and rivalry. There will be gathered the representa-
tives of every class and station, of every calling and
profession, of every political and religious creed, con-
stituting a body politic, a vertitable democracy, learning
the lesson of citizenship as well as of scholarship;
lighting at this central fire the Torch of Universal
Truth and passing it from teacher to pupil, onward to
the end of time.
IMPORTANCE OF THE FORESTS) (i
AGRICULTURE
BY
HON. JOHN LAMB
Member of Congress from Virginia
‘THE preservation of the forests of America is a
subject of vast importance, and one that has been
too long neglected.
Should the deliberations of this Congress result in
calling the attention of our landowners, farmers and
mechanics to this impending national danger, beyond
the power of figures to compute, its members and
delegates will richly deserve the gratitude of future
generations.
Within the lives of many of us the question of the
destruction of the forests did not arise. We have
seen the log piles, and witnessed the destruction of
millions of feet of the finest timber that ever grew,
that the land might be cultivated in corn, cotton and
tobacco. Some of us have seen this land turned out
to grow up in scrub pines and oaks, while fresh forests
were denuded of timber that would have enriched the
next generation.
The unnecessary destruction of the forests in this
way has brought untold loss to the Alantic States,
from New England to the Gulf of Mexico. It has
been estimated that in the State of New York alone
between 1850 and 1860, more than 1,500,000 acres of
timber land were cleared for purposes of lumber and
agriculture. During that decade more than 50,000,000
acres in the whole country were brought under culti-
vation.
AmErIcAN Forest CoNncrREss” 43
The destruction of the forests during the Civil War
has not and cannot be computed. This loss affected
the agricultural interests in every State that was the
scene of operations. The destruction of large forests,
the gradual growth of hundreds of years, caused im-
mense loss. Both armies contributed to this. Costly
bridges, dwellings, and out-houses were consumed by
fire. The relaying of railroads and rebuilding of
bridges and dwellings demanded a new supply, and
helped to drain the country of timber that was left.
Native Virginians in some sections refused to remain
where all the timber had been swept away. For the
same reason emigrants declined to come to some of
the finest parts of the State.
The menace to health is greatly augmented by the
destruction of the forests, and the farmers of this
country have suffered and are still suffering, to an
alarming extent from this cause. We have no dry
statistics on this point, but the experience of many,
and the observation of all who travel, will confirm the
statement.
The counties of Culpeper and Fauquier, in Virginia,
were singularly free from malaria while their forests
stood comparatively undisturbed. After the destruc-
tion of these, through war and other causes, fevers,
before unknown, became prevalent.
The elderly physicians of Eastern Virginia might
furnish an interesting chapter to history on this point;
for it is one that deeply concerns the welfare of the
farmers of the whole country, who are suffering in
many ways from the wasteful destruction of the for-
ests. It is to be hoped that our Department of
Agriculture will investigate the health conditions that
prevail after the removal of the forests from certain
localities, and request the medical fraternity to furnish
their valuable experiences along this line.
44 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
It is well known that a house surrounded by forest
trees is nearly always healthy. A gentleman who
occupied such a home for ten or twelve years in one
of the eastern counties of Virginia had no sickness
of consequence in his family and did not pay a phy-
sician fifty dollars during that time. He afterwards
purchased a large farm, surrounded by large tracts of
cleared land with few trees, and lost in a few years
several members of his family, and contributed to the
doctors a goodly part of his profits.
The ceaseless reproduction of the pine forests of
the South Atlantic States is all that has saved the
farms and farmers of that section from destruction.
For over two hundred years there has been a ceaseless
war upon the forest. The early settlers cut it down
and burned it up, and their children, with few excep-
tions, followed their example. Then came the general
consumption for rails and wood; the demand for
mechanical industry; the destruction for liquidation
of farm debts; the sale of cordwood and sawed
lumber to northern markets, till every tree of the
original growth in most of the States have been re-
moved. The second growth of old field pine is now
receiving the same treatment, with smaller profit to
the seller and poorer results to the consumer. Could
the farmers of these States be persuaded to adopt the
intensive system of farming, and have their poorer
lands grow up in timber, they would improve their
own condition, and hand down to their children valu-
able possessions. A gentleman of my acquaintance
informed me that where he planted corn when a boy,
he had cut from the land, a few years ago, cordwood,
which he sold for eight dollars a cord in New York
city.
Many thoughtful persons have claimed that the wood
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 45
and timber interests of some sections of the South
have militated against agriculture in various ways—
not to mention the effect on the waterfall—and the
injury resulting from overflows and freshets.
The disastrous results of the latter, caused by the
removal of the forests along the banks of the rivers,
cannot be learned from any statistics. The report
made to our Committee of Agriculture shows a dis-
tressing condition, and one that appeals strongly for
Federal and State legislation. Many valuable farms
have been impaired in value, and some utterly de-
stroyed, by the sand and debris washed down by the
overflows. Cities and villages that were not affected
years ago are now often flooded with water, eight to
fifteen feet deep. All this shows the importance of
forests to agriculture, and appeals to the American
people to spare the trees, and will in time—not far
off—compel the State legislatures, as well as the
Federal Government, to take action in the premises.
We learn from the experiences of other nations the
consequences of the continued destruction of the
forests. Palestine, Egypt, Italy and France have seen
some of their populous regions turned into a wilder-
ness, and their fertile lands into deserts. The danger
here is greater than many suppose. Immediate action,
both for prevention and restoration, is needed.
“Bernard Pallissy,” the famous “Potter of the Tuil-
leries,’ one of the most profound men ever produced
in Europe, plead for the wood in France as follows:
Having expressed his indignation at the folly of
men in destroying the woods, his interlocutor defends
the policy of felling them by citing the examples of
divers bishops, cardinals, priors, abbotts, monkeries
and chapters, which by cutting their woods have made
three profits; the sale of the timber, the rent of the
46 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
eround, and the good portion of the grain grown
by the peasants upon it. To this argument Pallissy
replies: “I cannot enough detest this thing, and I call
it not an error but a curse and calamity to all France;
for when the forests shall be cut all arts shall cease, and
they who practice them shall be driven out to eat
grass with Nebuchadnezzar and the beasts of the field.
I have divers times thought to set down in writing the
arts that shall perish when there shall be no more
wood, but when I had written down a great number,
I did perceive that there could be no end of my writing,
and having diligently considered, I found there was
not any which could be followed without wood. * * *
And truly I could well allege to thee a thousand
reasons, but ’tis so cheap a philosophy that the very
chamber wenches, if they do but think, may see that
without wood it is not possible to exercise any manner
of human art or cunning.”
G. P. Marsh, in his valuable work “Man and Nature,”
page 232, says: “There are parts of Asia Minor, of
Northern Africa, of Greece, and even of Alpine
Furope, where the operations of causes set in action
by man has brought the face of earth to a desolation
almost as complete as that of the moon; and though,
within that brief space of time men call the ‘historical
period’ they are known to have been covered with
luxuriant woods, verdant pastures and fertile meadows,
they are now too far deteriorated to be reclaimable by
man; nor can they become again fitted for human use
except through great geological changes, or other
mysterious influences or agencies of which we have no
present knowledge, or over which we have no pros-
pective control.
“The destructive changes occasioned by the agency
of man upon the flanks of the Alps, the Appennines,
AMERICAN ForEST CONGRESS 47
the Pyrennes, and other mountain ranges in central
and southern Europe, and the progress of physical
deterioration, have become so rapid that, in some
localities, a single generation has witnessed the begin-
ning and the end of the melancholy revolution.
“Tt is certain that a desolation like that which has
overwhelmed many once beautiful and fertile regions
of Europe awaits an important part of the territory of
the United States, unless prompt measures are taken
to check the action of destructive causes already in
@peration, FF) * *
“The only legal provisions from which anything
can be hoped are such as shall make it a matter of
private advantage to the landholder to spare the trees
upon his ground, and promote the growth of young
wood. Something may be done by exempting stand-
ing forests from taxation, and by imposing taxes on
wood felled for fuel or timber ; something by premiums
or honorary distinctions for judicious management
of the woods. It would be difficult to induce gov-
ernments, general or local, to make the necessary
appropriations for such purposes. But there can be
no doubt that it would be sound economy in the end.”
It is claimed that about two hundred square miles
of fertile soil are washed into the rivers annually in
the United States, while the loss in crops and other
property destroyed by floods will run up into the
millions.
The most of this loss can be traced to the destruction
of the forests along the river banks.
Forest-covered areas retain a large percentage of the
rainfall, while regions where there are no forests allow
a much greater proportion of the rainfall to at once
find its way into the streams. It is well known that
many of our streams are subject to more disastrous
48 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
floods and to lower water stages in dry seasons than
was the case before the forests were cut off.
Whether forests increase the amount of precipitation
or not—on this authorities are not agreed—it is very
certain from the observation and experience of those
who live in the country that local showers are raore
frequent in the neighborhood of dense forests. We
may well contend that the forest helps to water the
farm; that it protects from disastrous wind storms,
both in winter and summer; prevents the spread of
disease, besides furnishing an inexhaustible and self-
renewing supply of a material indispensable to the
successful exercise of every art of peace, as well as
much of the destructive energy of war.
So important is this subject that the farmers of this
country should hail with delight the work of this.
Congress, and join hands with you in the earnest effort
you are now and will hereafter make to save America
from the disaster that has overtaken many countries
in Europe.
Experience has shown that no legislation can secure
the permanence of the forests in private hands. The
farmers must be educated along this line. The earnest
efforts of the Department of Agriculture must be
encouraged, and the means necessary for the sending
out of literature must be furnished by the Congress.
Such Bulletins as Nos. 67 and 173, by B. E. Fernow,
of the Division of Forestry, will accomplish a great
deal. The farmers’ institutes in the states must take
up the subject and help to create a public sentiment
that will change present conditions and lead to tree
planting on many other than Arbor days.
Every word written, printed or spoken on this sub-
ject will bring a blessing and the author will deserve
public thanks. As a subject of political economy no
AMERICAN ForEst CONGRESS 49
more important one can be brought to the attention
of the citizens of this republic.
As a people we have solved some vexing problems.
Many others confront us to-day, and will tax our
patience, courage, and endurance. Profiting by the
experience of other countries, impelled by the imminent
dangers of the present time, and encouraged by the
prospect of laying up for future generations a supply
of material necessary to their comfort and safety, we
should devote our energies to the work of restoring
the American forests. We know that growth is slow,
and restoration tedious. We also know that the perse-
verance and energy of the American is equal to any
task he assumes.
We have 5,674,875 farmers in this country. Could
one-third of these be induced to plant half an acre
each in forest trees a year, we would have nearly a
million acres a year added to the forests. Ina decade
at this rate we would have gone very far in solving a
problem of great moment, and feel that we had done
much towards offsetting the destruction and prevent-
ing the coming desolation.
The preservation and restoration of the American
forests will greatly add to the comfort and beauty of
our homes, and tend to keep the youths of the land in
the rural districts, free from the temptations and vices
of city life. The migration from country to city is an
alarming feature of our social life. There are already
indications of the returning tide. The preservation of
the forests and the beautifying of country homes will
strengthen the patriotic sentiment in the country and
intensify reverence for home.
A lack of reverence is a growing evil in our land.
We observe it everywhere, North, South, East, and
West. Students, philosophers, and divines inveigh
50 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
against it, offering various remedies for the evil.
We suggest the preservation of home and home ties,
the cultivation of reverence for Mother Earth, and the
preservation of the noble forests.
It is the earth alone of all the elements around us
that is never found an enemy to man. ‘The great body
of waters oppress him with rain and devour him with
inundations. The air rushes on in storms and prepares
the tempest or lights up the volcano; but the earth,
gentle and indulgent, ever subservient to the wants of
man, spreads his walk with flowers and his table with
plenty; returns with interest every good intrusted to
her care; and though she produces the poison, still
supplies the antidote; though teased more to supply
his luxuries than his necessities, yet even to the last
she continues her kind indulgence, and when life is
over piously hides his remains in her bosom.
DEPENDENCE OF BUSINESS INTERESTS
UPON THE FORESTS
BY
HOWARD ELLIOTT
President, Northern Pacific Railway
MM may, and do, differ widely in their views as
to the extent to which Federal control and
supervision should be applied to various forms of
business in the United States, but there can be less
difference of opinion over the idea that the preserva-
tion and reproduction of the forests must, at present,
be undertaken by the Federal or State Governments,
or both, if the work is to be done at all. Possibly as
the subject becomes better understood private capital
can undertake this work in some sections where the
conditions are favorable, but, at the present time, it is
probably true that forest reproduction by individuals
will not stand the test of yielding an adequate return
on the investment. Recognition of these conditions,
and the importance of forest preservation to the
reclamation of the arid lands have resulted in the
adoption of a public Forest Reserve policy which
should receive support, suggestion, and approval.
Business enterprises that are dependent upon the for- |
ests should recognize this condition and plan accord-
ingly.
I feel that I owe some apology for venturing to say
anything to this meeting, composed of men who have
spent more time than I have, and who know more
than I do on the general subject of forestry, and its
relations to the welfare of the country, now and in the
51a PROCEEDINGS OF THE
future. A very great personal and business interest
in the subject is my excuse for being here.
The Northern Pacific Railway Company, of which
I have the honor to be the president, traverses states
in which there are forest reserves as follows:
Existing Proposed Total
State. Acres. Acres. Acres.
Ts iS CCo=.6 1 RAE Roe LD pave CANN 708,840 798,840
Blea iahc tie 2 eed teat ra eee es 7,882,400 4,077,700 11,960,100
TAAWO (ie beck viahoseie was aie 3,955,220 3,501,520 7,450,740
WiasiNetae) (ice soc sae 7,012,960 2,603,480 9,616,440
OPA Gs sige ea eve 18,850,580 10,891,540 20,742,120
a total in which the Northern Pacific Railway Com-
pany is interested, of nearly 30,000,000 acres.
Included in this acreage are lands granted to the
Northern Pacific Railway Company, amounting to:
Mbdeyrstenrneg 2 0 oor Gs ghd gC Ri seiola a otaeiteanlate Wi wie eh eee 1,507,130.53
TUNG N ie an ce Ye tact Ue hres shats, Seah alar eael a ea 228,208.36
AV US TANT DOME 5s !0o55 Jane Wwe Robie mien cle Ane chee cele aoe te 1,292,562.93
ALTE Sar ects eran Woe aC a eae eA ne 3,027,901.82
These lands were given by the Government in 1864,
to induce the building of the road at a time when even
the wisest owners of capital hesitated about undertak-
ing an enterprise so large, and so doubtful as to the
outcome; and the discouragement and losses to those
investing in this railroad, until within the last few
years, are a matter of common knowledge.
During the last five years, of the freight handled
by the Northern Pacific Railway, forest product ship-
ments were:
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 51b
Tons
For the year ériding June 30, 1000... 6.1 csi cece ees ce 2,207,526
Hor the year ending June 30, 1901... ..5.2.00...-05000 2,741,708
Hor the year etiditia June’ 30, T1002. . 5s bss gs od oe os 3,694,604
Hor the year ending June’ 30, 1003....5.5. 00.5.3 es 0008 5,090, 387
For the year ending June 30, 1904. .........2+.20220+ 5,285,077
The prosperity and future growth of North Dakota,
of Montana, of Idaho, and of Washington, are depen-
dent very largely upon the successful irrigation of
lands adjacent to the streams and rivers which find
their source of supply in the mountains covered by
the existing or proposed forest reserves.
And the Northern Pacific, in common with all other
railroads, is vitally interested in the subject of ties and
timber with which to maintain existing railroads, and
to build new ones.
So the interest I represent is, and will be, affected
very directly by the work of the Government in con-
nection with the forests, and to-day an earnest effort is
being made to arrive at some fair basis of adjustment
between the Government and the Northern Pacific
Railway Company so as to obtain the best results in
the Forest Reserves controlled by the Government, and
preserve to the railroad its acreage for its use in ob-
taining ties and timber in the future.
Hence, when your gifted Forester, Mr. Gifford
Pinchot, and your worthy and energetic President,
the Honorable Secretary of Agriculture, asked me
to participate in this meeting, I hesitated, but finally
accepted with some reluctance, feeling that I could
bring little that was new to the discussion. I accepted
because it seemed ungracious to decline the cordial
invitation, and because I wished to express, so far as
possible, by my presence here, the interest that the
Northern Pacific Railway Company takes in the whole
51c PROCEEDINGS OF THE
subject, and to encourage other railroads to do like-
wise ; to express, further, the willingness and intention
of our company to cooperate on reasonable lines with
the Federal Government for better forest methods and
wood treatment, and to emphasize the importance to
many large interests and to railroad business particu-
larly, of being less wasteful and prodigal with the
wooden materials used in commercial enterprises in
the United States.
The first great business directly dependent upon the
forest is that of the lumberman; there is probably in-
vested in logging camps, saw mills, planing mills and
other enterprises incident to producing forest products
in the rough, over $1,000,000,000. Upon this great
business, employing many men, and paying out mil-
lions annually in wages, depend in turn very many
manufacturing enterprises scattered from one end of
the United States to the other; depend the wood pulp
and paper business of the country; depend in part the
successful prosecution of many mining enterprises.
The transportation business is dependent upon the
success of these commercial enterprises, and they in
turn are dependent upon a safe, efficient, prompt, and
economical system of transportation.
Many of the manufacturing interests will be slack-
ened, depressed, and perhaps stopped entirely, unless
steps are taken to use to the best advantage the forests
we now have, and to arrange to reproduce them for
use in the future.
The railroads represent in round figures an invest-
ment of about $13,000,000,000. They collect and dis-
bursement annually about $2,000,000,000, of which
$800,000,000 goes directly to labor. They carry in a
year 21I,000,000,000 passengers one mile; they trans-
port in a year 180,000,000,000 tons of freight one mile
AMERICAN ForEsT CONGRESS 51d
at an average rate of three-fourths of a cent per ton
per mile, far lower than the rates in any other country
in the world; and they do this with wages far higher
than in any other country in the world, and with a
general service far better than that given by any other
nation.
An absolutely essential part of a modern railroad is
a safe, strong, and good track, and these figures about
railroads are given simply to show the magnitude of
that business in investment, in wages, in work done,
and in the price paid therefor. Anything that tends
to make the maintenance and operation of this great
commercial tool more expensive must be offset either
by a decrease in wages, by an increase in rates, by a
decrease in efficiency, by a decrease in returns to own-
ers, or by all combined.
To have good track the railroads must have some
form of support under the rails, and the present prac-
tice is a wooden tie. In this item alone, based upon
the actual requirements for a period of years by one
large system, it is estimated that the total annual con-
sumption of ties, for renewals only, in all of the rail-
roads of the United States, is at least 100,000,000, to
which add 20,000,000 for additional tracks and yards,
and for the construction of new railroads, and the total
is the equivalent in board measure of more than 4,000,-
000,000 feet.
The significance of these figures is more apparent
when it is remembered that about 200 ties is the aver-
age yield per acre of forest, varying very greatly in
different localities; so that to supply this single item
necessitates the denudation annually of over one-half
million acres of forest. But the cross tie supply is
only one of the forest products required by the rail-
roads. There are bridge timbers, fence posts, tele-
51e PROCEEDINGS OF THE
graph poles, building timber of all kinds, car material—
all of which together, it is estimated, will equal in
board measure the cross tie item, so that it is possible
that the railroads of the United States, for all purposes,
require, under present practices, the entire product of
almost one million acres of the forest annually.
So the railroad business, as well as the manufactur-
ing business, in a number of directions, is interested in,
and very dependent upon, the preservation of the for-
ests of this country, and in a wise handling of the
subject by the Government, both National and State;
in the continuance of the supply of timber for use now
and in the future; in the revenue derived from the
transportation of forest products; in conserving the
water supply of the country so that the maximum
amount of arid land may be irrigated and thus support
a producing and consuming population.
Until the time came when the increase in distance
from the point of supply of timber, and the increase
in the value of the stumpage, resulted in an increase
in the cost of all items of forest products, not much
attention was paid by business interests, excepting by
a far-seeing few, to the necessity for a conservative
policy about the forest supply. Happily, before too
late, there has been an awakening, the credit for which
is due to the persistent efforts of those present.
On the part of the railroads, this awakening has
taken the practical form of preservation of cross ties
and other timbers so as to lengthen the life of the
wood; to a greater use of metal, stone and cement; to
the wiser cutting, handling and seasoning of ties and
timber, and to a utilization of different kinds of wood
for ties, and what is true with the railroad is also true
with other important business interests dependent upon
wood for their successful operation.
AMERICAN ForEsT CONGRESS 5if
This is something in which, as you will all know,
this country is somewhat behind Europe, but I am
glad to say nearly all the railroads in the last few years
are thinking, and thinking very hard, on the subject,
because the problem of how to support their rails is
more perplexing each year.
If the American railroads are to continue to be the
efficient commercial tool that they now are; to continue
the very low average rates, and the high scale of wages
now in effect, the question of the increased cost of ties
and timber is of greater and greater importance to
those who pay transportation charges ; to wage-earners,
and to railroad owners.
The fact that so many large interests are so depen-
dent upon the wise handling of the forests remaining
in the country, will insure a greater cooperation in the
future than there has been in the past between those
who cut down and use the forests for money-making
purposes, and those who are studying the subject in
order to safeguard the interests of those who come
after us.
This codperation is very necessary, and the work of
the National Government, the various State Govern-
ments, the state agricultural colleges, and the forest
schools should, so far as possible, be along the same
lines.
With such odperation I have faith that the ingenuity,
perseverance and ability of the American man will
solve this important question; and that, in spite of a
somewhat lavish use of our forest resources in the
past, we shall be able, by a greater care in the future,
and by a more extended use of materials, other than
wood, preserve for ourselves and for those that come
after us, the forests of the country for business, health,
and pleasure.
PART IL.
IMPORTANCE. OF THE PUBLIC FOREST
LANDS TO IRRIGATION
THE CLOSE RELATION BETWEEN FOR-
ESTRY AND IRRIGATION
BY
GUY ELLIOT MITCHELL
Secretary, the National Irrigation Association
‘T BE connection between a comprehensive system
of forestry and irrigation is a somewhat local
though vital one, directly affecting as it does but one-
half of the territory of the United States—the arid
region. Forestry itself, as affecting water supply, is
a broad national question, as well as a local one in each
state and drainage basin. The forest movement, there-
fore, has a country-wide interest, and whereas Cali-
fornia is alarmed over the destruction of its mountain
forests and the drying up of its streams which form
the life-blood of its communities, Pennsylvania and
New England are only to a less extent exercised over
the threatened danger to their water sources, necessary
for city and town supplies and for power development.
In the Western half of the United States the destruc-
tion of forests has an intimate, immediate bearing
upon the capacity of the States to sustain population,
for population results from irrigation; irrigation de-
pends upon water supply and the water supply is the
melting snows caught and held by the forests clothing
the great mountain chains of the Sierras and the
Rockies—nature’s great storage reservoirs.
Three things are necessary to insure a maximum
water supply for irrigation:
First, prevent wholesale destruction of timbered
watersheds.
C
54 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
Second, substitute therefor a rational system of
timber cutting; and,
Third, reforest and afforest lands where the value
of the increased water supply will warrant this most
advanced and expensive feature of the American forest
plan.
The first of these should receive immediate consid-
eration; the present tremendous waste should be
checked and the second part of the plan promptly
adopted before it is too late, and the third and most
expensive part becomes the only remedy.
So far as the Government timber lands are con-
cerned, aggregating many millions of acres outside
of the national forest reserves, for every thousand
dollars now expended in carrying out the first two
provisions of the plan—where all that is required is
to properly direct timber cutting to husband the re-
sources of nature, new growth—it is probably a con-
servative estimate to make that a million dollars, and
much time will be required to attain the same results
through forest planting.
This latter creative plan while less pressing and
vital than the need of conserving what we already
have, holds out wonderful eventual possibilities. The
statement of Mr. Gifford Pinchot, Forester, United
States Department of Agriculture, at the Twelfth Na-
tional Irrigation Congress, at El Paso, Texas, Novem-
ber, 1904, that experiments and the observations of
years have proven that enormous areas of the West
can, by systematic planting, be made into forests with
the effect of restoring streams which have disappeared,
possibly thotisands of years ago, and of creating en-
tirely new streams, holds out startling and almost
unrealizable probabilities for future agricultural devel-
opment to the forest and water student.
AMERICAN ForEst CONGRESS 55
What is needed to-day, immediately, is vastly more
strength to the arm of American forestry for the
vigorous prosecution of its well matured plans to
save what we now possess. ‘The two greatest problems
before this country to-day, well worthy the expenditure
by the nation of millions and hundreds of millions of
dollars instead of thousands and hundreds of thou-
sands, are forestry and irrigation. They will return such
expenditure, principal and interest, many times over,
and the carrying out of such a policy will demonstrate
its wisdom within the present generation. It is a
question demanding our immediate consideration, and
is not, as many patriotic citizens seem to believe, a
remote problem which must be solved in the distant
future. I make no careless, ill-considered statement
when I assert that these two correlated subjects form
the most important question before the United States
to-day and through whose wise solution the country
has more to gain than from any other resource, within
her borders or over seas. For can anything be of
greater import than the creation of an empire within
our midst which will support a population as great
as that of the entire country to-day?
The work of the Bureau of Forestry of the Depart-
ment of Agriculture has come, within the past two
years, to be recognized as a practical, hard-headed
business proposition. When the present Forester, Mr.
Gifford Pinchot, took up this work he gave lumbermen
credit for shrewdness and ability; he did not claim to
know more than they about lumbering; but he did
contend that lumbering could be carried on profitably
without forest destruction. Later, when criticised for
his enthusiasm in the setting apart of forest reserves
and his supposed substitution of practical lumbering
for the zsthetic considerations, he made the notable
response ;
56 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
‘“T am not a preserver of trees. I am a cutter-down
of trees. It is the essence of forestry to have trees
harvested when they are ripe, and followed by successive
crops. The human race is not destroyed because the
individual dies. Every individual must die, but the
race lives on. So every tree must die, but the forest
will be extended and multiplied. Yet it by no means
follows that the face of the land shall be denuded, so
that the character of the watersheds shall be altered,
with the resulting injury to streams and to agricultural
lands depending upon them.”
The United States is quite fortunate in the posses-
sion of Gifford Pinchot as Government Forester; the
President is fortunate in having a man to carry out
this advanced forest policy, a man who is striving
solely to conserve one of the greatest of America’s
natural resources, thus erecting to himself and his
period a monument which will endure for all ages.
President Roosevelt has uttered some notable truths
as to the relation of forest preservation to agriculture
and home building. Speaking at Leland Stanford
University last year, he said: “In many parts of
California the whole future welfare of the State de-
pends upon the way in which you are able to use your
water supply; and the preservation of the forests and
the preservation of the use of the water are insepara-
bly connected. Whatever tends to destroy the water
supply of the Sacramento, the San Gabriel, and the
other valleys strikes vitally at the welfare of California.
The forest cover upon the drainage basins of streams
used for irrigation purposes is of prime importance
to the interests of the entire State.” And, again:
“Now keep in mind that the whole object of forest pro-
tection is, as I have said again and again, the making
and maintaining of prosperous homes. Every phase
AMERICAN Forest CoNGRESS 57
of the land policy of the United States is, as it by right
ought to be, directed to the upbuilding of the home-
maker. The one sure test of all public land legislation
should be: Does it help to make and keep prosperous
homes? If it does, the legislation is good. If it does
not, the legislation is bad.
“Certain of our land laws, however beneficent their
purposes, have been twisted into an improper use, so
that there have grown up abuses under them by which
they tend to create a class of men who, under one color
and another, obtain large tracts of soil for speculative
purposes, or to rent out to others.”
Two bills are pending in Congress to-day, the pas-
sage of which will prove a distinct gain to American
forestry. They are little understood, probably, by
the American people as a whole, yet it is doubtful if
there are any pending before Congress fraught with
greater import to the nation. One has passed the
House and the other one has passed the Senate. The
former bill consolidates the entire government forest
work, now badly divided and cut up among different
bureaus and divisions, into one bureau under the De-
partment of Agriculture.* It has the unanimous sup-
port and approval of various officials, the heads of
departments and the Executive. It should promptly
become a law and the country should then stand by
its Bureau.of Forestry with such support as is neces-
sary to carry out its forestry plans in the broadest and
most comprehensive manner, for by doing so it will
conserve greatly its own wealth.
The other measure has likewise the unqualified sup-
port of the President, all forest officials and heads of
departments. It passed the Senate without a dissent-
*This bill has since passed Congress and was signed by
President Roosevelt, February I, 1905.
58 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
ing vote. It provides for the substitution of the timber
and stone law with a plan to allow the general govern-
ment to retain title to all its timber lands, but to sell
the timber thereon under such regulations as will insure
the perpetual reforestation of these lands, their timber
cropping, and the preservation of their water supplies.
Under the present law timber land of great value is
disposed of by the Government at $2.50 an acre, is
carelessly and wastefully lumbered so that entire water-
sheds are denuded of their forest cover, destructive
fires are allowed to sweep over them leaving them
~ bare and unable to retain the moisture upon which
irrigated communities depend. This law was passed
to enable settlers to purchase small tracts of timber
land, presumably adjacent to their homsteads. Its
provisions have been evaded, as the President inti-
mates, to such an extent that enormous tracts of land
have passed into speculative ownership without result-
ing good to the communities; in fact, with the utmost
danger to their prosperity and well being. This
measure should likewise receive the prompt considera-
tion of that branch of Congress before which it is
pending.
There is yet another law which stands as a great
menace to forest preservation. It is the forest reserve
lieu land law, known as lieu land or scrip law. It
allows the owner of land within the forest reserves to
exchange that land for other unreserved public land
of the reserves. Under it vast areas of almost worth-
less land, in many cases previously denuded of its tim-
ber by its owners, have been exchanged for the finest
timber lands in the Northwest. This law should be
repealed, and where private individuals or corporations
own land within the forest reserves which they do not
desire, it should be appraised by the Government and
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 59
the cash value paid to the owner of one or two dollars
an acre, or whatever it may be worth, rather than that
he should be allowed to exchange it for equal areas of
our finest timber lands worth $20, $50, and possibly
$100 anacre. The particularly evil feature of this law
is that lieu land right is a floating, purchasable com-
modity, and has resulted in the acquirement of immense
tracts under single ownership.*
With these three measures acted upon by Congress
the nation will emerge from the present area of lumber
waste and timber land speculation into one of forest
conservation, husbandry, and thrift which will result
in both timber supplies and water resources for the
coming generations, where the present outlook indi-
cates timber famine and vast loss to irrigation.
*The lieu land law was repealed by Congress in March of
this year.
FORESTS AND RESERVOIRS
BY
FO NEWELL
Chief Engineer, United States Reclamation Service
LL are aware that the Government, through the
operation of the Reclamation Act of June 17,
1902, is building large irrigation works throughout
the West. The fund for that purpose now amounts
to about $25,000,000. ‘These works, national in char-
acter, are being constructed as rapidly as possible. The
protection of these works, their future use, their sta-
bility through all time, is largely dependent upon the
proper treatment of the forests upon the mountains
above the reservoirs. In fact there is hardly a project
now under consideration whose future success is not
closely joined with the questions of the best use and
preservation of the forests and to a less degree of the
grazing land immediately adjacent. ‘These works are
being built to last for all time, and if they are to be
preserved in their best condition, it must be after we
have solved this question of the best protection and use
of the forest.
A number of the delegates present have come from
the far West. Many others are deeply interested in
Western development, not only from general con-
siderations, but because the creation of a home in the
West means the creation of a home in the manufac-
turing districts of the East, and possibly the creation
of a home for a man who is employed by the trans-
porting interests. The transportation men, so well
represented at this Congress, have an immediate and
vital concern in this whole subject of conservation of
AMERICAN Forest! CONGRESS 61
water and, growing out of that, the conservation of
the forests.
It is desirable to review briefly something of what is
going on in the Western States and Territories. Take
Arizona, for instance: Here the Reclamation Service
is building a storage dam at Roosevelt, costing probably
$3,000,000. When built it will enable the creation of
homes for many thousands of people, and render pro-
ductive a large area now desert. In California is the
Yuma project, which it is expected will be begun soon ;
and also another project in the northern part of the
State, around the Klamath lakes. For the protection of
an Arizona reservoir a forest reserve must be had above
the reservoir in order to prevent, as far as possible, the
washing of soil which follows upon the destruction of
tree growth. In Colorado is the Gunnison tunnel, the
contract for which is being let now—a tunnel 30,000
feet in length, to take water from the Gunnison River
into the Uncompahgre Valley, a broad, fertile, but arid
plain. The head waters of that river must be pro-
tected in part by the forests as well as by reservoirs.
In Idaho, the same is true; there on the Snake River
a dam is being built across the stream. Its utility for
all time depends largely upon the good treatment ac-
corded to the head waters of that stream. This matter
of the development of the West is not a State question,
but is interstate. We must build reservoirs in Wyo-
ming ; we must conserve forests in Wyoming to benefit
the arid plains of Idaho. For Western Kansas, Mr.
Reeder has already spoken briefly of the great interest
in irrigation, and although having no forests, yet the
rivers that come into Kansas, as the Arkansas, depend
partly for their continuity of flow on proper treatment
of the woodlands on the mountains in the central part
of Colorado.
62 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
In Montana are similar conditions. The Yellow-
stone River, rising in Wyoming, derives a large water
supply from wooded areas which must be protected in
order that the flow of that stream may be properly
safeguarded. In Nebraska, the conditions are similar
to those in Western Kansas. The North and South
Platte Rivers coming into that State, are dependent
for their waters, in part at least, upon the flow from
the high mountains of Central Colorado and Southern
Wyoming. In Nevada is under construction one of
the largest irrigation works in the world, taking water
from Truckee River over into the Carson. ‘The in-
tegrity of that great system, which will cost at least
$3,000,000 and possibly $5,000,000 when it is com-
pleted, will depend largely on the conservation of the
forest growth in the State of California; there again
is the same question of protection of forests in one
State to secure the prosperity of the homes in another.
In New Mexico is being built on Hondo River, a tribu-
tary of Pecos River, a reservoir which receives its
waters from forest reserves in central New Mexico.
There is in contemplation a great work on the Rio
Grande, interstate and international in character; that
river in turn must be reservoired and every drop of
water held. Here again comes the question, how are
the head waters of that river in Colorado to be best
protected for the waters which are to be used in Colo-
rado, New Mexico, Texas, and Old Mexico?
North Dakota is far out on the plains and there are
few forests in the State. The great river of the State
is the Missouri, rising in Montana. This stream de-
pends largely for its flow on the waters from forests at
its head. South Dakota has a mountain region of its
own and a. forest ‘reserve in. the Black “Pails:
Coming from the Black Hills are streams, not very
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 63
large but of very great importance in the development
of that State. On the Belle Fourche River there is
being planned a large irrigation system irrigating vast
tracts of land north of the Black Hills, lands which
will form homes for thousands of families. Again
we have the same old story that we must go.back to
the forest reserves to see that the head waters are pro-
tected.
In Oregon we know of the wonderful extent of the
forest reserves and of the value of the timber, but
even in that State we are asking for better and larger
attention to the forest reserves, especially in the Blue
Mountain region and particularly on the head waters
of the Malheur, Umatilla, and other streams where
development to a high degree will be possible. Okla-
homa, out on the plains, has, it is true, but little forested
area, but even there, are questions of water storageand
of the best protection of a little reserve in the Wichita
Mountains. In Utah the same is true. There we are
studying Utah Lake and the best use of waters which
flow through it and out into the Jordan; also the best
use of Bear Lake. Here we come back again to the
question, What is Mr. Pinchot going to do with the
forest reserves? Mr. Pinchot and the engineers of
the Reclamation Service are working hand in hand on
all the large projects which look to home-making and
upbuilding of the country.
In Washington the same condition exists. The
Palouse project, in that State, is for storage of water
at the head of the Palouse River and for taking it out
to reclaim a sandy desert above Pasco. This will be
made one of the most productive sections in the United
States. Last, but not least, we come to Wyoming, the
central, the pivotal State of the arid region; a State of
great elevation. There we must have forest reserves to
64 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
protect the head waters of the Missouri and Yellow-
stone, the head waters of the Platte and all of the innu-
merable streams which flow, not only to the East, but
also into the Snake and into the Green Rivers to the
South.
In each of these States is a great irrigation project
under construction or under consideration. In Wyo-
ming is a large reservoir on the North Platte River—
the Pathfinder. The contract for the outlet tunnel will
be let in a few days. And in the northern part of Wyo-
ming is a project on the Shoshone River with the
object of reclaiming vast tracts of arid land.
I have cited these cases to illustrate the fact that
forest protection has an important practical and defi-
nite value, not only to the people of the West, but to
the people of the whole country in the upbuilding and
making of homes and the creation of a large population
which will support itself from the soil. And which will
be drawing upon the East for its manufactures and
drawing upon all the transportation interests to carry
these manufactures backward and forward.
Those of you who are interested in the details of this
great work of reclamation are cordially invited to go
into the details with the engineers of the Reclamation
Service who represent the different States and who are
now holding a conference to consider some of the
larger problems of construction and of management.
These works are not built as are those constructed
under such appropriations as that provided for in the
River and Harbor Bill. They must be built, on the
contrary, with the idea of repaying to the government
the cost of construction. This involves a financial
problem—that of getting back into the reclamation
fund the amount which each project has cost. If it
has cost $3,000,000 dollars and will-reclaim 100,000
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 65
acres of land, then each acre of land must be assessed
thirty dollars, and that thirty dollars must be paid back
in ten annual installments of three dollars each. Mean-
while the fund is increasing, but every dollar of it must
be guarded and the engineers in charge of the work
must be business men and financial men as well, and
see that the expenditures they make are such that the
money will get back without undue hardship to the
people who will obtain that land and cultivate it.
These great works belong to the National Govern-
ment, but when the distribution system is paid for in
the ten annual installments, it will be turned over to
the people who own the land and cultivate it and will
be operated by them very much as a school district is
operated, or any other public corporation or munici-
pality. During the time of construction and operation
of these works up to the period when they are paid for,
the engineers who have built them will see that they are
operated properly and will gradually pass the control
over to the communities until ultimately the community
will assume full control. By that time the future
owners will be educated to a true appreciation of the
great works and to a realization of what it means to
them to conserve the forests of the head waters.
The organization which is carrying on that work
known as the Reclamation Service, has been created
under the Geological Survey in order to take advantage
of the good precedents and business-like ability of that
organization. All of us appreciate the enormous bene-
fit it is to have, the protection of the older organization
which has been in existence a quarter of a century and
which has been conducted without favoritism and with-
out reference to politics.
Building up on that foundation and having the pro-
tection of good precedents and good methods, we are
66 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
endeavoring to develop a strong organization. We ask
you who are interested in forestry and in all its prac-
tical developments and ramifications, to stand with us
and give us your assistance to keep and protect this
young organization along the lines of good, hard busi-
ness sense. -Not only for the sake of the development
of the country, not only for the sake of the reclamation
of the West, but for the good example and encourage-
ment it affords to other organizations of the Govern-
ment, such as the Forest Service, to pursue the same
lines in carrying on the work on a thoroughly sound
financial basis, of getting back what the service costs
and not making it a burden upon the country.
It is of the highest importance to demonstrate to the
public and to Congress, the fact that public business
can be transacted on business lines. There are many
good men who scoff at the idea that the public service
can be conducted on a sound basis of that kind, but I
believe it is possible for the Forestry and for the
Reclamation Services to be carried on as a business
proposition and pay for themselves and not call upon
the Federal Treasury for a cent. And to upbuild and
utilize all the resources, if you business men, who are
citizens who are interested in good government, will
stand with us and insist that these sound principles be
carried out.
RELATION. OF FOREST. COVER TO
STREAM FLOW
BY
J. B. LIPPINCOTT
Supervising Engineer, United States Reclamation Service
"THE relation of rainfall to run-off is very uncertain,
depending upon the nature of the storms, whether
gentle showers or violent rains; the steepness of the
drainage basin and its covering, and whether the pre-
cipitation is snow or rain. It has been found that in
the districts where the forest cover is small the output
of the basin occurs in violent floods of short duration.
Because these floods are violent, and of large volume,
and owing to the fact that the soil of the drainage
basins is not hold together by a network of roots, ex-
tensive erosions occur in these barren basins and the
stream carries much silt in suspension. Where the
basin is covered by forest, the mat of twigs and leaves
which covers the ground is an absorbent sponge,
retaining in itself large quantities of water and pre-
venting evaporation from the underlying soil. This
permits of a holding back of the floods and the gradual
draining off of the water, thus largely accomplishing
the purpose of regulating reservoirs.
A striking example of the output of a barren, tree-
less, drainage basin is shown in the case of Queen
Creek, Arizona, for the year 1896. This stream dis-
charges only in violent freshets, recurring usually as
great flood-waves, subsiding almost as rapidly as they
arise. By making from two to three current-meter
measurements of each of these freshets, and keeping
68 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
an hourly record of the gauge-height, the discharge
was approximated. The floods are usually not to ex-
ceed twelve hours in duration. During a larger por-
tion of the year the channel is nearly dry. Queen
Creek rises in the mountains to the southeast of
Phoenix, and flows in a generally southwesterly direc-
tion, losing itself in the desert north of the Gila River
Reservation. The area of the drainage basin is 143
square miles, of which 61 per cent. is above an elevation
of 3,000 feet, and 39 per cent below that elevation.
The annual discharge is approximately 10,000 acre
feet. The basin is almost entirely bare, there being a
few pinion trees and very little brush or grass. The
following table of discharge for the year 1896 for
Queen Creek is taken from the Eighteenth Annual
Report of the Geological Survey, Part IV, Hydrog-
raphy. It represents a typical year’s output:
ESTIMATED MoNTHLY DISCHARGE OF QUEEN CREEK AT WHIT-
Low’s, ARIZONA. DRAINAGE AREA, 143 SQUARE MILES.
Discharge in Second feet.
Month, 1806. Max. Min. Mean.
Faniaey tse ee ei. 63.0 2. 2 2.0 2.0
Bemridatys cto ae iM hss 2 2.0 2.0
OCIA hae eyo es whe era We oe 2 2.0 2.0
Pea RN A RR 2 1.0 Ls
UWL aN eA Pea ele a I 1.0 1.0
June: :: Ree I 1.0 1.0
EGS OS og ol encase baretane, OOD 0.0 121.6
PUUGUSE sos Se Seren CEASS 0.6 13.1
September. 2s. 0. ee aes | dee 0.5 rt
Gerber. nt. oe ee leo 0.5 13.3
November si.2). 0k oes 80 0.6 1.3
December ci Vee ae 207 0.6 2.0
9,000 0 15.
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 69
In contrast with the Gila River and Queen Creek in
Arizona, is the discharge of Cedar Creek Washington,
for the year 1897. The point of measurement of this
stream is at Clifford’s Bridge, in Section 19, Township
22 North, Range 7 East, Willamette Meridian. The
drainage area is estimated to be 143 square miles, and
it, therefore, is the same as the area of the basin of
Queen Creek. The basin of Cedar Creek lies on the
western slope of the Cascade Mountains. It is heavily
timbered and, in addition, the ground is covered with
a very heavy growth of ferns and moss. The precipi-
tation for the year 1897 was about 93 inches in the
lower portion of the basin, and is estimated to have
been as great as 150 inches on the mountain summits.
The rainfall of the Queen Creek basin is estimated to
be about 15 inches. The maximum flood discharge
in 1896 on Queen Creek was 9,000 cubic feet per
second, and the maximum flood discharge on Cedar
Creek in 1897 was 3,601 cubic feet per second. The.
mean discharge for Queen Creek was 15 cubic feet
per second, and for Cedar Creek 1,089 cubic feet per
second. While Queen Creek is frequently dry, the
minimum discharge of Cedar Creek during the period
in question was never less than 27 per cent of the
mean for the year. These two streams represent
extreme types. The radical difference in their char-
acter is believed to be largely due to the difference in
forest cover. The discharge of Cedar Creek for the
year 1897 is believed to be fairly representative. The
following table of discharge is taken from the Nine-
teenth Annual Report of the Geological Survey, Part
IV, Hydrography.
It will be noted that the vertical scale showing the
discharge is twice as large on the Cedar Creek diagram
as on that of Queen Creek. If they were on the same
scale the contrast would be greater:
70 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
EstiMATED MontTHLY DISCHARGE OF CEDAR RIvER NEAR SEAT-
TLE, WASHINGTON. DRAINAGE AREA, 143 SQUARE MILEs.
Discharge in Second feet.
Month, 1897. Max. Min. Mean.
Jamar eee tebe fire 2,812 815 1,430
PEWMUATY Se ob dee dhe 2,415 823 1,303
DR GGH EY coMiuceiata sete 1,306 723 QOI
Vet 11 5 aR a AOA Cpe isd ~ 790 1,599
Treen ie ee Sake: corel toate te 2,143 939 1,562
AMER awk dec nate ete 1,410 780 1,060
Mya ie hata saoevaiachave 2,284 572 1,135
WAGOUSES Ne oye eae ge 561 342 427
HepreINbehs Cobo cuss 418 311 350
REE ONC jest siah Scjoneteiaee 433 294 339
Nivenmiber oii c's nie dia 3,155 323 ~ 1,318
WRereniber es sissies Sets. s 3,601 674 1,639
otaheiak fore ete OOK 204 1,089
The amount of solid matter carried by a stream
is a very serious problem in connection with the
construction of storage reservoirs thereon. The most
astonishing stories are told of volumes of sediment
carried by the rivers of southern Arizona from their
barren drainage basins. It is said that when these
floods first appear, discharged off of ranges that have
been travelled by the large herds of cattle in quest of
grass, the soil which has been exposed to the direct
action of the sun, being exceedingly light and dry, is
washed off in quantities that are enormous. In order
to determine the amount of silt in the Gila River at
The Buttes, which stream has a similar basin and
regimen to that of Queen Creek, the Geological Survey
has made observations by taking samples of the water
daily, and permitting the mud to settle in graduated
tubes. The amount of mud is then determined by
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 71
reading its height upon the graduations. The mud
which is deposited has then been treated in the case
of numerous samples to a temperature of 212 degrees
Fah., and the final amount of solid matter determined
by weight. Observations were continued from July
29, 1895, to December 31, of the same year. Begin-
ning on January I, 1899, and continuing until July
31, 1899, similar observations were made at the same
station, the amount of mud and solid matter being
determined as previously. During the first period the
volume of water discharged at The Buttes was 360,523
acre feet, and it was found that this contained 37,984
acre feet of silt by volume wet. This reduced to 7,704
acre feet of solids. The average amount of light sedi-
ment during this first period was 10% per cent by
volume wet, and the amount of solids a little over 2 per
cent. The total amount of water discharged during
the second period in 1899 was 118,981 acre feet, which
contained 1.6 per cent of solids, or 8 per cent of mud
by volume wet. Frequent observations were- made,
showing 20 per cent of silt by volume wet during the
high stages of the stream, and in one instance 27 per
cent was observed. The average amount.of silt for the
twelve months’ observation was 10 per cent by volume
wet, and the amount of solids 2 per cent. No other
stream in the United States is known to carry such a
high per cent of sediment. This is in striking contrast
with the clear streams of our northern forested basins.
The water supply used for domestic purposes from
Cedar Creek, Washington, does not require filtering or
settlement.
The serious nature of this silt problem can readily
be appreciated by those who have studied the storage
of water for irrigation. It is probably the gravest of
all the engineering problems related thereto. Forestry
72 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
should assist greatly in removing difficulties of this
nature. |
Mr. Marsten Manston made certain stream measure-
ments on the Yuba River, California, for the Geological
Survey. In an article, entitled “Features and Water
Rights of Yuba River, California,” Bulletin No. 100,
United States Department of Agriculture, in discussing
the stream flow from certain portions of this basin, he
makes the following interesting comparison between
a forested and denuded basin. Both of these catch-
ment areas are situated on the western slope of the
Sierra Nevada, adjoin each other, and have exposures
of marked similarity.
“On the south fork of the north fork we have a
watershed area of 139 square miles, which was gaged
on September 19, 1900, after three successive seasons
of deficient rainfall, and gave a minimum run-off of
113 cubic feet per second or 0.8 cubic foot per second
per square mile. This area is well covered with timber
and brush, and in one hundred and twenty days gives
a minimum run-off of 1,441,152,000 cubic feet. The
drainage basin of the north fork is more heavily
timbered than the basin of the other forks, and conse-
quently has a deeper soil, and although only one-tenth
the total drainage area, it furnishes 75 per cent of the
low-water flow of the entire drainage basin above
Parks Bar.
“On the south fork, above Lake Spaulding, there is
a watershed of 120 square miles, which has heretofore
been described as comparatively bare of timber, and
the timbered areas which once existed have been cut
off. The run-off of this area is practically nothing
for one hundred and twenty days each year, due to
this absence of forests and brush. If this area were
afforested and gave a minimum run-off of 0.8 cubic
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 73
foot per second per square mile, the discharge would
be 100 cubic feet per second, or equivalent to 1,036,-
800,000 cubic feet effective storage capacity, a dis-
charge more than equivalent to one-half the storage
capacity of all the reservoirs above Lake Spaulding
dam. These aggregate 1,375,000,000 cubic feet, and
the low-water discharge of 100 cubic feet per second
for one hundred and twenty days is equivalent to a
storage capacity of 1,036,000,000 cubic feet. As the
basis of the above estimate is the extreme low-water
discharge, it is safe to assume that by afforesting the
watershed, this costly and extensive system of reser-
voirs might be safely drawn upon for double their
present capacity. When this reasoning is applied to
the entire 1,357 square miles, instead of to small
fractions thereof, the force of the argument becomes
more apparent.
“It would appear from the foregoing that the solu-
tion of the problem of storage of flood waters is not
in the retention of a small percentage of the storm
waters behind dams, but in applying storage over the
entire watershed by the systematic protection and
extension of forest and brush-covered areas.”
Professor James W. Toumey, a collaborator of the
Bureau of Forestry, has selected certain small and
adjoining drainage basins in the San Bernardino
Mountains in a portion of the catchment area proposed
to be utilized by the Arrowhead Reservoir Company.
Throughout this area this corporation for a term of
years has been making exhaustive hydrographic studies
of the available water supply. A large number of rain
gauges have been established and stream measurements
are carefully made over weirs by skilled engineers.
Automatic clock registering devices have been installed
to give a continuous record of the flow at these various
74 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
stream gauging stations. It is proposed to divert the
water flowing from a number of these small mountain
basins which are situated on the northerly slope of the
San Bernardino Range by means of gravity canals and
tunnels to the southern side of the range and into the
San Bernardino Valley. This Arrowhead Reservoir
Company has placed its hydrographic data at the
disposal of the Bureau of Forestry, which organiza-
tion made a forest study in connection therewith. The
data that is presented by Professor Toumey is perhaps
the most precise and definite information on the sub-
ject of related stream flow to forest cover that we
have so far been favored with in the West. His
conclusions, while they were to be expected, are grati-
fying in their definiteness. We can do no better than
to quote from Professor Toumey in extenso:
“Because rainfall is most abundant where forests
grow, many believe that forests exert an important
influence on the amount of precipitation. A more
reasonable inference, however, is that raimfall is the
great factor in controlling the distribution and density
of forests.
“Precipitation occurs whenever the air is suddenly
cooled below the dew-point. The most effective cause
of this is the expansion of air on ascending. This
upward movement is caused very largely by cyclonic
storms. Whether forests have any appreciable effect
in cooling the air to below the dew-point is uncertain.
From the known effect of forests on the temperature
and relative humidity of the air, it is reasonable to
infer that they may have some effect, at least to a
small degree, and consequently that they have some
influence in increasing precipitation. The present evi-
dence, however, derived from many series of observa-
tions conducted in Europe and elsewhere, is so con-
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 75
flicting that a definite answer to this question, having
the stamp of scientific accuracy, is not possible.
“In a careful study of the behavior of the stream
flow on several small catchment areas in the San Ber-
nardino Mountains, it has been found that the effect
of the forest in decreasing surface flow on small
catchment basins is enormous, as shown in the follow-
ing tables, where three well timbered areas are com-
pared with a non-timbered one:
PRECIPITATION AND RUN-OFF DuRING DECEMBER, 1899.
Areaof Condition Pre- Run-off Run-off in
catchment as to cipita- per square percentage of
basin. cover. tion. mile. precipitation.
Sq. miles, Inches. Acre feet. Percent.
0.70 Forested. Igt+ 36— 3
1.05 Forested. 19+ 73+ 6
1.47 Forested. 19+ Fi 6 6
53 Non-forested. 13— 212+ 4O
“This is the stream discharge during a month of
unusually heavy precipitation.
“At the beginning of the rainy season, in early
December, the soil on all four of these basins was
very dry as a result of the long dry season. The
accumulation of litter, duff, humus, and soil on the
forest-covered catchment areas absorbed 95 per cent.
of the unusually large precipitation. On the non-
forested area only 60 per cent. of the precipitation
was absorbed, although the rainfall was much less.
76 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
RAINFALL AND RuN-orr DuRING JANUARY, FEBRUARY, AND
MarcCH, 1900.
Areaof Condition Pre- Run-off Run-off in
catchment as to cipita- per square percentage of
basin. cover. tion. mile. precipitation.
Sq. miles, Inches. Acre feet. Per cent.
0.70 Forested. 24 452— 35
1.05 Forested. 24 428— 33
1.47 Forested. 24 557— 43
53 Non-forested. 16 828— 95
“The most striking feature of this table as compared
with the previous one is the uniformly large run-off
as compared with the rainfall. This clearly shows
the enormous amount of water taken up by a dry soil,
either forested or non-forested, as compared with
one already nearly filled to saturation. During the
three months here noted, on the forested basins about
three-eighths of the rainfall appeared in the run-off.
RAPIDITY OF DECREASE IN RuN-oFF AFTER THE CLOSE OF THE
RAINY SEASON.
Areaof Condition Pre- ° April May June
catchment as to cipita- run-off run-off run-off
basin. cover. tion. per sq.m. persq.m. per sq. m.
Sq. miles. Inches. Acre feet. Acre feet. Acre feet.
0.70 Forested. 1.6 153— 66— Pee
1.05 Forested. 1.6 146— 70— 30—
1.47 Forested. 1.6 166— 74— co
53 Non-forested. I 56— 2— 0
“The above table clearly shows the importance of
forests in sustaining the flow of mountain streams.
The three forested catchment areas, which, during
December, experienced a run-off of but 5 per cent.
of the heavy precipitation for that month and which
AMERICAN Forest CoNGRESS a9
during January, February, and March of the following
year had a run-off of approximately 37 per cent. of
the total precipitation, experienced a well-sustained
stream flow three months after the close of the rainy
season. ‘The non-forested catchment area, which,
during December, experienced a run-off of 40 per
cent. of the rainfall, and which during the three fol-
lowing months had a run-off of 95 per cent. of the
precipitation, experienced a run-off in April (per
square mile) of less than one-third of that from the
forested catchment areas, and in June the flow from
the non-forested area had ceased altogether.
ANNUAL RAINFALL AND RUN-OFF ON ForESTED AND NOoN-
FORESTED CATCHMENT AREAS IN THE SAN BEr-
NARDINO MouNTAINS, CALIFORNIA.
Areaof Condition Pre- Run-oft Run-off in
catchment as to cipita- per square percentage of
basin. cover. tion. mile. precipitation.
Sq. miles, Inches. Acre feet. Per cent.
0.70 Forested. 46 7a 28
1.05 Forested. 46 756 30
1.47 Forested. 46 om pe4 36
53 Non-forested. 23 1,192 69
“In conclusion, it may be said that although the
forest may have, on the whole, but little appreciable
effect in increasing the rainfall and the annual run-off,
its economic importance in regulating the flow of
streams is beyond computation. The great indirect
value of the forest is the effect which it has in pre-
venting wind and water erosion, thus allowing the soil
on hills and mountains to remain where it is formed,
and in other ways providing an adequate absorbing
medium at the sources of the water courses of the
78 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
country. It is the amount of water that passes into
the soil, not the amount of rainfall, that makes a region
garden or desert.”
The drainage basin of the Sacramento River in-
cludes the greater part of northern California. It has
been occupied by Anglo-Saxon settlers for the last
fifty years. During the first portion of the American
occupation of this State, sea-going vessels are reported
to have proceeded up stream as far as the present city
of Sacramento. The tidal range of the river was
observed also at this point. Placer mining was the
first industry. This work consisted in washing the
oriferous gravels found along the western foothills of
the Sierra Nevadas. The resulting debris was dis-
charged into the streams and has to a very material
extent filled their channels, so that to-day the head
of tidal water is many miles below Sacramento, near
the upper end of Grand Island, and only flat bottom
river steamboats are able to ascend the Sacramento
River as far as the city of that name. This stream
condition has been still further aggravated by the
destruction of extensive areas of forest, both by fire,
lumbering, and sheep grazing. Yet the lumber in-
dustry is but in its infancy in this section, and plans
are being perfected to cut down great areas of virgin
forest. Extensive forest reserves have been provis-
ionally set aside, covering most of the remaining tim-
bered portions of the basin. These contemplated re-
serves have been greeted with a storm of public protest
from central and northern Galifornia that has been
hard to allay. In February, 1904, northern Califor-
nia was visited by heavy rain storms. While the
precipitation was great, according to the statement of
Professor McAdie, of the Weather Bureau, it was by
no means the heaviest rain which has occurred in this
AMERICAN ForEST CONGRESS 79
section, and it was one that could reasonably be ex-
pected to be exceeded in violence in the future. How-
ever, with the combined conditions of reduced forest
cover and filled river channels, a flood condition was
produced in the Sacramento Valley last February
which has no known equal in the previous history of
the State. Fully 800,000 acres of valley lands were
submerged and the damages are estimated to have
reached into the millions. All this is in spite of the
fact that over twenty million ($20,000,000) dollars
had been expended in the construction of levees to
prevent these overflow conditions. A great State con-
vention was called in San Francisco to consider the
disaster that threatened the commonwealth. Eminent
engineers have been brought to California from the
lower Mississippi basin and elsewhere in the East to
study this great overflow problem. Organizations
have been perfected to urge, if not demand, both from
the State and from the nation, relief from impending
disaster. It is contemplated that a comprehensive
levee system must be constructed the entire length
of the valley at enormous expense.
What a beautiful assemblage of contradictions this
situation presents to the forester! A great intelligent
State with popular sentiment, at least in the injured
section, set against the creation of forest reserves in
this basin! The assemblage of conventions and engi-
neers to devise plans to prevent flood overflow at a
contemplated expenditure of millions. Doubtless with
the channels of the stream in the condition that they
now present a levee system will be required, but the
greatest and most lasting preventative for these con-
ditions would be the adequate protection of the forest
reserves.
It may be stated that while there is no definite scien-
80 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
tific information that forests increase rainfall, yet we
have certain striking instances presented where the
rainfall is greater on adjacent forested areas than on
those that are denuded. At least in the arid regions
it may be stated that the total annual output from a de-
forested drainage basin is greater than from a tim-
bered area, but that the regimen of the stream is dis-
tinctly to the disadvantage of all who are interested
in the use of the watered resources of the country,
whether he be navigator, irrigator, or water-power
investor. From the denuded area the floods are
greater and the drought is more intense. ‘To remedy
this condition, one naturally turns to the storage reser-
voir for relief, yet even in this extremity one is con-
fronted with adverse conditions. The violent flood
from the bare basin rushing through the mountains
carries with it eroded sediment, which it deposits in
the first pool of still water that it encounters. The
result is the reduction of the storage capacity of the
reservoirs along its course. Forests are the natural
and greatest storage reservoirs and regulators of water
supply. On few streams do we find reservoir capaci-
ties even approximating the total annual output of
the drainage basins above them. Accepting the facts
as outlined above, the great importance of preserving
the forests, particularly in the semi-arid regions of
our country, is most manifest. In southern California,
Arizona, and New Mexico particularly, we are so
closely bordering on a condition of desert that when
the forest is once destroyed the difficulty of reproduc-
ing it renders the task well nigh hopeless. We should,
therefore, all join with the Bureau of Forestry in its
effort to “save the forests and store the floods.”
RIGHTS OF WAY IN FOREST RESERVES
BY
MORRIS BIEN
Consulting Engineer, United States Reclamation Service
"THE Forest Reserve Act of June 4, 1897, contains
two provisions which affect rights of way within
the reserves ; namely, that actual settlers residing with-
in the boundaries of the reserves shall for purposes of
egress and ingress, be permitted to construct wagon-
roads and other improvements necessary to reach their
homes and utilize their property, under rules and regu-
lations to be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior,
and also that all waters on the reserves may be used for
beneficial purposes under the State laws or under laws
of the United States and the rules and regulations
thereunder.
In the administration of the first of these provisions,
for wagon-roads and other improvements, the General
Land Office regulations provide for the construction
of private wagon-roads and county roads wherever
they may be found necessary and useful; no right,
however, can be acquired upon the public lands for
such roads as against the United States. No public
timber, stone, or other material can be taken for the
construction of such roads, without permission from
the Secretary of the Interior, the application giving
necessary details concerning the extent, location, and
estimated value of the material to be taken.
The second provision, concerning the use of the
waters, merely confirms the application to forest re-
82 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
serves of the laws then existing, but did not make ap-
plicable to such reserves any laws which did not then
apply to reservations. ‘These laws were of several
kinds, and provided for rights of way and for irriga-
tion, electric and other purposes.
A subsequent act, approved February 15, 1901, pro-
vides for right of way over forest and other reserva-
tions in general and certain national parks in Califor-
nia, for electrical plants, telephone and telegraph lines,
canals and other water conduits for any beneficial use
of water. These acts provide that the allowance of
such rights of way within the reservations shall be
subject to the approval of the department having
supervision over them.
At the time of the passage of the Forest Reserve
Act, there was no provision for right of way for
railroads through such reserves. Consequently, it be-
came necessary for each railroad company desiring to
cross a reserve to obtain a special act of Congress, and
during the years 1898 and 1899 several such acts were
passed. In each of them was incorporated a provision,
which was first inserted at the instance of the General
Land Office, that no timber shall be cut by the railroad
company for any purposes outside the right of way
actually granted.
By the act of March 3, 1899 (30 Stat., 1233), au-
thority is given to the Secretary of the Interior to
approve rights of way in the form provided by existing
law, for wagon-roads, railroads, or other highways
across any forest reservation, when in his judgment
the public interests would not be injuriously affected.
From that time on, there was no need for a special
right-of-way act across a forest reserve.
Nevertheless, during the session of Congress in
1goI-2, a bill was introduced providing for right of
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 83
way for the Central Arizona Railway Company
through the San Francisco Mountains Forest Reserve
in Arizona. In reporting upon this bill, the General
Land Office referred to the legislation of 1899, and
stated that there was no need of such law, and that it
would be better for application to be made in the
regular way, subject to the general regulations in
force. The bill was, however, passed without change,
and was presented the President. At this stage, those
interested in the matter, fearing that it would be vetoed,
secured the passage of a resolution (April 12, 1902;
32 Stat., 1767), asking for the return of the bill. This
was not done, but the bill was vetoed by the President
April 23, 1902. At the next session of Congress a
bill of an entirely different character was introduced.
This provided simply that the company would be
granted right of way upon compliance with the general
regulations of the department. Such a bill was of
no practical use, but it was not objectionable. It be-
came a law February 25, 1903 (32 Stat., 907).
Every application for right of way over a forest
reserve for any purpose is reported on by a forest
superintendent or supervisor, who is required to make
a statement in detail upon every point affecting the
interests of the government in regard to the preserva-
tion of the reserves.
A bond is required from the applicant that he will
pay to the United States, for any and all damage to
the public lands, timber, natural curiosities, or other
public property on such reservation, or upon the lands
of the United States, by reason of such use and occu-
pation of the reserve, regardless of the cause or circum-
stances under which such damage may occur. Such
a bond is required in every case except those of small
importance, a definite limit being fixed in the regula-
tions.
84 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
The applicant is required, also, to file a stipulation
that the right of way is not so located as to interfere
with the proper occupation of the reservation by the
Government; that no timber will be cut from the
reserve outside of the right of way; that the applicant
will remove no timber within the right of way, except
only such as is rendered necessary by the proper use
and enjoyment of the privilege; that he will also
remove from the reservation, or destroy under proper
safeguards as determined by the General Land Office,
all standing, fallen, dead timber, as well as all refuse
cuttings, etc., for such distance on each side of the
line as may be determined by the General Land Office
to be esesential for the protection of the reserve from
fire; also that the applicant will furnish free of charge
such assistance in men and materials for fighting fires
as may be spared without serious injury to the appli-
cant’s business.
With a careful scrutiny of all applications by forest
officers on the ground, and a thorough enforcement of
rules, regulations, and stipulations such as those indi-
cated, it is believed that the occupation of the reserves
for these necessary rights of way can be permitted
without detriment to the Government interests.
The present laws relating to rights of way upon
the public lands, as well as upon forest reserves, are
such as to facilitate the operations of speculators to
obtain, secure, and retain controlling points for the use
of water for railroad, irrigation, power, and other pur-
poses. The railroad and irrigation acts provide for a
forfeiture at the expiration of five years from the date
of location, but such forfeiture cannot be declared
except by Congress or through courts.
Inasmuch as there are many thousand miles of rail-
road and irrigation rights of way which are now
AMERICAN Forest CoNnGRESS 85
subject to forfeiture, the declaration thereof by pro-
cedure in the courts is practically out of the question,
except in a few specific cases where the interests of the
public or of bona fide enterprises demand action.
It is important, however, for the proper development
of the entire West, that these abandoned rights of way
should be cancelled at the earliest possible date, for
the reason that as soon as any bona fide enterprise is
started, these rights, which are practically dead, are
at once revived, and make enormous claims for the
rights which they hold and which cannot be set aside
without such delay as to seriously jeopardize the pro-
posed development.
Congress should declare the forfeiture of all rights
of way now subject to forfeiture, and authorize the
Secretary of the Interior to declare the forfeiture of
other rights already granted and to be granted in the
future, upon the expiration of the time allowed for
construction by the law.
This, however, would remedy only one feature of
the difficulty. It would be just as easy, as the laws
now stand, to tie up these rights, for five years at
least, in the future. In order to meet this phase of the
situation, it is recommended that a reasonable charge
be made for the use of these rights of way upon public
lands and forest reserves. ‘This charge should be suf-
ficient to deter the application for these rights merely
for speculative purposes, and yet not so great as to
interfere with future development of railroad, irriga-
tion, and electric enterprises.
The time has now come when the value of these
lands to the public is so great that their further disposi-
tion should be most carefully scrutinized. The great
increase in recent years in the number of these appli-
cations shows very impressively the need of such safe-
D
86 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
guards to protect the interests of the public in the
future.
These considerations apply with particular force to
the forest reserves, because no claim should be allowed
to attach to lands within them except for actual use
for public benefit, and it is exceedingly urgent that
this Congress make a special effort to impress upon
the Congress of the United States the necessity for
immediate action along the lines indicated.
IRRIGATION CONSTRUCTION AND TIM-
BER. SUPPLIES
BY
ARTHUR P. DAVIS
Assistant Chief Engineer, United States Reclamation Service
"THE relation of scientific forest protection and cul-
ture to irrigation may best be discussed and
appreciated by considering its importance to the suc-
cessful operation of the Reclamation Act, which has
become by the logic of events, the main exponent of
irrigation development.
The broad object of that law is the creation under
irrigation, of the maximum number of prosperous
homes. These homes will depend in a great degree
upon the forests, which are secondary in importance
only to the supply of water and land.
The main reasons for the economic importance of
the scientific culture and preservation of the forests,
are the protection and regulation of the water supply,
the preservation of the lumber industry, and the con-
tinuation of the supply of wood for fuel and numerous
other domestic requirements. In all these the irrigator
is intensely interested, and all have an important bear-
ing upon his future prosperity.
The utility of the forest cover in conserving the
water supply is generally recognized, and its impor-
tance is becoming more and more appreciated. The
protective effect of the mluch of leaves and twigs, and
the dark coolness of the forest shade, appeal to all as
beneficial regulators of run-off, and preventatives of
evaporation. Nor does it require scientific demonstra-
8S PROCEEDINGS OF THE
tion to convince the settler of the importance to his
welfare of a continued lumber and fuel supply. The
‘great value to the settler and the settler’s live stock,
of the shade and shelter afforded by the trees of the
forest and woodland are fully appreciated. Even the
aesthetic and sanitary value of forests are not over-
looked.
Related to the above is the influence of forests on
irrigation construction. ‘This may not be obvious to
the average person, but the tendency of modern con-
struction is to the use of the more permanent materials,
less subject than wood to destruction and decay. This
is facilitated by the development of the useful proper-
ties of concrete, iron, and steel, and their combinations.
The Reclamation Service in particular is endeavoring
to build, “not for a day, but for all time,’ and the
wooden gate, the wooden flume, and other structures
so much in evidence in the past are to be entirely
superseded by more permanent materials.
To this end, massive gates of cast iron and bronze,
set in abutments of concrete, are being introduced.
Experiments have been made on reinforced concrete
for use in pressure pipes and flumes, and the wooden
dam is being superseded by that of concrete, masonry,
or earth. ‘To the same end the proportion of tunnels
is increased, underground conduits being the safest and
most permanent yet devised.
The effect of such a policy upon the consumption of
wood is not, however, so great as might be supposed,
especially in the construction period. The require-
ments for timber are still very great for piling and
subaqeous structures to which wood is well adapted,
and for buildings and the large class of temporary
structures required on great irrigation works. No
satisfactory substitute has yet been found for timber in
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 89
tunnelsand every structure of concrete requires wooden
forms. So numerous and so great are the indispensa-
ble uses of timber in such works, that the existence of
a supply of timber near a projected work frequently
has an important bearing upon its feasibility and cost.
Nor is this fact often appreciated fully. We are ac-
customed to estimate the utility of a lumber supply
on the basis of its selling price, rather than of the cost
of obtaining the supply elsewhere. For example, the
cost of sawing and hauling timber to the point of use
on a certain large project in the west is about twenty-
five ($25.00) dollars per thousand. Were it not for
the small forest from which this supply is obtained,
it would be necessary to import lumber from a distance
at a cost of over fifty ($50.00) dollars per thousand,
and this represents the real utility of the local supply
as a factor in the construction. It is not too much to
say that the feasibility of some important irrigation
works depends upon the proximity of ample timber
supplies.
The development of irrigation will in the future
lead to the rapid opening and development of timbered
areas which are now merely in their natural state.
This fact emphasizes the necessity of placing the forests
at once under the rigid scientific supervision of trained
government experts. If left to the manipulation of sel-
fish interests as in the past, the result will be lavish and
wasteful use, and probably destruction of the forest.
Every tree that will make lumber will be cut, the best
parts hauled away, the branches and part of the trunk
left on the ground to feed the fires that will soon follow
and destroy all that the axe has left. Temporary
profits will be reaped by a few, and the community
will be robbed of its natural heritage. Eventually, the
forest must be replanted and restored at enormous
go PROCEEDINGS OF THE
expenses of time and money, which can all be saved
by a wise supervision without diminishing the present
utility of the forest, nor destroying its future value,
by merely protecting and fostering the tendency of na-
ture.
Such policies of protection would have popular sup-
port, but the local communities have not the means,
authority, nor skill to insure proper supervision, which
much be provided by the Government under the policy
already proposed, the efficacy and wisdom of which
has been so thoroughly demonstrated both at home
and abroad. The policy that provided for present
needs without mortgaging the future.
FOREST AREAS OF CATCHMENT BASINS
(Impromptu Address)
BY
H. M. WILSON
United States Geological Survey
| AM very much interested in one feature of the dis-
cussion that has been brought before you to-day,
and that is the relation of run-off from catchment
basins to the forested areas of those basins. ‘There is
nothing new on this subject, however, which it seems
to me I can bring before you. I heartily concur in the
general opinion expressed by two of the speakers,
Messrs. Lippincott and Davis, upon the effect of forests
in regulating the discharge of streams and thus adding
to their usefulness as providers of water for irrigation
and upon the effect of this regulation in preventing
disastrous floods which, by eroding the surface of the
soil, carry vast amounts of sediment to the streams
below and destroy both them and the surfaces which
they erode. There are other features, however, of the
subject of forest influence on water supply which are
frequently noted in connection with the preservation
of forests, which it might be well for me to qualify.
We are familiar with the old-time claim of the effect
of forests in increasing the rainfall and all of the
foresters present who have looked into the subject, I
am sure, believe now that whereas it is possible that
forests may have some effect upon the amount of pre-
cipitation, there is as yet no definite information avail-
able from any source, either of experiment or investi-
gation, which goes to prove it. And that feature of the
subject of the effect of forests on water supply is one
which I think the Weather Bureau, or possibly the
92 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
Bureau of Forestry, should have an opportunity to
investigate in a way in which it has never as yet been
investigated, so that we may learn positively if there
is any such effect; and it is not a form of investigation
that is difficult to carry out. It has been attempted
in haphazard ways over limited areas in Europe, but
never by the wholesale method of detailed regional
study.
There is another feature of the subject that occurs
to me, and that is the claim not infrequently made that
forests increase the discharge from streams, and that
claim is also not infrequently put forward by over-
zealous friends of forestry. And that, too, may be
correct, though from any investigation or any research
yet made into the subject I fail to find that there is any
clear evidence that forests do increase the amount of
water available for discharge by streams, and for the
uses of man. And that is another investigation which
might readily be undertaken in this country by the
proper Government officials or others and thrashed out
to a definite conclusion, and which might react very
favorably upon the subject of forest preservation. I
can conceive now that the Reclamation Service or the
Hydrographic Branch of the Geological Survey, over
which Mr. Newell presides, might undertake such ex-
periments as those of Professor Toumey, of the Bu-
reau of Forestry, which Mr. Lippincott illustrated here
in the upper diagrams. I can conceive that Mr.
Newell’s bureau, with the facilities that it has, might
readily be encouraged to take up the question of the
discharge of streams from forested and from non-
forested areas of like conditions and show what Euro-
peans, the people of India, and older countries inter-
ested in forestry, have not yet been able to show,
whether or not forests have any actual effect in in-
creasing the water supply.
FORESTS AS A FACTOR IN SHAPING
THE PHYSIOGRAPHIC FORM OF
MOUNTAINS
BY
J. W. TOUMEY
Professor of Forestry, Yale Forest School
‘THE effect of forest cover upon the surface flow of .
water has been for many years an inviting field
for speculation and research, both in this country and
abroad. Since the extended researches of Ebermayer
of Bavaria, more than a quarter of a century ago, most
writers in this field have placed special emphasis upon
the effect of forests in providing a larger and better
absorbing medium. It has been argued that the chief
influence of the forest upon the flow of streams, lies in
the fact that it provides a looser and deeper soil, cov-
ered with a variable depth of humus and litter, into
and through which the precipitation freely seeps.
Therefore, a much larger part of the rainfall is taken
up by forest soil than by soil in the open, and there
is less to pass directly into the streams by flowing over
the surface. As a result, the flow of streams in fo)
ested regions are more sustained than similar strear
flowing from naked drainage basins.
There is at the present time no serious opposition
to the view as here set forth. In recent years, how-
ever, special emphasis has been placed upon the follow-
ing, viz., that the proportion of the rainfall that reaches
the streams and the manner of its reaching them de-
pends chiefly upon the physiographic features of the
94 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
region. The contention is made that when other con-
ditions are similar, it is the physiographic form which
most largely determines the amount of run-off in
proportion to the precipitation and the fluctuations in
stream-flow as well.
I wish to emphasize the fact that the physiographic
form of the drainage basin, more particularly those
features which most largely influence stream-flow, have
been brought about by forest growth acting through
long periods of time.
In checking wind and water erosion at the sources
of our mountain streams, the forest produces a much
greater effect upon physiographic detail than generally
recognized. On the summits of mountains and on
ridges, where the forest has a density of .8 or greater,
and where the forest floor has been undisturbed by
fire and grazing, the wealth of litter, humus, and min-
eral soil takes up practically all of the precipitation ;
which, seeping through the soil, reappears on the sur-
face at lower elevations without bringing silt and other
eroded material with it. Erosion, therefore, in such
regions is very slow as compared with non-forested
regions.
Vertical corrasion in the channels of the intermit-
tent and permanent streams is also a slower process,
because there is but little grinding material carried
by the moving water.
On the other hand, when summits and ridges have
been without forest cover for long periods, there is not
only an almost total absence of litter and humus, but
a scant covering of mineral soil as well. The absence
of an absorbing medium causes the larger part of the
rainfall to flow over the surface from the place of fall-
ing. This surface flow causes rapid erosion.
The forest, in preventing the transportation of soil
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 95
at the sources of mountain streams, ultimately brings
about a very different physiographic configuration from
that of non-forested areas under otherwise similar
conditions. In well timbered mountain summits and
ridges are usually broad and rounded. On the other
hand, non-timbered summits and ridges are inclined to
be sharp and jagged, with very precipitous slopes. The
former have a convex physiographic form, while the
latter have a concave. This condition can be observed
in all the mountain ranges of the West. Even in the
same range, these features above or below timber line
have sharp ridges and concave lines, while in the dense
timber the ridges are rounded and the form is convex.
I am well aware that convexity in physiographic
form is indicative of youth, while concave physio-
graphic form indicates age. Although in a broad way
this is true, the concave or old type is reached at a com-
paratively early age on elevations that do not bear a
forest cover, while it is almost indefinitely postponed
on elevations that sustain an uninterrupted forest
growth.
The convex configuration of forested summits and
ridges is the ideal type for the retention of a maximum
amount of the precipitation on the higher portions of
the drainage basin to ultimately seep through the soil
and give the streams a sustained flow.
The concave configuration, which is so character-
istic of non-timbered mountains, permits the precipi-
tation for the most part to escape over the surface, not
only on account of the absence of an absorbing me-
dium, but because of the more precipitous slopes.
The former condition causes a large percentage of
the rainfall to be retained at high elevation from
whence, through seepage, it gives perennial flow to
mountain streams. The latter condition results in the
96 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
greater part of the precipitation rushing over the sur-
face to lower levels. Only a small percentage of the
rainfall is retained at the higher elevations, hence there
is but little seepage to feed the streams and they become
dry soon after the flood waters subside.
I cannot here enter into the various observations and
researches made under my direction during the past
four years, which bear upon the relation of forest cover
to stream flow. These investigations and the conclu-
sions which they appear to warrant are soon to be pub-
lished in bulletin form by the Bureau of Forestry, U.
S. Department of Agriculture.
The single point that I here desire to emphasize is
this: forest cover in mountain streams, through its
influence upon erosion, has a very appreciable effect
upon physiographic form, and this effect of the forest
working through long periods of time, is of the utmost
importance in its influences upon the flow of mountain
streams.
PART Ill
THE LUMBER INDUSTRY AND THE
FORESTS
“ean apes
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(35 oy
etree
THE LUMBERMAN’S INTEREST IN
FORESTRY
BY
N. W. McLEOD
President, National Lumber Manufacturers’ Association
S UCH an assemblage as the one before me would
have been quite impossible ten years ago. The
lumberman and the forester were then far apart. So
long as forestry was regarded as merely scientific, but
little progress was made; but as it came largely
through the influence of our Bureau of Forestry, to
be more clearly understood as a musiness matter, the -
_ prospect has brightened rapidly. The very fact that
this American Forest Congress has assigned one ses-
sion of its meeting to the discussion of the lumber
industry and the forests is excellent evidence that the
development of forestry is in the right direction. And
in developing an American system of forestry founded
upon sound business principles and adapted to local
conditions, the Bureau of Forestry is doing a very
important work.
For a number of years at the annual meetings of the
various lumber manufacturers’ associations, the
Bureau has been represented by some well equipped
member of its staff, who delivered an address of
interest and value to practical lumbermen. The
Bureau has in a large measure succeeded in convincing
the lumbermen that forestry is not antagonistic to the
lumbermen’s interest, but in line with it. At present
while forestry is accepted tentatively, the individual
is backward about inaugurating an innovation in his
L. ¢
100 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
own operations, as any plan that requires years to
prove profitable; the commercial mind is slow to em-
brace.
The facts that must deeply impress the individual
are those which influence matters of personal interest.
The lumberman centers his attention on that part of
the forest which he can profitably convert into money.
The young, immature trees are obstacles to him, which
increase the cost of transporting timber to the mill.
T!-2 forester, on the other hand, considers young
trees as the basis of future returns.
In order that the best results may be obtained, the
forester must understand the economic problems that
confront the lumberman. The manufacturer of lum-
ber faces the necessity of providing raw material
(standing timber) for from five to twenty years, de-
pending on the size of his plant, in order to justify his
investment. He usually has maturing payments on
his timber land, that have to be met from the returns
of operation. ‘This necessity has generally precluded
in the earlier years of a lumberman’s operation serious
consideration of anything but the production of the
lumber at the lowest possible cost. The practice of
forestry would increase the cost of production per
unit on account of the less amount of timber imme-
diately available from a given area. The percentage
of increase in cost of production would be very slight
where there is a heavy stand of timber, but in a light
stand the percentage of increased cost would be quite
large. The individual operator has always had to
consider—first, the necessity of employing a larger
investment; second, competition of manufacturers,
who are operating regardless of the principles of
forestry. This competition during periods of general
commercial depression might force the manufacturer
AMERICAN ForREST CONGRESS IOI
who is practicing forestry to run his plant at a loss,
or suspend operations until the conditions of supply
and demand were favorable.
About two years ago a number of gentlemen who
were large holders of timber lands made an effort to
consolidate practically all of the larger yellow pine
holdings of the South into a single timber company,
contemplating the cutting and sale of timber to lumber
manufacturers under the application of forestry. That
is, that the amount of timber in one year should not
exceed the amount produced, except where the land
would produce greater returns as agriculture, when
it would naturally be cut clear. If this plan could
have been put into operation, the increased cost of
transporting the mature timber over larger areas made
necessary by the application of forestry, would have
been more than equalized by the advance in the value
of stumpage, on account of the smaller amount imme-
diately available.
It was found, however, that the general public, as
well as many timber owners, did not understand
forestry sufficiently well to look favorably upon an
investment of either capital or timber on the scale
proposed.
A meeting such as this gives promise that the for-
ester will increase his knowledge of economic problems
before the manufacturer, and that investors and hold-
ers of timber learn that the forester does not desire
to place obstacles in the way of profitably converting
the forests into lumber, but by forestry to protect them
from fire, disease, and useless waste, thus making
forest investments safe and permanent.
That forestry is practicable upon large timber hold-
ings, either in private or Government ownership, is
unquestioned by all who have given the matter careful
102 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
thought. Lumbermen who have studied the timber
situation realize that in the future, as in the past, the
largest returns will not be obtained through their
manufacturing plants only. The great fortunes that
have been made in the lumber business have been ac-
quired by the owners of large bodies of timber lands,
and this condition will continue. For the purpose
of illustration, let us consider the supply of timber
as represented by one circle, and the annual consump-
tion by another circle. The circle representing con-
sumption is annually increasing, as the result not
only of increase in population but of a material
increase in per capita consumption of wood.
On the other hand the circle representing supply is
annually decreasing, and unless the forests are reserved
for use, instead of being sacrificed for the sake of the
cost of immediate production of lumber, the circle of
supply, as far as it can be considered a commercial
factor, must disappear. If this be true, all Govern-
ment timber lands should be withdrawn from sale or
entry and placed under conservative forest manage-
ment, all mature timber being for sale, provided proper
protection is given the young timber. In this way, at
least, a partial supply of timber for future generations
can be perpetuated.
THE CHANGED ATTITUDE OF LUMBER-
MEN TOWARD FORESTRY
BY
J. E. DEFEBAUGH
Editor American Lumberman
R ECALLING the history of the lumber industry of
America and of forestry in this country, we are
filled with mingled emotions of pleasure and surprise as
we attend the sessions of this Congress and behold the
character and diversity of this assembly. It reminds
me of the story told by Dr. Henry Van Dyke of the
little girl who asked her father:
“Papa, where were you born?”
“Tn Boston, my dear,” he answered.
“And where was mamma born?”
“In San Francisco, my dear.”
“And where was I born?”
“Tn Philadelphia, my dear.”
“Well,” said the little one, “isn’t it funny how we
three people ever got together!”
There are present, through the most altruistic mo-
tives, not only men to whom forestry is a science and
an occupation, but men whose business is the cutting
of the forest, and men who are neither lumbermen nor
professional foresters, but who occupy high places in
our national life and are interested in the forestry
movement because it is for the national good.
There is to participate in the proceedings of this
convention the most distinguished forester in the nation
104 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
and consequently the most distinguished forester in the
world—the President of the United States.
To him who in the love of nature holds
Communion with her visible forms, she speaks
A various language—
and Theodore Roosevelt has held communion with
nature possibly more extensively and certainly more
intensively than any of the rest of us here. He has
learned to know nature, and consequently the forests,
from their romantic and practical sides, and he has
demonstrated his practical sympathy with the forestry
movement as has no other in this country.
Another high forester, who has been an efficient
stimulus to forestry and along effective lines, is the
President of the American Forestry Association, the
Secretary of Agriculture, James Wilson. Of him
Senator Mark Hanna, the sincerely lamented _ states-
man from the Buckeye State, said to a great audience
of lumbermen assembled in this city two years ago:
“TWncle Jimmy’ knows his business and he has
taught the people of this country on the farm, in the
forests and in the mines—all of the great productive
interests of the United States—more in the five or six
years he has been at the head of that department than
all the rest of the scores of the departments put
together. He is the right man in the right place.
And it makes no difference what changes may come
in the political atmosphere here, we will keep him here
if we have to run him on a separate ticket.”
Another forester among us, of national reputation,
and a fame peculiarly his own because his work has
been and is largely altruistic, has given a large per-
centage of the present impetus to forest work—Gifford
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 105
Pinchot, the chief forester of the Government. A
man of culture, he has decided to make his life work
one for which not only the present but future genera-
tions will “rise up to call him blessed.”
All within sound of my voice, therefore, are for-
esters; and so I feel some confidence in a kindly
reception of this effort. The subject has been a cause
for comment, not only in the lumber trade but among
all interested in forestry: “The Changed Attitude of
Lumbermen Toward Forestry.”
I think, however, it is hardly adequate to assume
that only the lumberman’s position has changed; the
change has been as great, or greater, in the conditions
surrounding us, and in the attitude and policies of
specialists in forestry.
No reasonable man would be disposed to denounce
the early settlers of the timbered portions of North
America for cutting away the forests. Cleared land
was necessary for the growing of food products which
were essential to the sustenance of life. A man with
a family, by a courageous enterprise or by the force of
circumstances projected into the wilderness, would not
hesitate to cut down and clear off the tree growth as
rapidly as his strength permitted. Self-preservation
is the first law of nature, and the pioneers in our forest
areas had. to clear the land or starve. Moreover, in
the early period of settlement he was considered the
greatest benefactor to the state and to the community
in which he lived who slashed down the most forest
and cleared the land most rapidly and thoroughly.
At first there was no thought of the future value of
timber; at the moment it was a cumberer of the
ground, like ledges of rock and the loose stones of the
glacial drift. It was thought to be a fortunate possi-
bility that a portion of the cumbersome forest growth,
106 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
that must be cleared from the land anyway to make
room for towns, villages, highways, and farms, could
be utilized. Inthe process of clearing farms, if any of
the timber could be sold and shipped to the European
and seaboard markets or used for local improvements
it was a clear gain, profit accruing from a gratuitous
resource, like game from the woods or fish from the
waters. There was no thought that the trees would
in time acquire a distinct and appreciable value simply
because they had become scarce.
Another reason why the early lumberman from his
own viewpoint saw no particular value in standing
timber was that he found it hard work to make a profit
when he had an unlimited privilege to cut all the
timber in sight. In the beginning of operations in the
three northwestern white pine -states—from 1830 to
about 1845—all the mill operators had to do to secure
logs for sawing was to obtain from the Indians the
privilege to cut timber, which permits were usually
sanctioned by the Government. A few goods given
to the Indians were sufficient to secure all the logs
necessary to supply any of the mills of that day. Tim-
ber that would run 60 per cent uppers could be secured
in exchange for whiskey that would run 90 per cent
adulteration.
The early operators penetrated the deep woods far
from settlement, going along the lake shore and up the
rivers 100 or 200 miles from any considerable base of
supplies, and after great hardship and excessive labor,
and often loss by flood and fire, managed to saw a
little lumber in the primitive saw mills of that day and
raft it out to the market. It goes without saying that
these early operators had no thought for the preserva-
tion of the forests. They took the nearest and best
trees for their purpose, as they needs must if they were
to make any profit in their enterprise.
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 107
After the pine lands had been surveyed and settle-
ment had developed a general demand for lumber, pine
holdings began to have a specific value—but at first it
was a acreage price at Government figures. It was
cheap property and so esteemed. The main thing with
the lumberman was the expense involved in building
mills, in cleaning out streams for the floating logs,
putting in camps, and all else that was involved in
logging, milling, and marketing.
As to pine stumpage, the mill operators from 1850
to 1880 thought there was no limit to it. Its possible
exhaustion was considered so far in the future as to
be a negligible quantity in the equation. The location
of a mill at an advantageous site for floating logs
down to it and for shipping lumber when produced
was the prime consideration. The investment was in
these things; the value of the raw material on the
stump was the minor factor in the problem.
And yet with stumpage worth but $1.25 an acre
lumbermen found it difficult to make profit in their
business from 1850 to 1857, and, in the latter disastrous
year and the several years following, hundreds of them
in Michigan, Wisconsin, and along the Mississippi
River went to the financial wall. After the civil war
there was a revival, with some few successes and some
slight increase in timber values. In 1873 came another
financial revolution and more depression in the lumber
business, accompanied by many bankruptcies.
Not until 1879-80 did the northern pine business
reach a plane of commercial activity where stumpage
values began to be considered. At that time the pine
owners who had hung on to their stumpage despite
hard times, low prices, and meager profits in lumber
production began to realize that they possessed wealth
in their pine trees. Then standing pine began to be
108 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
closely estimated and the value of an acre of land was
determined by the number of thousands of feet of logs
that could be cut from it. But, as in nearly all cases
where their is an advance of stumpage values, there
was not a commensurate rise in the value of sawed
product. Operators with large holdings of standing
timber were made rich by the advancement in the
value of their stumpage, while they found it necessary
to pursue the strictest business methods and use the
most economical appliances in order to produce lumber
at a profit on the basis of stumpage values. Conse-
quently there followed the utmost utilization of the
pine on a given area of land. As the years passed
standing pine continued to advance in price in greater
ratio than sawed product, and the effort to convert
every possible tree into salable lumber increased. A
great change was induced, a change from the old
method of cutting all the larger trees and those nearest
the water, as was done in the ’40s and ’5os, to the
latter-day practice of scraping the land of every tree
that would produce mechantable lumber, down to those
that would turn out only a 4x4, with possibly bark on
one or more corners of the piece. Sometimes have
been cut in this way trees whose product would not
pay the saw bill. Yet there was produced from them
a product useful to the community at large which from
the lumberman’s point of view would have been wasted
had they been left in the woods, and his natural desire
for thrift and economy led him beyond the point where
his operations would result in profit to himself.
The development of railroad logging has also had
its notable influence in this direction. The expense of
building logging railroads into the timber is so great
that only comparatively solid bodies of timber will
carry it. When the merchantable timber is taken out
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 109
the road is also taken up and moved elsewhere; and it
is desirable that before this is done the logging shall be
thoroughly completed. Under such conditions it often
is very unlikely that even if the smaller trees be left
upon the tract there will ever again be a sufficient stand
of timber to justify the rebuilding of the logging road.
The point aimed at in this cursory review of the
evolution of the pine lumber industry is to show that
the lumbermen all along pursued a strenuous course in
their endeavor to make a profit in their business. In
their enterprise they had to be pioneers in a vast wil-
derness; they had to cover wide extents of territory
in carrying out their plans; they were forced to clear
out streams, build dams, put in booms, erect mills, and
latterly construct railroads, build and purchase vessels,
equip lines of barges, and establish docks—all of
which required capital and necessitated great economy,
business acumen, and thoroughness in order to secure
profit in operation. It was a business that required
much money and credit and considerable time before
any profitable results could accrue. Is it any wonder,
then, that the lumbermen looked upon their stumpage,
or any stumpage, as merely raw material from which,
if conditions were favorable, they could extract a
money profit?
Fifty years ago in this country a general application
of forestry methods would have been absurd. There
were some cases where forests in particular places
should have been preserved, but up to that time and
even later the forest as a whole was an encumbrance.
In the eastern part of the United States, which had the
people, not only the lumberman but the settler also was
engaged in removing the forest, with the difference,
however, that the settler was making little or no use
of it, but merely destroying it to get it out of his way.
iio PROCEEDINGS OF THE
Modern civilization cannot exist in the shade nor
live on mast. The forests had to be cleared away in
order to give place for growing corn and wheat. So
there was the peculiar combination of dependence upon
the forests for fuel and building supplies and at the
same time the obligation to remove them to make room
for other crops. The lumberman, therefore, was not
a devastator, but performed a useful function in the
community at a profit to himself by removing that
which had, as it stood, little or no value. The public
cannot with justice condemn the lumberman for chop-
ping down the trees when it recalls the conspicuous
example set by the Father of his Country.
Furthermore, until recent years the Government,
which owned the forests in the unused areas of the
United States, placed no special value on them. It
invited acquisition by any one, including the lumber-
man ; consequently the lumbermen came into possession
of much of the timbered area and practically all the
pine, hemlock, and similar woods which grow in solid
forests. ‘There was thus set up a property interest
which had to be treated like any other private interest.
Many had their fortunes invested in timber and the
only way in which they could realize on the investment
was by manufacture.
It is true that with recent years standing timber has
come into greater prominence as an opportunity for
investment, and there are now large holdings in the
hands of capitalists who have never owned nor
operated a saw mill and perhaps never expect to do
so. Such owners hold their timber for an enhancement
of values as would an investor in real estate, but they
expect to hold only so long as it seems more profitable
to hold than to sell. They are not holding their timber
for posterity, but only for the best marketing oppor-
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS III
tunity. The same question of present versus future
markets confronts the timber owner who is also a
manufacturer, modified somewhat by the inclination to
keep the mill in operation. It determines somewhat
the capacity of the mill to be built upon a given site
with a known amount of tributary timber, and after
it is built determines whether the output shall be
restricted or pushed to the limit according to the cur-
rent market demands. That is the point of view of
any other owner of pine timber or of any other sort
of timber that has tangible value. The tree represents
a definite asset to be converted at the earliest favorable
opportunity, and without reference to any possible
interest that posterity might have in its being per-
mitted to remain on the stump.
The increase in value of all timber holdings within
recent years makes advocacy of forest preservation,
as far as merchantable timber is concerned, properly
a plea for so managing the forest as to get the greatest
amount of commercial product from it at the present
time without impairing any more than necessary its
productive capacity for the future. The holder of a
timber estate is actuated by exactly the same consid-
erations as the holder of other property—he wishes it
to produce more money than he has put in. If he can
be convinced that the timber is such that its growth
will give him greater earnings on his investment than
its cutting at the present time he may be induced to
hold it; but he is not likely to let his forest stand solely
for the benefit of posterity, or unless it is practically
shown that this procedure will lead to enhancement in
the value of his estate. In so far, however, as the
timber is already matured the time of its harvest is
already at hand. The owner, of course, desires to
harvest it in the most economical manner; and if
112 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
timber owners and lumbermen can be instructed in this
particular and induced to practice timber management
in accordance with the plan advocated by trained for-
esters much will be accomplished in the direction of
prolonging existing timber supplies. But it should
be admitted by everybody that the money value of
standing timber will inevitably determine the disposi-
tion of it, except where it has been reserved by the
Government.
If there has been any tardiness in recognizing the
necessity for forest regulation and reforestation it
should be understood that the forestry idea has been
slow in gaining ground even with a disinterested gen-
eral public, a fact chargeable neither to the lumbermen
nor to the forestry advocates.
We have heard much of the “wasteful methods” of
the lumbermen, but in the early days of lumbering
there was no waste that was not necessary, or, rather,
no waste that was not more economical than to save.
No property owner can afford to spend dollars when
he will receive only cents in return. Under the condi-
tions, the waste in tree tops, tall stumps, thick slabs,
edgings, and trimmings and much sawdust was, from
a financial standpoint, no waste at all. The lumbermen
did with their property only what would yield the best
returns.
To an industry established on such a basis there
came the advocate of forest preservation. Originally
—during the early agitation of the subject and up to
within fifteen or twenty years—forestry advocates
were manly of two classes, either sentimentalists or
technicists ; the latter being trained in the forest meth-
ods of the old European countries where conditions
were entirely different from those that obtained in
the United States. The former scolded or tearfully
implored, while the latter proposed the impossible.
AMERICAN Forest CoNncRESS 113
Listening to the abuse that was showered upon
them; to the seemingly impracticable theories; to the ~
petitions which, if granted, would have wiped out their
properties, is it any wonder that lumbermen were at
first indifferent or even were aroused to hostility?
Some of them were incensed, others threatening, and
others were amused by unjust criticism.
Beware the wicked lumberman,
That wasteful, hasteful artisan.
But while the logger you discuss
A glance take at the rest of us—
The camper with his cheery blaze
That blows around in many ways;
The hunting man with pillar bright
Of smoke by day and fire by night;
The farmer with his log heap high,
His stump-fire when the weather’s dry,
His fancy, solid walnut fence—
He worries not about expense.
Oh, when the logger you condemn
Consider well the rest of them.
Consider the farmer of the field
Who loves the flaming torch to wield;
The campers toil not, neither spin,
Yet pretty blazes they begin—
Nor Solomon, in all his ease,
Burned money up like one of these!
However, a change in conditions was going on. Up
to the point where the natural growth of the forest
would more than take care of the needs of a community
the surplus was valueless and would better be disposed
of in some manner than preserved at any material cost.
But when we reached the stage where the forests were
114 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
reduced to the point where the natural annual increase
would not more than take care of the present and
prospective needs of the country, then values advanced
and the lumbermen have come to see some practicality
in the proposition that methods of forest preservation
should be introduced.
Like all methods that effect great changes in society
or economics, the forestry idea in the United States
has been an evolution. It must be confessed that
foresters of the present day discard some theories
that were considered important by American forestry
experts of thirty years ago.
There’s that dear old rainfall theory once held in such
esteem
By which a dampness was produced by such a simple
scheme.
As Aaron smote the rock of old and found a water
power
So might we plant a tamarack and start a summer
shower.
Behold the forester of old, the optimistic fellah—
A planting trowel in one hand, in the other an umbrella.
Our duty is not particularly to refrain from chop-
ping down trees ripe for the ax ,but to be active in
replacing them. Coincident with this duty is that of
cutting only mature timber, where that is possible,
and of guarding timber tracts from fires and other
destructive agencies that often are due to carelessness.
There is nothing truer than the old saying that you
cannot eat your cake and have it, yet it never restrained
very many people from eating the cake, for the cake
must be eaten to be enjoyed. The thing to do is not
AMERICAN Forest CoNnGRESS 115
to weep over the cake after it has disappeared, but to
get out the recipe book and make another.
No one will question the soundness of the lumber-
man’s belief that his method gets the greatest use out
of the tree. Though the old theory is now seriously
questioned if the standing tree encourages the summer
shower, the sawed shingle is necessary to protect the
head of the man from the thunder storm. Nothing in
the world can suffer a better fate than utilization.
When the tomato was the ruddy “love apple” of our
youth it was a beautiful object, but who will deny the
more potent attraction of the tomato stew? We are
compelled to admit that the mature tree must come
down. Once down, that particular tree is eliminated.
I am reminded of the question asked of the Swiss
guide by the tourist. He was gazing over the edge of
the precipice and remarked to the guide: “I suppose
people often fall from here?” “No,” replied the guide,
“only once.”
historical fact. "The boy is one of the honored mem-
AMERICAN Forest ConcrEss 227
bers of this Congress. His companion was one of
California’s most able and eminent men, a mental
athlete who failed, after thirty years of experience
and observation, to classify the great San Joaquin
Valley as agricultural. In view of such experiences,
what must we expect of any expert or commission
charged with the classification of the vast areas of arid
lands. What could the expert have told you of the
oil wells of California and Texas thirty years ago?
With the rapid development of irrigation and water
storage with governmental aid, and with the develop-
ment of water from beneath the surface scarcely be-
gun, the future possibilities of the deserts, valleys, and
plains of the Western domain are yet beyond our
comprehension, and the Government should hold fast
these titles for the home-builders of the future which
will come with these developments.
Through each step of this evolution we must re-
member the absent home-builders of little means and
limited opportunities, and zealously protect their op-
portunities for the future against the encroachments
of the strong and aggressive, if we expect them to
raise up patriotic sons and daughters who will perpet-
uate this as a just and free government; the grandest
heritage we can leave to our posterity, to humanity.
ADVANTAGE OF COOPERATION BE-
TWEEN THE GOVERNMENT AND
LIVE STOCK ASSOCIATIONS IN THE
REGULATION AND CONTROL OF
GRAZING ON FOREST RESERVES
BY
FRED P. JOHNSON
Secretary National Live Stock Association
ASSUMING that it is conceded that the forest re-
serves may be used in an economical manner for
the grazing of live stock, the absolute necessity of an
efficient control and regulation of this privilege, for
the protection of the reserves, must be admitted.
To those not familiar with the vast areas the forest
reserves cover, the task of providing an efficient patrol
to guard them and prevent their injury, may seem a
mere matter of detail. Those who are familiar with
these conditions, on the contrary, are inclined to the
belief that the whole United States Army would hardly
furnish enough men to give the adequate protection
needed. While, under the present system of patrol, a
small army of men are in service, the protection af-
forded is only nominal. How then can the stockmen
be allowed to graze in these reserves with the assurance
that they will be rightly used, and not only the grazing,
but the forests as well, be protected from misuse and
vandalism, for there is vandalism in grazing as well as
in the destruction of forests?
From my knowledge of the stockmen in the West,
I can assert that there is no class of men more vitally
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 229
interested in sane and reasonable forest protection than
the stockmen. If given an opportunity, no class of
men could furnish more absolute and reliable protec-
tion for these reserves. But would they do it? Yes,
if properly approached in the matter.
The western stockman is of a peculiar disposition,
due probably to his environment. Restless and impa-
tient under any attempt to bind him to iron-clad rules
and regulations, yet, when approached with a request
for help and assistance, even though he may derive no
benefit, he is quick to respond. It has been the failure
of governmental departments to understand this phase
of his character that has resulted in much opposition
to forest reserves. As the pioneer, who braved the
dangers and hardships of the frontier to open the way
to civilization, he has felt that he had acquired some
moral rights which even the Government should re-
spect, and to have a stranger ride up to him while on
the range and dictate to him things that he may or may
not do, even though spoken in the name of the Govern-
ment, is galling to his pride and that feeling of absolute
freedom which has been bred into his nature. Ap-
proached by the proper officials with an explanation
of the necessity of the forest reserves; the good that
will eventually result to him from their establishment,
and a request for assistance in maintaining them and
carrying out the plans of the Government, would meet
with immediate and hearty response.
All over the West there are organizations of stock-
men who have associated themselves together for the
protection of their interests and for the improvement
of conditions in their industry. These organizations
are composed of the leading and progressive stockmen
in the various districts. These are men who are build-
ing homes in the desert and they are profoundly inter-
230 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
ested in anything that affects the prosperity of their
locality. Here, already organized, is an army of men
greater than any the Government could press into
service for this purpose, ready, willing, effective, and
to be had for the asking. The Government has only
to request that in return for the privilege of grazing
on these reserves, that the organized stock association
assume the task of protecting them, fostering the vege-
tation and preventing fire and vandalism. It is pos-
sible that many of them do not thoroughly understand
the problem the Government has undertaken to solve;
then they should be enlightened, and it would be found
that there would be no more enthusiastic supporters
of the reserves than the stockmen.
It must not be understood that I advocate the com-
plete turning over of these reserves to the stock
interests. The Government control and supervision
must be absolute, but the organized stockmen could be
sworn in as forest officers. They should have at least
an advisory voice in the making of the rules and regu-
lations and in return should be given as much freedom
in the use of the reserves for grazing purposes as
would be consistent and in keeping with the objects to
be attained.
The advantage of such cooperation between the
government and stockmen must be evident. The
advantage to the Government is to enlist the active
assistance of men who live on the ground, as it were,
in the advancement of the forest reserve idea. Under
such an arrangement the reserves would have a better
protection than could possibly be obtained in any other
way and at the minimum cost for administration. In-
stead of the antagonism of a large class of citizens who
really have rights that the public is morally bound to
respect, you will have their enthusiastic support. This,
AMERICAN Forest ConcrEss 231
in my mind, is worth much. On the other hand, the
stockmen are made to realize that these reserves are
being maintained for the benefit of the community in
which they live, and they, having secured a personal
interest in the success of the idea, will do their utmost
to build up the reserves along the lines desired. While
they are given the right to use the reserves for grazing
purposes, the privilege will not be abused under such
conditions, for the community, being interested, will
permit no abuse.
The time to inaugurate the proposed plan is at hand,
since the reserves have passed into the control of the
Department of Agriculture, through the recent passage
of a bill by Congress transferring the administration
of the reserves from the Department of the Interior.
The Department of Agriculture is closer to the stock-
man than any other department of the Government,
and now that the transfer is accomplished it will be an
easy matter to secure this codperation.
It is unnecessary in a paper of this kind to go into
the details of a plan to secure this codperation. It is
a perfectly simple matter, and where there at present
does not exist live stock associations to take up this
work, they would be quickly organized when it was
understood that the Government was willing to recog-
nize them and accept their assistance in the building
up of the reserves and in the maintenance of their
safety and integrity. As to the question of the wisdom
of adopting the policy suggested, it seems to me that
there can be no negative argument worth considering,
none at least from those who understand the actual
conditions in the West.
NECESSITY OF USING THE FOREST RE-
SERVES FOR GRAZING PURPOSES
BY
SENATOR FRANCIS E. WARREN
President National Woolgrowers’ Association
FOREST protection in the United States by Govern-
ment interposition is of recent origin, dating from
March 3, 1891, when in the act to repeal the timber
culture laws, a section was placed conferring upon the
President authority to set apart and reserve public
lands, wholly or in part covered with timber or under-
growth, whether of commercial value or not, as public
reservations.
If the law authorizing the creation of forest reserves
had been enacted half a century earlier, the people of
the United States would to-day be richer than they
are by billions of dollars, the value of countless acres
of timber wasted in the ruthless rush for earlier devel-
opment of the country and destroyed by fire for want
of adequate protection, mainly the latter.
The forestry reserve law which took the place of
the timber-culture law (under which nine millions of
acres of public lands passed into the ownership of
individuals), is simple in terms and occupies but brief
space in the statutes. But its effect has been far-reach-
ing, and under it has grown up in the brief period it
has been in existence a new and important branch of
governmental administration.
The forest reserve law has been taken advantages of
during every year since its enactment for the creation
of forest reserves, excepting during the years 1894,
AMERICAN Forest ConcrEss 233
1895, and 1896. During the other eleven years the
law has been in operation the several Presidents have
issued proclamations creating fifty-nine forest reserves,
embracing 62,763,494 acres, an area so great that com-
parisons are necessary in order to obtain an adequate
conception of it.
If the various reserves were assembled in one com-
pact tract, the aggregate area would be greater than
that of the great State of Wyoming; greater than the
area of Michigan, of Oregon, of Utah, of Minnesota,
or of Nebraska. It would be greater than the com-
bined area of all the New England States, with New
Jersey and Delaware thrown in for good measure, and
it would be greater than New York and Pennsylvania
combined.
The primary object of the creation of forest reserves
was that the timber supply of the country might be
husbanded and preserved, and that the denudation of
the great timbered areas of the country, which was
progressing with fateful rapidity, might be choked.
But with the creation of the reserves a more important
object was evolved, and that is the preservation of the
water supply. I cannot better describe this object than
by quoting from the message of President Roosevelt
to Congress at the opening of its present session:
“This” (the preservation of the water supply) “is
their most important use. The principal users of the
water thus preserved are irrigation ranchers and set-
tlers, cities and town to whom their municipal water
supplies are of the very first importance, users and
furnishers of water power, and the users of water for
domestic, manufacturing, mining, and other purposes.
All these are directly dependent upon the forest
reserves.”
The beneficial object of the withdrawal from unre-
234 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
stricted public use of the forest lands of the West and
their creation into reservations, has the endorsement
of residents of Western States, even though the public
land area of those States is seriously diminished. The
Western people, patriotic in all things, acquiesced in
the intrenchment upon their States for the general
public good. Although the creation of forest reserves
and forest regulations often work hardships to individ-
uals and to communities, there is no branch of the
Government which has more loyal support from West-
ern citizens than has the forest service.
That there have been earnest complaints concerning
it cannot be denied. That these complaints were just
is evident, for the two great administrative arms of
the Government, the Department of the Interior and
the Department of Agriculture, have taken cognizance
of them, and have provided remedies for many of the
complaints, until now there is a fair degree of harmony
between the people directly concerned by forest reserve
regulation and the forest service.
The complaints which have attended the administra-
tion of the forest reserve law grew out of the mistaken
notion of many minor officials, and of some whose
places were quite high on the official roster, that the
reserves and what they contained were to be withdrawn
from public use. They acted in their dealings with
those living on or near the reserves on the theory that
the timber, the grass, the water, and even the air,
was reserved for the use of the Government and such
of its official servants who might happen to have their
abiding place, temporarily or permanently, on the
reserves.
Happily, this idea of withdrawing the reserves from
all use has, year by year, lost its potency. Investiga-
tion, examination, and experience demonstrated that
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 235
the reserves, by judicious use, could best be preserved,
and the welcome words of President Roosevelt, in his
latest message to Congress, coincide with the views
which have been held by Western citizens since the
creation of the reserves, and they illustrate also how
closely and clearly the President is in touch with West-
ern needs and interests. In his message he said:
“Tt is the cardinal principle of the forest reserve
policy of this administration that the reserves are for
use. Whatever interferes with the use of their re-
sources is to be avoided by every possible means.”
The most serious complaint lodged against the
administrative regulations of the forest reserve was
in reference to the restriction (in the earlier days of
the reservations, amounting to almost prohibition,) of
live stock grazing on the reserves.
While the restrictive regulations were applied to all
classes of live stock, they were particularly and almost
viciously severe in reference to sheep. And, while it
may not be germane to my subject, it might be noted
that the poor sheep and the still poorer sheepman have
been the object of hostility of mankind almost since
the beginning of recorded time. The first attempt to
put a sheepman out of business was when Cain slew
his brother Abel, who “was a keeper of sheep.” Even
the great John Randolph, it is said, declared “that he
would walk a mile out of his way any time to kick
a sheep.”
And this innate antipathy to sheep and sheepmen
found expression in the earlier regulations which the
officers of the forest service saw fit to put into effect
for the care and protection of reserves. With little
or no practical knowledge of the subject, they held
the sheep to be the most destructive animal in existence.
If allowed within the forest reserves, it was charged,
236 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
this ravenous creature would not only eat the grasses
found there, but would feed on the shrubs and shoots,
and if hunger were not fully appeased by this diet,
would climb the trees and devour the tender branches.
If allowed to cross the reserves, it was claimed that
the sharp hoofs of the sheep would cut and pack the
spongy forest soil so that floods and serious soil erosion
would follow and forest reproduction would be en-
dangered. Then, too, it was charged that the herders
would leave camp fires uncared for and that fire and
destruction would follow in the wake of the shepherds
and their flocks.
It took many years for the Western stockmen to
convince the officials in Washington that sheep do not
climb trees and do not eat coniferous plant or tree
growth, which forms the greater part of timber of
Western reserves. It took much effort to convince
them that grazing off the heavy growth of weeds and
wild grass in the many parts of the reserves was the
best protection that could be provided against the
spread of fires. It has taken much demonstration to
convince them that it was more to the interest of the
stockman than any other class to protect the reserves
against fireand that scarcely an authenticated case could
be found where a forest fire originated purposely or
carelessly with a stockman.
There have been exceptions to this class of officials.
Two notable ones occur to me at this time, the present
Commissioner of the General Land Office, and the
Forester of the Department of Agriculture.
Following the advent of these officials into the forest
service have come reforms along practical lines which
have the sanction and approval of the President and
the warm welcome of the woolgrower and stockman.
These reforms have been along the lines of more
AMERICAN Forest ConcrEss 237
stringent regulations for policing and patrolling the
reserves, more liberal regulations for permitting set-
tlers to obtain timber for their own use, more liberal
regulations concerning live stock grazing and sheep-
crossing permits, careful investigation of the character
of the lands before including them in forest reserves
and in the investigation of lands previously included
with a view to restoring them to public entry and set-
tlement, if found more valuable for grazing or agri-
culture than for growth of timber.
These reforms followed the earlier onerous regula-
tions and were the result of petitions for relief sent to
the Department of the Interior from individual settlers
and ranchmen, stock associations, stockgrowers, and
irrigation congresses, and of personal requests for a
more liberal attitude towards Western people made
by members of the Senate and House of Representa-
tives from Western States.
During the year just closed sheep were allowed to
enter and graze in twenty-one forest reserves, and
cattle and horses in fifty-five, while in 1901 but eight
reserves were opened to sheep and thirty to cattle and
horses. In 1904 there were issued 843 sheep grazing
permits allowing 1,806,722 sheep to enter and graze
on the reserves as against 391 permits and 1,214,418
sheep in Igot.
During last year 5,874 permits for cattle and horses
were issued and 620,657 head of this class of live stock
allowed to graze as against 1,926 permits and 277,621
head of stock in 1901. During the year ending June
30, 1904, 919,225 additional sheep were allowed to trail
across the reservations in going to grazing grounds or
shipping points outside of the reserves.
To more correctly make known the necessities of
using the forest reserves for grazing purposes a refer-
238 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
ence to forestry in my own State—Wyoming—would
not be out of place, as conditions there are typical of
conditions generally. |
When Wyoming was admitted to statehood in 1890
its area was 62,641,920 acres. Since that time over
ten per cent. of the area of Wyoming has been with-
drawn from public settlement and created into forest
reserves. The State has given up for the general
public good an area larger than the State of Massachu-
setts, larger than New Hampshire, or New Jersey, or
Vermont, or Maryland. There has been no serious
complaint on account of the great area thus withdrawn
and reserved, but there has been complaint as to indis-
criminate early withdrawals of great tracts of land not
forest, but grazing lands. There has been complaint
also that grazing restrictions in the reserves were too
severe and that a much smaller number of live stock
was permitted to enter the reserves during the grazing
seasons than the parks and open spaces in the reserves
would carry without detriment. There has been com-
plaint that the bureaucracy of the forest reserve admin-
istration caused unnecessary delay in the granting of
timber cutting permits and that many matters that
should be settled by local officers had to be referred
to Washington, thus causing much needless delay and
inconvenience to the ranchman and stockman.
Some of their complaints have been given due con-
sideration and reforms inaugurated to remedy them.
The Commissioner of the General Land Office, in
charge of the administration work of the service, and
the Forester of the Department of Agriculture, in
charge of the scientific features of forestry, took cog-
nizance of the complaint that lands were included in
reserves regardless of their character and conjointly
conducted investigations and examinations to remedy
this evil.
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 239
An investigation was made of the Yellowstone re-
serve, the largest in the United States, which required
110 days and 1,800 miles of travel by a skilled engineer
and forest expert and their assistants. As a result
of their investigation they recommended the elimina-
tion from the reserve of 559,350 acres of grazing and
agricultural lands and the addition of 130,560 acres
of outside timber lands, making a net reduction in the
reserve of 428,800 acres. This recommendation was
approved by the Commissioner of the General Land
Office and the Forester, and the change in the reserva-
tion area directed by presidential proclamation. A
similar investigation was made of the Big Horn forest
reserve, Wyoming, which was reduced in size by
eliminating 65,000 acres.
I am of the opinion that still more liberality could
be shown in granting grazing privileges without detri-
ment to the objects for which the reserves were created
and with great benefit to those living within the vicinity
of the reserves.
Wyoming has many resources. It is one of the
leading coal producing States of the Union. It has
shipping mines of copper and iron. It produces oil
of superior quality and in great quantity. Its building
stone is used in many outside States, and it has as many
farms in proportion to population as any State in the
Union. But the chief industry of Wyoming is the
raising of live stock, and under the conditions which
have prevailed for nearly half a century, grazing on
the public domain constitutes the principal method of
live stock raising. To arbitrarily withdraw from
general public use an area of over 7,000,000 acres,
which is perhaps twenty per cent. of the public grazing
lands of the State, would seriously endanger this great
live stock industry if needlessly severe regulations were
240 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
kept in force for the control of the reserves. It is,
therefore, a necessity that good judgment be exercised
in granting grazing privileges so that the fullest
measure of capacity of the reserves may be accorded
the live stock interests, at the same time guarding
against forest injury. In my opinion the reserves of
Wyoming, the forests of which are all of coniferous
growth, would bear without injury a decided increase
of live stock during the grazing season.
Complaints have been made justly from time to
time of the refusal to allow stock to be trailed across
the reserves for shipment or to reach grazing grounds
on the public domain. These complaints have, in a
large measure, been remedied, but there is still room
for improvement.
The conditions in Wyoming apply generally to the
entire Western country, and the needs of the sheepmen
and other live stock owners in relation to the forest
reserves are general and may be summarized as fol-
lows:
First: Thorough and complete topographic exami-
nations should be made of all forest reserves with a
view to restoring to the public domain all grazing and
agricultural lands, and all lands covered with timber
of non-commercial value and valueless as a protection
to watersheds or the headwaters of streams, or for the
protection of water supplies for cities and towns.
Second: Adequate public trails should be established
across forest reserves so that sheep and other live
stock might be moved across the reserves to reach graz-
ing grounds, markets or shipping points, with the least
possible inconvenience to owners.
Third: The grazing capacity of each reserve should
be estimated by local officials, who should take into
consideration the actual conditions of grass growth
AMERICAN Forest CoNncrRESS 241
each year, and the reserves should be opened during
the grazing seasons to the full capacity of the reserves,
consistent with their preservation and the prevention of
over grazing.
Fourth: The administration of the reserves should
be placed, as far as possible, in the hands of local
officials, and the rangers, supervisors, and superinten-
dents should be, when practicable to obtain them, local
men familiar with local conditions and requirements.
Fifth: Grazing privileges on the reserves should be
confined to stock owned by taxpayers and ranch owners
in the State in which the reserve, upon which the
grazing is sought, is located.
I am satisfied that the inclination of the present
officers of the Government in charge of the forest ser-
vice is favorable to the granting of these several neces-
sities of the grazing interests, and I believe now that
a law has been enacted by Congress for consoli-
dating the control of the reserves under the De-
partment of Agriculture, the needs and necessities
of stockmen in relation to forest reserves will receive
earnest and impartial consideration.
SHEEP GRAZING IN THE FOREST RE-
SERVES FROM A LAYMAN'S
STANDPOINT
BY
L. H. PAMMEL
Professor of Botany, Iowa College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts
HAVE, been somewhat interested in forest matters
for a good many years, not only from the stand-
point of the subject of this article, but also from the
standpoint of a botanist. I have followed somewhat
closely the range problems for fifteen years, and my
work has brought me in contact with it from Texas to
Montana. I have been deeply interested in this prob-
lem, for the Iowa farmer needs to recuperate his stock
for feeding purposes from the great arid regions of
the West. No stock equals the western range animals
for feeding purposes. It is, therefore, to the interests
of the Mississippi Valley that good conditions shall be
maintained on the Western ranges. I shall not stop
to review the various interests concerned in connection
with the forest reserves of the West.
Four interests must be considered (1) grazing, (2)
timber supplies, (3) irrigation, (4) mining. Each
must be brought together in one harmonious whole.
The breaking of any one of the links in the chain cannot
but affect the others. During the early development
of the West one interest only was the dominating one,
that of mining. It was soon found that some lines
of agricultural pursuits were needed to give stability
to the country. Then came a conflict between the
different lines of agriculture—the irrigator, the sheep
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 243
herder, the cattleman, all seemed to be in irreparable
conflict. Happily, however, through the efforts of
Mr. Gifford Pinchot some of these matters are being
settled in an amicable way.
It has been my good fortune to have spent some
time in the Rocky Mountain region of Colorado, Wy-
oming, Utah, and Montana, partly to investigate some
of these problems and partly as a layman to enjoy the
benefits of the mountain air and to study the flora.
What were some of the conditions in the great pas-
ture fields of the Rocky Mountains and adjacent re-
gions from 1897 to IgoI?
The cattlemen were dissatisfied because their ranges
were more or less injured,-the irrigator complained
of lack of water. The sheepmen alone entered no
general complaints except where the competition was
too strong among themselves. The open ranges which
had offered abundant opportunities at first became
poorer and poorer and the sheep had to seek greener
fields in the mountains during the summer. What
was more natural than that they should make use of
the forest reserves, where in small parks and meadows
grew an abundance of nutritious grasses. When the
permits were first given it was supposed that grazing
would be confined to the parks and meadows. But the
spirit of this regulation was probably never adhered to,
since the competition among sheepmen was so strong
that they had to seek all kinds of feed for fear of their
flocks reaching the point of starvation in some cases.
It was my privilege to examine three of the forest
reserves, the Uintah, Big Horn, and Bitter Root.
The Bitter Root forest reserve, in Montana, is a
ragged range containing a large amount of timber
and several important streams, the water of which is
used to irrigate the fertile fields in Montana and Idaho.
244 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
The timber in this region is somewhat different from
that occurring in the Uintah Mountains. There are
large bodies of murravana and pinus vexilis. Spruces,
balsam and the Douglas fir are found at different alti-
tudes. This region is very different from the Uintah
Mountains topographically. Sheep grazing has never
been permitted here, and there are few parks. It is
essentially a forest region. Let us first, therefore, con-
sider the importance of the mountains in respect to the
water supply for irrigation.
No better natural reservoirs can be found anywhere
in the Rocky Mountains than the many lakes located
at the sources of the larger streams rising in the Uin-
tah Mountains. In addition there are many basins
or ancient glacial lakes that contain vegetation well
adapted to hold the moisture and thus release it in
the form of springs. The flow of water from these
springs is regulated by the amount of water held in
the soil or retained by the humble plants growing in
forest, meadow, and park. Hundreds of these mead-
ows occur in the reserve, their continuity being broken
only by stretches of forest. A study of these mead-
ows shows a large number of plants important in the
conservation of moisture. ‘Through decay these plants
form a rich humus which, owing to the peculiar physi-
cal conditions, undergo decomposition slowly. Hence
this soil is highly retentive of moisture.
The bogs always carry an abundance of moisture
and the meadow, under natural conditions, generally
contains water, but under overgrazing or the effects
of forest fires the meadows are damaged to such an
extent that the water during the summer months is
continually diminishing.
The present diminished water supply is due in part
to injudicious grazing. Is the water supply less than
AMERICAN Forest ConcrEss 245
formerly? So gaugings of the streams have shown,
as does the testimony of old settlers. Two factors
have been important in bringing about these changed
conditions. First, an unusually large part of the re-
serve has been burned over. Prior to 1879 small
patches had been burned over by the Indians and
trappers. Large areas were burned by the Indians in
1879. Since then there have been many destructive
fires, burning many thousand acres, During the early
settlement of the country some of these fires were
started with the idea of making better grazing, but
experience has taught owners of sheep and cattle that
the burning of forests does not improve the range.
Fires in this reserve, as elsewhere, are started care-
lessly. Sheep herders have been given the credit for
starting these fires, but I believe they should not be
held responsible. More fires are started by hunting and
fishing parties than by cattle and sheepmen.
Bitter controversy has prevailed for years among
cattle and sheepmen and those who use the water for
irrigation purposes. The latter nearly always agree
with the cattlemen in regard to the destructive work
of the sheep in the reserve. In some cases the criti-
cisms are justifiable. A few illustrations may be cited.
During the winter of 1899-1900 there was an unusually
light fall of snow in the mountains with a light rain-
fall in the summer of 1900. Forage was scarce, so
short that the meadows at high altitudes were stripped
of their plants, and the forests were denuded of
their undergrowth as much as the meadows. Lower
down in the reserves the valleys of all the streams
looked like sheep trails with dust rising in clouds even
in the woods. The sheep had to resort to willows,
potentilla fruticosa, betula glandulosa, quercus, prunus
demissa and aspen for their forage. These were
I
246 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
stripped of their foliage as high as the sheep could
reach. The similar species were entirely denuded.
Sheep are said not to graze on conifers, but in numer-
ous cases the Engelmann spruce, Lodgepole pine,
balsam, and Douglas fir were stripped of their foilage
as high up as sheep could reach. In that year the
grazing privilege was granted to 180,000 sheep, a
number far in excess of what the conditions warranted.
The number actually grazed was probably still larger.
In 1901 and 1902 the conditions were very much im-
proved.
So many sheep in the reserve cannot help being
injurious to the forest. The indiscriminate grazing in
the burnt timber destroys the herbaceous plants and
keeps the small shrubs in an enfeebled condition and
thus prevents the renewal of the forest.
In no case did I observe young pines where fires
have occurred during the last eight or ten years. But
in timber nearing maturity, and even mature timber,
the injury was great. The herbaceous plants are in-
jured to such an extent that reseeding is impossible.
Seven years ago herbaceous plants were in abundance
along all of the brooks. Now, however, they are con-
fined to the headwaters of the streams and plentiful
only just below timber line. Many valuable grasses
were once abundant, but now have become rare be-
cause the plants do not have a chance to reseed the
ground since the roots are destroyed by tramping and
close grazing.
In order that sheep owners may have a longer lease
of the forest reserve the suggestion has been made,
by those who are interested in the sheep grazing ques-
tion, that every sheep owner who receives the privilege
from the Government should be compelled to reseed
the ground with grass seed and let the grazing go on
AMERICAN ForEst CONGRESS 247
as before. This is not necessary. I believe under
existing conditions it is practically impossible for grass
or any other plant to get a good start. But given an
opportunity the pasture and meadows will recover.
After spending three seasons in this reserve, I am
convinced more than ever that the number of sheep
in it should be regulated by wise and judicious rules
laid down by the Department of Agriculture, subject
to change as the Department may from time to time
deem expedient, or entirely prohibited until the forest
is in a better condition. The solution of the problem
is a difficult one under the present conditions. Public
opinion in Utah and Wyoming is decidedly in favor of
unrestricted grazing privileges regardless of conse-
quences. So long as the Government pursues the pres-
ent policy in regard to the semi-arid lands so long will
the question remain unsettled. In my opinion the
leasing of the semi-arid lands for a term of years
will help partly to solve the question for the forest
reserves. The free use of our public domain for
every one destroys the range to such an extent that the
sheepmen are forced to use the forest areas. Free
ranges should be abolished.
In the Bitter Root forest reserve, although larger
quantities of water are used than formerly, the water
supply from the mountains is scarcely diminished so
far as I have been able to learn. The most important
factor in the Bitter Root forest reserve to be observed
is that the young trees are coming up everywhere in
great quantities. Grass and various herbaceous plants
are abundant and thick.
To make the forest reserve more effective, power
should be given to the forest supervisor to open roads
and trails. In the Uintah forest reserve there can be
no doubt that the most important factor in diminishing
the water supply is injudicious grazing.
248 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
Much forage of good value occurs in all of these
reserves and from an impartial standpoint I am in-
clined to the opinion this should be used but regulated
in such-a manner that forest trees will not suffer. To
do this will require good officials, who will harmonize
the various conflicting interests. I would respectfully
urge the sentiments expressed by Mr. Pinchot and
Dr. Roth in their several papers.
GRAZING ON PUBLIC LANDS OF CANADA
(Impromptu Address)
BY
R. H. CAMPBELL
Secretary, Canadian Forestry Association
] DO not respond to the call for Western men, but
am very glad that the discussion has been brought
back again to Western conditions, because I am con-
nected with the Department of the Interior of Canada,
which has the management of the Western lands and
deals with the problems which have been specially
brought before the Congress this afternoon, and I
thought a statement of the method that has been
adopted by us in dealing with the Western grazing
interest might perhaps be of some interest to the Con-
gress. The problem has not become an acute one with
us in connection with the forest reservations. The
grazing has not injured them seriously, and we have
not developed the management of the forest reserves
to such an extent that we have given much attention
to that subject. Another reason why the grazing in
the forest reserves has not been a very pressing subject
is the fact that there are no sheep grazed in close
proximity to the reserves or within them, and as the
chief objection has been made to the grazing of sheep
in the reserves on your side of the boundary, I think
it is from that the problem has largely arisen. In the
lands outside of the reserves we have been following
for a number of years a leasing system. We have not
laid down the principle, which apparently has been
laid down in your administration, that the range is
free to any man who wishes to make use of it; in fact,
we lay down the principle, in the first place, that no
person has the right to make use of the public land
250 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
for grazing purposes without special permission from
the Minister of the Interior, and then we go on and
define the rules by which he may be allowed to make
use of that land for.grazing. The regulation that has
been followed for a number of years is that leases for
a period of twenty-one years may be granted for an
area not to exceed 100,000 acres. ‘The rental asked
for this lease is two cents per acre. A number of
leases have been taken up under this system which have
brought in a fair amount of revenue to the Govern-
ment. Recently the large influx into and settlement of
our West has raised the question of the management
of the grazing lands to an important position and made
it a more acute one. When grazing leases were first
adopted a feeling arose between those holding leases
and some of the settlers who wished to go in on these
leaseholds. ‘The Government then decided, in conse-
quence of the agitation that so arose, to cancel these
leaseholds, allowing the holders to purchase one-tenth
of the area and thereafter granted leases only subject
to a homestead entry. That policy was followed for
some time, and then later a number of leases were
granted without the provision that homestead entry
should be granted within them. Considerable objec-
tion was made, and it was finally decided to suspend
further action until the matter could be given full con-
sideration. It has been under consideration for some
time past, and although I am not in a position yet to
say fully what will be finally decided, I think that the
decision will be that we will stick to the leasing sys-
tem. We have found it to work out with a fair degree
of satisfaction, and I think that the fact of giving the
leaseholder a proprietary right to a certain extent will
make him careful to see that the land of which he has
control is not overgrazed and is kept in proper condi-
tion for all the time that it is held under lease by him.
PART V
RAILROADS IN RELATION TO THE
FOREST
WHAT INFORMATION IS MOST URG-
ENTLY NEEDED BY RAILROADS RE-
GARDING TIMBER RESOURCES
BY
GENERAL CHARLES F. MANDERSON
General Solicitor, Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad Company
A SHORT time before the year 1860 there crossed
the Missouri River, on the line of latitude of
the most progressive development and most intelligent
progress, to make a home in the then Territory of
Nebraska, a young man, who joined to physical
strength and virile force a keen appreciation of the
needs of the future and a determination of purpose
only equalled by the intelligence which guided that
purpose, and the abounding faith that led to the desired
result. Settling upon broad acres of virgin soil, he
found himself in a treeless region, on the eastern edge
of what the geographers of the day were pleased to
call the Great American Desert. He was one of the
leaders of that hardy band of men by whose aggressive
power that desert land, the range of the wild buffalo
and the hunting ground of the wilder Indian, was to be
developed into an agricultural garden, whose products
in a single year, in less than fifty years of development,
were to very nearly equal in value the annual output
of all the gold and silver producing mines of the world.
For had this pioneer lived to 1904 he would have seen
from the yield of the fields of vast extent of corn and
small grain, from the domestic animals ready for the
world’s market, a product valued at $500,000,000, or
over three times the value of all the gold and silver
254 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
produced that year in the United States.
The youth who thus settled, less than half a century
ago, near the banks of the turbid and oft times turbu-
lent Missouri, looked about him with sorrowful and, I
fear, regretful gaze. On all that broad expanse of un-
dulation no tree to gladden the sight, no shade to offer
its restful protection to contemplative man or reminat-
ing beast. He called to mind the groves of his native
state; he thought of the spreading oaks, the leafy
maples, and the stately pines of Michigan, and probably
from the longing homesickness there came the inspira-
tion that ripened into the motto of his life: “Plant
trees.” From that inspiring thought came a transfor-
mation delightful to contemplate. Standing now on
the eminence where he built his home, on every side
are to be seen the sylvan evidences of his industry and
foresight. Lofty trees, many of them true monarchs
of the forest, wave their graceful tops as the wind
makes music in the branches, singing ever a grateful
requiem to the builder of Arbor Lodge. The example
he set has not been lost. Groves innumerable now dot
the landscape, once so bare. Countless millions of
trees have been planted as a result of his. persistent
inculcation of the benefits of tree-planting, and in every
State and Territory of the United States, except Dela-
ware and the Indian Territory, by legislative enactment
or executive proclamation one day in each year is set
apart as a legal holiday in which the people are
encouraged to plant trees. It is a monument to his
memory more enduring than marble, more lasting than
brass.
Need I give the name of the founder of Arbor Day
to you—lovers of trees that you are? The names of
J. Sterling Morton and James Wilson are indissolubly
linked together in the annals of forest development.
May their tribes increase! |
AMERICAN ForEST CONGRESS 255
The President is quoted as saying that the forest
question is the most vital internal problem in the
United States. It is truly so, and we are here assem-
bled to give increased vitality to the movement to
substitute saving for losing, preservation for assassi-
nation, creation for destruction, birth for death. We
are here to say to the servants of the people that as
compared with the reforming or the deforming of the
tariff and its schedules, the extinction or the encour-
agement of trade combinations, the regulation or the
demoralization of interstate transportation—all ques-
tions of importance, we admit—the problem of how we
shall conserve the timber production of the country is
the paramount issue. By its conservation we are pre-
served ; by its destruction we perish. The suggestions
as to the best methods of preserving what we have and
adding to our store are for you who are experts, and
not for me, a mere tyro, to give.
My duty at the moment is to show briefly the needs
of the railroads as to timber resources. I might spend
time in showing the relation that railroad transporta-
tion bears to every industry, and that under the
methods of modern civilization not one could be suc-
cessfully maintained without it; but this would insult
your intelligence. The needs of railroads can, how-
ever, very profitably be called to your attention. There
are in the United States 206,885.99 miles of main
tracks, 79,376.03 miles of second tracks and sidings,
being a total mileage of 286,262.02. The vast number
of trees needed to be felled to maintain this tremendous
mileage is so enormous as to stagger belief and exhaust
a reasonable amount of figures. The timber goes
mainly into ties, bridges, station houses, road crossings,
rolling stock, platforms, furniture, and also into many
minor uses. Wherever used there comes to it depre-
256 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
ciation and decay, demanding renewal and replacement.
Let us consider the matter of ties alone, for that will
serve as a fair parallel to all other uses for railroad
purposes. The average number of ties to the mile of
tracks is 3,000; so that 858,786,000 ties have gone into
the construction of the tracks. The probable average
life of an oak tie is ten years. Pine ties naturally last
from four to six years, and when burnetized, creosoted
or otherwise treated their average life is probably
extended to ten years. It will, therefore, be seen that
Io per cent of the ties now in track must be renewed
annually, making a yearly demand for replacement of
nearly 90,000,000 and in a decade 900,000,000. The
average price of oak ties is 55 cents, and of pine ties
38 cents each. ‘Treating for prolongation of life adds
To cents to the cost of each tie. The average cost of
all ties now going into the trackage of the railroads
of the United States is 50 cents apiece, making an
annual expenditure of $45,000,000, and $450,000,000
every ten years; and this calculation of cost does not
include the labor of placing the ties in the track or
the expense of local transportation. Nor does it take
into account the gradual but inevitable increase in price
as the supply lessens, the demand incident to the build-
ing of the new lines of road absolutely demanded by
the ever-advancing commerce of the country, both
intra and interstate, and the necessary supply of street
car lines, both horse and electric; elevated railways,
subways, and mine tracks. The demands of these
corporations are enormous, and constantly increasing.
Add to these requirements the many others caused by
the uses heretofore briefly referred to and some con-
ception can be had of how capacious is the maw of
the great transportation lines of the republic, upon
whose successful and steady maintenance all industries
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 257
depend. It may be better that I should state that they
are interdependent, for without these industries rail-
roads could not thrive, and without the railroads the
industries could not survive, and to maintain both
industries and railroads the timber and lumber product
of the forests is the prime factor and absolute neces-
sity.
This much for the needs. What of the supply for
the needs, the satisfaction of these wants? It is not
only the preservation by judicious forestry and intel-
ligent lumbering of the store we have, but the planting
and husbanding, wherever trees can be induced to
grow, of new forests. To this end there must be the
arousing of public sentiment, so that in every state
and in the nation there shall be taught the lesson that
will lead to legislation encouraging timber growth.
The labor must not only be one of love, but one of
duty. We should rejoice in the fact that in this move-
ment, fraught with so much of good to the republic,
sentimentalism joins hands with commercialism.
“There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,” but
there is profit as well. It is difficult, I know, to deter-
mine to sow where we cannot reap. The man who
plants trees works not for himself but for posterity ;
but we should remember that with almost criminal
recklessness and censurable disregard of the rights of
the future we have destroyed that which a decent
regard for the race should have prompted us to pre-
serve for those who shall come after us, and certainly
from that standpoint we owe much to posterity.
The legislation of Congress from 1817, when the
first timber preservative act was passed to save live oak
and red cedar for naval purposes, to this time has not
been marked by great wisdom. It is to be hoped that
there may speedily come a repeal of the Timber and
258 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
Stone Act, as recommended by the American Forestry
Association, and I submit that in view of the evident
necessities of the railroads of the west, building pioneer
lines, that form the vanguard of civilization, that under
the judicious cutting of timber on government lands,
by carrying out the natural rule of the survival of the
fittest, the requirement that the resulting product can-
not be exported from the district or state wherein it is
cut may well be repealed and be used wherever upon
such railroads the necessity for its use is apparent.
The popular demand is that the rates of freight, so
greatly reduced during the past few years, should
receive still further reduction. This can be obtained
only by economy in construction and maintenance, and
every measure that tends to that result should receive
encouragement.
We of the West are watching with concern the inter-
esting experiment of that admirable Chief Forester
Pinchot in the planting of pine cones and young pines
in our sandhill country. If this otherwise useless land
can be made to grow merchantable pine it will have
justified its hitherto useless existence.
The experiments of the Government, of the railroads,
and of private parties in prolonging the life of timber
are of great importance. ‘The saving of the forests, if
the life of a tie can be prolonged, will be very great,
for as yet no substitute has been devised for wood ties
that is either economical or desirable. ‘They maintain
the alignment of the railroad, so essential to safety,
better than any metal substitute and give an elasticity
to the roadbed most important for the preservation and
maintenance of the rolling stock. With metal ties, or
a stone base, the rails would be speedily injured, and
the heavy Mogul engines used to-day, drawing the
heavy trains of large cars needed for the traffic, would
AMERICAN ForrEst CONGRESS 259
pound themselves quickly into decrepitude and useless-
ness. The change in the character of rolling stock is
worthy of consideration. Engines have increased in
weight from twenty-five to one hundred and ten tons;
freight cars of twenty-eight feet length, with twenty
thousand pounds carrying capacity, have increased to
forty feet of length with one hundred thousand pounds
capacity.
But why prolong the wondrous tale of development
and progress? We have reached the point from which
we must yet advance or retrograde. We cannot stand
still. We are considering the main element of that
hoped-for progress. Let us take lessons from the
nations across the great water. From Germany,
Austria, Hungary, and Switzerland let us learn how to
establish schools of forestry, how to eliminate waste
and mismanagement, and to subrogate private rights
to public necessity. From Bohemia let us learn how
to furnish fuel and building material for a dense popu-
lation and yet retain the area of the primeval forests
and add thereto. Let us learn wherever there is a
teacher, for there is no lesson more essential to our
welfare. Let us adopt the motto of the pioneer
Morton and under state and federal guidance and
direction “plant trees.”
WORK OF THE PENNSYLVANIA RAIL-
ROAD IN PLANTING TIMBER
FOR CROSS TIES
BY
JOSEPH T. RICHARDS
Chief Engineer, Maintenance of Way, Pennsylvania Railroad System.
ig has been largely through the instrumentality of the
American Forestry Association that the railroad
companies of the United States have been brought to
realize the gravity of the situation with reference to
a future timber supply, from which is to be furnished
the large quantity consumed by the railroads in the
production of cross ties. The rapid spoliation of our
forests—the sole source of our supply—and the immi-
nence of its entire depletion, are only too strongly
presented to us by those familiar with the subject. It
would take more time than I have at my disposal to
obtain statistics to cover the entire field of timber
consumption in the United States, or to make any
reliable computation of the amount of timber still
standing, and available for future supply; but a few
figures illustrative of the general character may be of
interest as an introduction to what more particularly
concerns the Pennsylvania Railroad System.
During the past year the Pennsylvania Railroad
Company has had the subject considered and a report
made by a committee of our transportation association,
and I will draw from this report some data for my
remarks to-day. The number of cross ties in use on
the railroads of the United States is estimated to be
about 620,000,000; the number used annually for
repairs, and for extensions of track, is estimated to be
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 261
from 90,000,000 to I10,000,000, requiring, we may
say, the entire product of 200,000 acres of woodland
annually.
Each year the timber from which these are manu-
factured is farther from the base of transportation,
and many of the former sources of supply have already
been entirely exhausted. Our Pennsylvania railroads
now look chiefly to inland Virginia, West Virginia,
and Kentucky for their white oak ties ; and the longleaf
yellow pine of the southern states will soon disappear.
Probably another decade may nearly close these
sources of supply.
The annual consumption of ties on the Pennsylvania
Railroad System east of Pittsburg and Erie, for repairs
only, is about 3,000,000, this being about the average
quantity used every year for repairs in the past ten
years. To this should be added, say, one-half million
used annually in new work. It is evident, therefore,
that at the present rate of consumption the available
supply of the present timbers used, especially white
oak and yellow pine, will be exhausted to a serious
degree before many years, and the time is now ripe
for the railroads to consider the question of what
course they are to pursue in the future.
Under these conditions there are obviously two
courses: First, the reduction of the amount consumed,
which can be done by the substitution of other material
for wood, and by the use of preservative methods for
prolonging the life of the ties, and which by increasing
its durability will diminish the annual requirements
for renewals; and, second, by the adoption of forestry
methods having for their purpose the proper care and
management of the forests still remaining, and the
cultivation of new tree plantations.
It is to the latter to which I will chiefly confine my
262 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
remarks in connection with this all-important subject.
The question of forest preservation and perpetuation
is beginning to receive attention in this country
through the several State Bureaus of Forestry which
have been established, and attention is given to forest
preservation by these, as well as by the National
Government. The National Government has estab-
lished a Bureau of Forestry, which is doing valuable
work in the dissemination of useful information
and by creating a popular sentiment in favor of
the subject, and its cooperation with railroad compa-
nies and lumber industries in the introduction of proper
methods for the preservation and perpetuation of the
timber supply of the country.
The necessity or advisability of a railroad taking an
active part in forestry operations, looking especially
towards its future supply of cross ties for its own use,
is comparatively a new idea. As long as twenty-four
or twenty-five years ago, on the Pennsylvania lines
west of Pittsburg, attention was already given to the
subject, and a number of catalpa trees were planted
along the right-of-way of one of its lines; but the
results obtained were unsatisfactory. More recently,
the cultivation of the yellow locust as a tie timber has
been brought to our attention, and the cultivation of
this tree to a limited extent for the purposes named
has been undertaken.
Within the past two years we have begun the plant-
ing of yellow locust trees on an extensive scale on
property owned by the company. ‘The trees thus
planted are seedlings two or three years old, and cost,
including labor of planting, about eight cents each.
Generally speaking, these are planted ten feet apart,
thus averaging about 400 to the acre; although in the
fall of 1904 we planted 54,871 trees six feet apart and
88,127 trees eight feet apart.
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 263
The total quantity planted to date is as follows:
Fall of 1902 at Totals.
IWewtott ft tamton ce oe a Safes aks ES O10... 13,610
Fall of 1903 at
UPSET CGF US AS apaiee eo tan Mane Sit te 43,304 43,364
Spring of 1904 at
PEM OS ie ek Lene, 25,096
PME GON eae s cate} Eanes «Six, eda 20,280
Be ChE Oat eI go a ee 16,537
LAD) 2 Sea PO enenene Ogee 2 een Sep ee ees 8,108
70,021
Fall of 1904 at
MTGE RAIS CS ce sbes) ore bad oie here 20,730
LER Sg ROR ES SI et ee a eR 29,505
1 AEST GTS IES RRR ee: oases Paes 50,300
Atglen & Susquehanna Branch,
Blah oe inca beh cg hs 53,000
153,535
SIAR ee cat ert rane eh cin eres ata 280,530
All of the above places are in the State of Pennsyl-
vania. During the coming year we expect to plant
about 800,000 trees additional, likely 200,000 in the
spring and 600,000 in the fall. ‘The land on which we
planted these trees, except a tract of fourteen acres at
Newton Hamilton, which was purchased for this par-
ticular purpose, are lands which the company has
owned for some time and which were acquired in
connection with old or new lines.
There is probably no other timber which combines
so well the qualities of durability and hardness as does
the yellow locust. Evidences of its longevity in use
as tie timber are frequent on our road. ‘The resistance
of locust timber to cutting under the rail is said to
exceed that of white oak, and it has been demonstrated
264 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
upon our main lines that it is not so much the decay of
the timber as it is the cutting in by the rail which wears
out or decreases the life of the tie. The average life
of a white oak tie is about ten years; we expect to get
additional life out of a locust. The main attention
which this class of timber seems to require during
growth is that of pruning the lower branches of the
young trees, ploughing and harrowing the ground in
which they are planted, and keeping the weeds down
as far as possible.
While it is not likely that the Pennsylvania Railroad
Company will at any time undertake to plant a suff-
cient number of trees from which to secure its entire
supply of cross ties, we feel that the experiment made
by it of raising its own tie timber will have a tendency
to stimulate outside parties, who are small owners of
property, to cultivate this class of timber, and in this
way assist the railroad company in the vicinity in
which they are located by furnishing cross ties at some
future time.
In order to supply our entire needs for the year,
namely, 3,000,000 for repairs and half a million for
new work, and adding thereto 10 per cent for the
immediate future increase, making the total annual
requirements 3,850,000 ties, we figure that, three ties
to a tree, would require about 1,300,000 trees each year
to produce the probable number of ties needed. To
produce the necessary number of trees of the proper
size for tie-cutting each year, in order to harvest the
3,850,000 ties (figuring that it will require thirty years
for a yellow locust tree to mature), would require a
continuous growth of 39,000,000 trees, 1,300,000 to be
planted each year, which, if planted ten feet apart, or
about 400 trees to the acre, would entail the continuous
use of 97,500 acres, or 152 square miles of ground, for
the purpose.
IS IT PRACTICABLE FOR RAILROADS
TO HOLD FOREST LANDS FOR
FUTURE SUPPLIES OF TIMBER?
BY
L. E. JOHNSON
President, The Norfolk and Western Railway
| CAN but express my appreciation at being requested
to present a subject for the consideration of this
Forest Congress, and being asked to answer the ques-
tion: “Is It Practicable for Railroads to Hold Forest
Lands for Future Supplies of Timber ?”
We find that it is one that can be discussed from
the standpoint of railroads, and while the question
from this standpoint is an important one, is it not a
question, by reason of its relation to the public at large,
in every industry and occupation, and in the individual
and domestic needs of every citizen, from the stand-
point of the public at large? |
The preservation of forests is not only necessary for
supplying railroads with cross ties, with timber for its
trestles and cars, but is necessary to maintain the supply
of wood for the various manufacturing, building and
domestic purposes of the public. It is equally, if not
more, necessary to maintain and protect the water
supply in streams, the demands on which are increasing
by reason of an increasing population, and by reason
of the rapidly multiplying requirements for power in
its many forms. And it is equally necessary to pre-
serve our forests, to prevent floods, and to prevent
droughts.
All this is well put in the definition of what forestry
266 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
is by one of the gentlemen connected with the Bureau
of Forestry, in his article in a late Encyclopedia. I
refer to the article by Mr. Gifford Pinchot, ‘Forestry
in the United States,” Encyclopedia American, Vol.
VII, where he defines the subject as covering this
broad ground:
“Forestry is the art of using the forests continuously
to meet the needs of men. In the United States for-
estry has to do principally with the supply of wood for
various purposes, with the maintenance of water-flow
in streams, with the prevention of floods and with the
supply of foliage for grazing animals within the forests.
Nowhere else are forest problems of more vital impor-
tance to the welfare of the people than here, and in no
other country of civilization has so little progress been
made in their solution. This condition follows natu-
rally from the vast area of the United States, its
comparatively sparse population per square mile, and
from the nature, location, and extent of the forests
themselves.”
Referring to the same authority, “Some Uses of
Wood:” “The yearly product of wood in the United
States is about 35,000,000,000 feet. In 1900 the
lumber industry employed two hundred and eighty-
three thousand two hundred and sixty (283,260) wage
earners, to whom it paid one hundred and four million
six hundred and forty thousand five hundred and
ninety-one dollars ($104,640,591). The perpetuation
of this industry is of vital concern to all the people.
Its ramifications are as wide as the industrial life of
the nation, and its perpetuation is a most pressing
concern of the forester. The use of wood for the
maintenance of railroad tracks, for example, rises to
about 120,000,000 ties a year, together with the vast
amounts of bridge timber, piling, etc. Since the use
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 267
of metal ties is believed to be impracticable by Ameri-
can railroad engineers, the maintenance of the supply
of wood and ties is of vital importance to the railroads,
and through them to the nation at large. Ina similar
way, the permanence and success of the mining
industry is dependent upon cheap and _ accessible
supplies of timber. In most portions of the West such
supplies can be expected only from the national forest
reserves. In the creation of the reserves, therefore,
the special needs of the mining and other industries
have been kept carefully, and it is also believed suc-
cessfully, in mind.”
Without regard, therefore, for the necessity of
preserving our forests for the other purposes equally
important to the country, as the means of supply of
wood for industrial and domestic purposes, it would
appear that railroads, although they are consumers of
an enormous amount of wood, their uses of wood form
but a fraction—relatively a small fraction—of the
yearly consumption of wood. I will, therefore, under-
take to discuss some of the details from my personal
knowledge of a railroad extending from tidewater
on the east to points in Ohio to the northwest, and
through Virginia to the southwest, embracing lines
into Maryland and North Carolina, in addition to
other lateral lines within reasonable limits of timber
for its entire distance.
Originally the country passed through by the railroad
to which I refer, was well timbered. The first exten-
sive depletion of timber land was on the first hundred
miles adjacent to the seaboard, where the original
timber was cypress and Virginia or loblolly pine. Up
to the year 1888 this road used a great many cypress
ties, but such timber is no longer procurable. The
second growth of Virginia loblolly pine in this same
268 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
district is very knotty, and, further, it is not suitable
for cross ties until it be treated to improve its lasting
qualities. All the balance of the road is in territory
where both white oak and chestnut oak is indigenous,
and up to quite recently all the cross ties that have been
needed have been obtained within moderate hauling
distance from the railroad line.
The class of ties that have been obtained to date
have been of a high grade. After a time of careful
watching extending over a period of twenty years, it
has been found that the life of these white oak and
chestnut oak ties has averaged about nine years.
This railroad is, therefore, a road presenting prob-
lems that are common to many other roads, and the
above question can be, in part, answered by using it
as a typical case.
At the present time the main line is 1,543 miles;
branches, 226; second track, 150; sidings, 652; total
mileage, 2,571. The average requirements in oak ties
per year for renewals are three-hundred and ten (310)
per mile, aggregating in round numbers eight hundred
thousand (800,000) per year. At prevailing prices
eight hundred thousand (800,000) ties cost per annum
about three hundred and fifteen thousand dollars
($315,000), which is shown to be about fifteen per cent.
(15) over the cost of a like number ten years ago.
This total figure is far below what some railroads less
fortunately situated must pay for a like number.
Both chestnut and oak timber is of such slow growth
that we cannot for a moment consider the attempt to
cultivate it for tie timber. While oak will naturally
grow for the whole length of this and other railroads,
largely by self-sowing, if the soil is left idle, we cannot
count on that method to secure timber for many years
to come in view of the great expansion in lumber
industries adjacent to railroads.
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 269
According to our information, the only tree that
has a comparatively rapid growth and which will,
according to the best evidence obtainable, furnish a
first-class cross tie of long life, is the catalpa. It is
claimed that this tree will, in twenty years, make ties
that will last fifteen years in track. However, the
timber is soft as compared with oak, and will, of
necessity, require tie-plates.
Assuming the life of a catalpa cross tie as being
fifteen years, the requirements per mile per year for
renewals would be about 200, making the requirements
for the present mileage of the road under consideration,
allowing for emergencies, about six hundred thousand
(600,000) catalpa ties per annum.
Let us now consider the question of cultivating
catalpa trees for cross ties. We find that one acre of
standing catalpa trees will produce, when twenty years
of age, eight hundred and fifty (850) cross ties. There-
fore, in order to secure six hundred thousand (600,000)
cross ties per annum, about seven hundred (700) acres
of land bearing catalpa trees twenty years old will be
required each year; hence, there should be planted
every year, for the requirements of the railroad, having
a mileage of two-thousand five hundred and seventy-
one mile (2,571), seven hundred (700) acres of trees,
and this planting must be continued for a period of
twenty years before any cross ties can be secured. As
we are to plant seven hundred (700) acres each year
during the twenty years, we must plant a total of
fourteen thousand (14,000) acres, or, allowing for
some waste land, about fifteen thousand (15,000) acres
must be secured. Such a large body of land as this
cannot be obtained unless it be in districts where there
are at present comparatively large bodies of waste or
cheap land. There is no point on this railroad where
270 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
such a tract of land can possibly be secured unless it
be near tidewater.
We, therefore, estimate the cost of establishing such
a timber reservation on the line of this road would be
as follows:
15,000 acres of land at Srovl ope... $150,000
Interest on this for 19 years up to
cutting time at 5 per cent..... 142,500
‘Total cost tor lands). $292,500
Annual expenditure for nineteen years before any
growth is obtained suitable for ties:
SPE Tecate Se tne a ord cea eR $1,500
Clearing, draining, &c., 700 acres
Pel idl sages pea te PS aca IR Ee ae de ah 10,500
470 trees delivered at $10 per M... 4,700
Planting 700 acres at $5 per acre.. 3,500
Superintendence, &c., ............ 1,800
Total-annuatl ‘cost! ess 3 $22,000
This annual charge of $22,000 for
nineteen years aggregates .... $418,000
Interest on this amount for an aver-
age term of 9% years at 5 per
CSTE cs fo teee reg eae niet teed 198,550
Cost“of Jand ‘as above’... 3 0602's 150,000
Interest on cost of land, 19 years,
as aD0VE; at'S per Cent ase sic. 142,500
Totalinvestment upto 20th year $909,050
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 271
Annual expenditure after the twentieth year and
each year thereafter :
Interest on investment, $909,050, at
EPL CRMC tele she a winstonca so oe $45,452
Mee ise cae cheers G 1,500
Reclearing, &c., 700 acres at $5 .... 3,500
470,000 trees delivered, at $10 per M. 4,700
Planting 700 trees at $5 per acre... 3,500
PHPCLINGENGENCE, WC... ss age ess 1,800
PMNGALCOSE ss oes ety. OAS
Cutting and delivering 600,000
cataipa> tiesto; bi icars: at
BIS eC PE AN arabe its ASAD HK $120,000.00
istervincil cost of ties after 20 years. 180,452.50
It should be noted that twenty years hence, at the
present rate of increase in the cost of oak ties, the
cross ties necessary for the railroad in question will
cost an aggregate of four hundred thousand dollars
($400,000) in the twentieth year. The saving through
this transaction would, therefore, be, per annum, after
the twentieth year, four hundred thousand dollars
($400,000) less one hundred and eighty thousand four
hundred and fifty-two dollars and fifty cents ($180,-
452.50), equal to two hundred and nineteen thousand
five hundred and forty-seven dollars and fifty cents
($219,547.50).
The above great difference in figures would indicate
an enormous saving possible by railroad companies
undertaking to hold large areas of land, either directly
or indirectly, to cultivate tie timber alone. And while
it was possible a number of years ago for railroad
companies to hold large tracts of land, laws do not
272 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
give them the right to condemn lands for cultivating
timber. Therefore, unless railroad companies have a
right to condemn land for such purposes, such large
tracts as are required cannot be obtained at prices such
as warrant the above estimate. It is evident that some
modification of the existing laws would be necessary
in order to render it practicable for railroads to hold
large tracts of land for future supplies of timber.
Further, the investment of one hundred and fifty
thousand dollars ($150,00) in land, and an added
investment each year for a period of nineteen years,
until a total of nine hundred thousand dollars
($900,000) is reached, will require a special arrange-
ment on the part of railroad companies in order to
look forward to the holding of various lands for such
a long period of time. It might be claimed that land
could be bought only seven hundred (700) acres at
a time. If this plan should be followed, the prices
would be advanced by the very improvements under-
taken by the railroad company. The only practicable
plan of procedure would be to purchase at the begin-
ning of the undertaking all the land required by a
railroad company.
Right here let me repeat that the above calculations
are based upon estimates made for a certain railroad;
however, they may form a basis for like calculations
on any railroad in any section of our country, taking
into consideration the environments and conditions.
In the above figures no account has been taken of the
danger and loss from fires, but the item of superin-
tendence is included; and further, an item of profit in
the way of securing posts and other timber has not
been credited simply with a view of making an estimate
that would be safe to cover ordinary emergencies.
I have in these estimates only considered one thing,
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 273
namely: ties, for the reason that the use of timber for
other purposes in railroad work is rapidly being substi-
tuted by steel, brick, stone, and concrete. The above
presentation apparently shows a saving to the railroad
company to be great and advantageous. On the other
hand, the time required to secure the growth, changes
in railroad methods, increase in length of railroad
through construction, or decrease through sales, and
the possible future improvement in the form of con-
struction of standard track, throws at once grave
doubts upon the advisability of any such plan. These
doubts lead me to the conclusion that it is not practi-
cable for railroads to hold forest lands for a future
supply of timber, but that it is a question of ‘such
magnitude that it can best be handled by the investment
of private capital, or under the Bureau of Forestry of
the United States Government, in connection with
appropriate legislation by the State Governments.
While railroads can and should cooperate heartily
in every way to preserve our forests from waste and
destruction, I am forced to the conclusion that no
practical results can be obtained without legislation
putting the entire subject with Government control.
The subject is one of such magnitude, affecting
directly and indirectly the needs of every citizen and
every community of our country, that any scheme that
may be adopted must be comprehensive enough to con-
serve all interests and accomplish definite results.
Legislation is required to enable forests lands to be
acquired or reserved at the headwaters of streams and
in other suitable locations.
Laws must be enacted to require the citizens to plant
and maintain timber under appropriate circumstances.
Laws must be enacted and enforced to prevent fires
and the unnecessary destruction of trees.
274 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
Legislation, too, should be provided to restrict the
use of timber as much as possible for the use of our
own citizens.
The waste of timber should be prevented to the
extent practicable by proper laws.
And all such laws should, in order to be effective,
be administered by officials invested with the authority
of law.
It would further appear that the large commercial
demands consequent upon the great growth of our
country, together with the immense quantities of the
very best grades of timber which are exported, consti-
tute a greater menace to our forests than the consump-
tion by railway companies.
In this connection, I would like to mention a large
quantity of chestnut oak which is felled every spring
to procure bark for tanning purposes, much of which
is allowed to lie in the woods and rot, although rail-
road companies, and I presume others, would be glad
to get the material, sawed into merchantable lumber,
or have it made into ties. This constitutes a great
and wanton waste. We think that we are fully able
to verify this statement from the frequency with which
we have to decline ties made from timber which has
been felled in years other than the current year.
In considering this timber question in any of its
aspects, we recognize that the study of it, together
with a great many other questions of like import,
marks a new era in the affairs of this country.
Heretofore the American people have been wasteful,
and extravagant to an alarming degree, of every
product and everything which have been generally used
for the necessities and comfort of the people. Nature
has been-prodigal in distributing natural resources
through our land, and for years we have been simply
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 275
drawing upon these accumulated resources without
stint and without regard for the future. Our popula-
tion now is becoming so congested and the demands
upon the resources of the country are so great that it
is necessary for intelligent and conservative people to
study the forestry question and other like propositions,
to the end that the natural wealth of the country shall
not be wasted to such an extent that the conditions of
living by our people shall become more difficult. I
know of no single question that is entitled to more
consideration, by persons influencing large corpora-
tions, than the timber and forestry question.
Such meetings as the one now being held in Wash-
ington will necessarily result in great good in that
they will bring to the attention of large numbers of
people, and especially people of character and influence,
conditions which otherwise might be overlooked or be
passed unnoticed.
RESULTS IN THE PRESERVATIVE
TREATMENT OF RAILROAD TIM-
BERS TO PROLONG DURABILITY
BY
DR. HERMANN VON SCHRENK
Bureau of Plant Industry
N a discussion of the railroads in their relation to
the forest there is no topic which is at this day of
such importance as timber preservation. We have
heard that there is probably no one interest in this
country to-day which can compare with the railroad as
a timber consumer, and certainly there is none which
has a more direct and vital interest in seeing that a
definite and constant supply of all kinds of timber is
assured in the future. It is my privilege to point out
in a few words what bearing the chemical preservation
of wood, with its attendant features, has upon the
general problem of future supply, and to what extent
the results obtained therefrom may lead to a more
economical utilization of forest supplies in general.
In dealing with this subject I propose to consider
briefly the following points:
1. Why railroads in their capacity as consumers of
timber are interested in preservation.
2. Why railroads are interested in preservation from
a traffic standpoint.
3. Why railroads are interested in timber preserva-
tion from the standpoint of economy.
4. What preservation means.
5. What results have been obtained.
6. Some general conclusions.
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 277
Up to within recent times most of the tie and con-
struction timbers used by the railroads were timbers
like the white oak and longleaf yellow pine. These
were used because they combined great durability with
strength and good wearing qualities. They were
abundant along the lines of the roads and were obtain-
able in large quantities and at a comparatively low cost.
A purchasing agent had no difficulty, not more than
ten years ago, in getting any number of first-class white
oak ties in the middle or central states at from 35 to 60
cents. While the prices for such timbers are not yet
excessive Owing to local supplies, it is, nevertheless,
becoming increasingly difficult to obtain large regular
supplies of such timbers, and with an ever-increasing
demand, the question has been asked for several years,
and with increasing anxiety, where the tie supply is to
come from in the future. It may not be without inter-
est to state here that, according to a recent estimate
made, about 118,000,000 ties were used for renewal
purposes during 1904.
As a result of the uncertainty in getting a sufficient
number of ties which could be used in the natural
condition, many roads turned toward the so-called
inferior woods, like red and water oaks, beech, gum,
the softer pines, hemlock, etc. None of these woods
can be used without preservation, because they decay
with great rapidity when in contact with the ground.
It is not yet fully realized that when thoroughly treated
that a red oak or beech tie becomes the equal, if not the
superior, of an untreated white oak tie, as far as resist-
ance to decay is concerned. ‘The use of such woods as
red oak, beech, loblolly pine, etc., if generally adopted,
would bring into the market a large body of timber
which would insure a constant supply for many years
to come. It is a fortunate circumstance that these
J
278 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
so-called inferior woods, because of their greater
porosity, can be treated with chemicals so as to preserve
them very effectively.
The use of these woods, which is made possible by
preservation, will not only open up a supply now
standing in the forests, but it will also make possible
the investment in lands producing such timbers. Many
of these grow with great rapidity, at least sufficiently
so as to make the possibilities of second and third crops
a realizable possibility. Some day we may duplicate
the conditions now prevailing in eastern France, where
the preserved beech ties last until another crop of beech
ties furnishes a new supply.
Preservation will therefore be an almost indispens-
able factor in any consideration of future supply, and
when one considers the good results obtained, its
importance will be fully realized.
The use of shortlived woods for tie and construction
purposes when chemically preserved will have a whole-
some effect on the utilization of the higher grade
longlived timbers. The writer has repeatedly pointed
out that the full value of a piece of white oak is not
realized in these times when it is used in the form of a
tie. White oak is coming to be more and more valuable
in the form of lumber and for construction purposes,
for car building, in the cooperage trade, etc. A rail-
road using white oak for ties at a valuation less than
one-half of what it would be as car sills or cooperage
stock, is cutting off industries which it should foster
along its lines. This is especially true when the road
could be using less valuable woods for what must be
considered as inferior service, such as ties or piling.
These’ woods when treated are just as serviceable and
oftentimes better than the more valuable wood. This
is a point worthy of serious study from the traffic
standpoint.
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 279
Another point which may be alluded to here is the
influence which the use of less valuable woods, always
after preservation, has on local business and feeling.
The less valuable woods are generally distributed along
most of the railway lines, and should they come to be
generally used, every owner of woodlands would find
a local market for one class of his farm product which
he now has but little use for. This isnot only true for
ties, but for other classes of material. Take fence
posts as an example. Many roads now use cedar,
shipped long distances from off their lines. If birch,
sycamore, maple, red oak, and saplings of other trees,
which grow on every farm, were generally used, it
would stimulate local interest, encourage home indus-
tries, as it were, and at the same time serve to give a
large and comparatively cheap supply. That such
saplings can be easily and cheaply treated (at a cost of
5 to 6 cents per post) has recently been successfully
demonstrated.
While the foregoing points are doubtless worthy of
consideration, it is, nevertheless, true that the foremost
and immediate interest in timber preservation is one
which deals with the more economical handling of the
timber problem. Timber preservation would not mean
anything if it could not be shown that in the long run
it is cheaper to use shortlived woods when preserved
than unpreserved longlived woods.
Without going into details at this point, it may be
stated that there is probably no one to-day who does
not believe that timber preservation in one form or
another pays. The extent to which preservation will
pay will depend upon several factors, such as the first
cost of the wood, the cost of renewal, the cost of the
treatment. In a recent discussion- of this subject it
was pointed out that the following table of annual
280 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
charges might be taken for various kinds of untreated
and treated timbers.
TABLE SHOWING ANNUAL CHARGES.
Timber and Length of Original Costof Annual
Treatment. Service. Cost. Treatm’t. Charge.
White oak, untreated...... Ioyrs. $0.85 sae $0.121
Red oak or loblolly pine,
UNtEEATER Ses. eee ees 5 yrs. .40 2 eee 124
Red oak or loblolly pine,
with zinc chloride treat-
CET oc, ie SESE AEE esa 10 yrs. .40 $0.16 085
Red oak or loblolly pine,
with zinc creosote treat-
MIGUEL Ca ce pees oe Looe 16 yrs. .40 25 005
Red oak or loblolly pine,
with creosote treatment... 20 yrs. .40 45 .069
The conclusion to be drawn from such a table is that
the treated timber in every case is cheaper in the long
run than the untreated timber; furthermore, that the
better treatments, although more expensive at first, are
very much cheaper in the long run. One ought to add
that the treatments given above were selected from a
long list, as representing extremes and averages of
cost.
Having reached the conclusion that timber preser-
vation is worth considering; in other words, that it
makes possible the utilization of timbers not generally
used, and that it pays, one may consider somewhat
more in detail some of the problems connected with
preservation. One cannot dwell too frequently upon
the sentence that timber preservation is not merely an
injection of salts or chemicals into wood. I have stated
elsewhere that it involves not only the successful injec-
tion of chemicals, with all that that implies, but also
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 281
keeping them in the wood, and after the wood has been
rendered more or less decay or fire-proof, the protection
against wear must be considered.
Successful preservation—that is, preservation which
will pay—will depend upon:
1. The timber used.
2. The preserving method used.
3. How the preserving is done.
4. The man who supervises the preserving.
The selection of timber used should be governed by
the available supply. The kind of wood used is after
all probably the least important factor, because, when
preserved, the indivuality of the wood becomes more or
less insignificant. The longest-lived preserved timber,
speaking with reference to decay alone, will be the one
which will allow of the most perfect and even penetra-
tion of a preservative, and which at the same time will
hold such a preservative. But we not only want long
length of life, but also a timber which, with any given
treatment, will bring an increased length of life which
shall represent the greatest possible financial return on
the original investment, made up of the first cost of the
timber and the cost of the preservative process. It so
happens that the open-grained porous woods which,
when untreated, last but a comparatively short time,
give high penetration and comparatively long increase
in length of life; while the denser woods, which ordi-
narily are called longlived, give a poor penetration and
a comparatively short increased length of life as a
result of preservation. Recent tests with timber like
beech and elm have shown an amazingly high absorp-
tion for zinc chloride, amounting to as much as .65
pounds of dry zinc chloride per cubic foot, using a 2%
per cent solution of zinc chloride.
It is, as has been stated, a fortunate fact that most
282 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
of the shortlived woods conform to the requirements
for long increase in length of life, just referred to, and
that it will pay to use them.
Having decided upon the timber available which
can be treated, the next problem is, how shall the
timber be treated? In other words, what method shall
be used? ‘There are a host of processes, beginning
with the metallic salts, like copper, zinc, mercury, etc.,
and ending with creosote or tar oil, either alone or
in combination, for all of which certain merits are
claimed, omitting, for the present, processes employing
chemicals of unknown preservative value. I will not
have the time to discuss this important question at any
length and will restrict my remarks to a few general
considerations which it seems to me should govern in
the choice of a preserving process.
I regard the choice of a process entirely as one
involving a certain risk in investment. One must
start, of course, with the assumption that any one of
half a dozen processes under consideration will actually
preserve the wood for a shorter or longer time. This
assumption is not unfair, when one is dealing with
preservatives of such known value as zinc chloride,
copper sulphate, mercuric chloride, creosote or tar oil,
and possibly one or two others. Assuming, then, that
these preserve wood, one naturally comes to the
question of cost. This one may regard from two
standpoints; the first one, which is the usual one in
Europe, considers the annual charge; in other words,
the saving which can be made in the long run when
comparing an untreated with a treated piece of wood.
A glance at the table which I presented a few moments
ago will show that in the long run the creosoting
process in some form is the cheapest, even if it costs
more at the beginning; in other words, the annual
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 283
charge on an untreated loblolly pine tie which has to
be replaced every five years is $0.12, while for the
creosoted tie it is only $0.06.
Looking at the problem from the second standpoint,
one considers the original investment, and not the
annual charge. Taking the same case of loblolly pine,
an untreated tie costs $0.40. If this is treated with
creosote one must add $0.45 to this cost; in other
words, a new tie and 5 cents more; while if one treats
such a tie with zinc chloride one adds on only $0.16,
or about one-third the cost of a new tie.
For the European investor who deals with timbers
of a high initial cost a comparison such as the one just
mentioned does not occur. The French beech tie cost-
ing $1 or more and lasting four years when untreated,
will last 25 to 30 years when treated with creosote, at
a cost of 75 cents or thereabouts. It is obviously the
correct thing for these conditions to use the most
expensive treatment. The number of ties treated is
comparatively small, the economic conditions are more
or less settled, and the investment of 75 cents per tie
for treatment is not felt as a hardship.
When we turn to our condition in this country we
have a different problem to face. While the spending
of 45 cents for treatment of a 40-cent tie may give
good results, it would be a poor investment, for the
risk would be too great. After five or six years the
tie sizes may be changed, and by that time only a small
portion of the investment made in the treatment would
be realized. An investment of 45 cents additional on
a 40-cent tie lasting four years would furthermore
mean the immediate expenditure of a very large sum
of money, which would show no return until more than
eight years had elapsed. This sort of investment is
not profitable, although it doubtless will come at some
future period.
284 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
No treatment can be seriously considered which costs
more than 25 to 30 cents. Wood is still cheap, and
until the original cost of a tie goes to $1 or thereabouts
cheaper treatments must prevail. Of those advocated
I would advise using the best; in other words, consid-
ering the investment from the first standpoint, that of
annual charges. This would mean either a cheap —
creosote treatment, one using small amounts of oil with
as good penetration as can be obtained, or a zinc creo-
sote combination, both of which would cost 20 cents
or thereabouts. The risk taken would be a small one
because the preservatives have a known value and the
original amount would not be a disproportionate one
when compared with the cost of a new tie.
From this brief outline of the kind of preservative
to be used, we may pass to some of the results which
have been obtained from preservative treatment. While
timber preservation has been practiced more or less in
this country for many years, it has been carried on in
such a way as to give few reliable data. The records
which were kept during the early days are very unsat-
isfactory, and only very general conclusions can be
drawn. In getting together the figures for the coming
International Railway Congress, as to results obtained,
we went carefully over all records kept by American
railroads.
As a result of our study, we were able to report an
average length of life obtained for hemlock ties laid
in Iowa, treated with the Wellhouse process (zinc
chloride, glue, and tannin), of 10.6 years; hemlock
untreated lasts about four years. About the same
length of service was obtained in the southwestern
states with mountain pine treated with zinc chloride,
glue, and tannin. ‘These results are on the whole very
satisfactory, for the length of life of these shortlived
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 285
woods was more than doubled at a cost not quite
one-half the original cost of a new tie.
Timbers treated with creosote show results in the
United States similar to those obtained in European
countries. Piling of longleaf yellow pine has been in
service in bridges since 1869 and 1870 in several south-
ern states, and a recent examination shows that the
wood is still sound. There is no longer any necessity
for doubting the value of creosote (or, as it should be
more properly called, tar oil) as a wood preservative.
Where a good quality is used, and with a sufficient
quantity injected, an almost indefinite length of life
can be obtained. The chief objection against its uni-
versal use has been the high cost of the oil and the
small quantities available. There seems to be no good
reason why more tar oil should not be produced in this
country and at lower cost. It is encouraging to note
the introduction of by-product coke ovens in which the
available tar oils are being saved. More of those
by-product ovens should be constructed, and if uni-
versally used in coke-burning regions there would no
longer be any dearth of oil.
There are several new processes using creosote
which are so conducted as to use small quantities of
creosote, thereby reducing the cost of treatment and
bringing the creosoting process within the range of
consideration. In speaking of creosote, I cannot omit
a word of caution as to the manner in which wood is
frequently treated with tar oil. Creosoted wood has
a bad reputation in many quarters, for it is said that
the treatment with tar oil makes the wood weak, brittle,
and brash. That such is frequently the case no one
who has had occasion to examine any amount of creo-
soted timber can doubt. During the past summer we
have been conducting an extensive series of tests at
286 ‘PROCEEDINGS OF THE
St. Louis to determine what influence treatment had
on the strength of wood fibre. The effect of the usual
preliminary steaming was investigated, and also the
effect of injecting creosote in varying quantities with-
out preliminary steaming. While it is as yet too early
for final conclusions, I am glad to be able to state that
we have determined very definitely that the injection
of creosote into wood has about the same effect as
injecting a similar amount of water; in other words,
the creosote in and of itself in no way renders wood
brittle and weak. We found that the brittleness or
weakness was brought about by the steaming operation
before the injection of the oil. Steaming at 20 pounds
for about four hours did not affect the fibre materially,
but when continued for a longer period the wood was
weakened. After ten hours of steaming at 20 pounds
pressure the wood decreased as much as 26 per cent
in strength. The same was true when steamed at
higher pressures.
These results clearly indicate that where the best
results are to be obtained as little steaming as possible
should be practiced in treating wood with creosote.
This will probably hold for other preservatives as well.
A word should be said here concerning some of the
problems dealing with abrasion of treated timbers.
No process of preserving will pay if the preserved
timber is rendered unfit by being worn out prematurely.
The question of tie plates and rail fastenings should
receive serious consideration in all discussions on pres-
ervation. It so happens that many of the shortlived
woods are soft and easily worn. Preservation will
protect them against decay, but not necessarily against
wear. Recent trials with wooden tie plates have
proven very encouraging. Some of these, made of
cypress, have been in a main line track for eight months
AMBRICAN Forest CONGRESS 287
with very satisfactory results. This goes to show that
there may be many ways and means for protecting the
soft woods against wear.
The success of any preservative process will depend
largely upon the care with which it is carried out.
One must come more and more to the realization that
preservation is a dendro-chemical industry, involving
a technical knowledge of timber and of chemical
processes, all stages of which should be carefully con-
trolled. In dealing with timber one deals with one of
the most variable classes of material, no two pieces of
which are alike at any time, and knowledge and judg-
ment are required to obtain the best results under these
varying conditions. There are numerous preserving
plants now in operation, but of these there is only one,
so far as I am aware, where a trained chemist with a
good laboratory watches every stage of the process.
The wood-preserving industry, although it has been
practiced in this country for many years, is still com-
paratively a new industry, which is beginning to assume
larger proportions. Wherever preserving is carried
on it should be with all the care of a chemical factory.
The nature of the wood should be known, its stage of
seasoning, its absorptive capacities, the absorption
obtained in various runs, the temperatures reached
during treatment—all these points and many others
should be watched and recorded for future reference.
This naturally leads one to speak of the person who
is to have charge of work of this character. I have
repeatedly urged that the preserving problem, in its
relation to the railroad and other industries using
treated woods is a problem worthy of the undivided
attention of a trained technical man.
A railroad should have a man who can deal with
timber in its broadest sense. I do not mean a pur-
288 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
chasing agent, but a technical man, who should have a
position equivalent to the consulting engineer, reporting
to the vice-president or general manager. He should
be able to deal with forest lands in their relation to
railroad supplies, with timber inspection, handling,
treatment, and its final disposition. He should have
authority to make investigations with competent assist-
-ants, so as to keep himself posted as to changes in
methods, as to timber values, maintenance problems,
etc., and his opinion should be that of an expert. So
far as I know, only one railroad has so far created a
position of manager of a tie and timber department in
the sense indicated. It is particularly striking that
this should be the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé
Railroad, a road with the largest experience in timber
treating of any in this country. The example which
they have set should be followed by others.
In discussing preserving problems I have spoken
largely of ties and railroad timbers because these forms
of timber have so far been most frequently treated.
Most of the preserving plants are either directly or
indirectly connected with railroad operations. The
chemical preservation of wood, whether it be against
decay, fire, warping, stains, etc., will probably play an
increasingly important part in the development of an
economical utilization of forest products. Not only
will it affect railway and telegraph interests, but also
in a smaller way each owner of forest lands and the
smaller user of timber. Farmers have been using
longlived timbers for fence posts. These are getting
expensive in many parts and have to be shipped long
distances. By treating the saplings growing on his
own farm, each farmer will be able to make his own
posts at slight expense.
The lumber interests will be influenced by the more
AMERICAN Forest ConcrEss 289
general introduction of preserving processes. Woods
which have had little value will find a market, and
those woods which, in their untreated condition, are
low-priced, will appreciate in price when once it can be
shown how they can be treated to give them increased
lasting power, or make them higher grade.
There is as yet no general appreciation of the fact
that most kinds of timber can be successfully treated.
Treatment is an exception and rarely considered either
by the producer or consumer. We have been spoiled by
the wealth of timber of superior qualities which we have
had for many years, and it may take some time to effect
a change. That this change is coming I feel sure of,
and can prove it by the following extract from a letter
written by a farmer in one of the northern states, who
asks: “Please tell me how I can preserve maple fence
posts to prevent rot at the ground. If you can’t tell
me how to make them last thirty years or more you
needn’t take the trouble to reply to this letter.”
LETTER FROM JAMES J. HILL
Hon. JAMES WILSON,
Secretary of Agriculture,
Washington, D. C.
Dear Mr. Wilson:
I wired you to-day my inability to be present at the
Forest Congress, which I very much regret.
The subject is of importance far beyond the general
understanding of the public. The growth of popula-
tion in the United States has practically covered all the
land which can be cultivated with a profit without
artificial moisture. Irrigation and forestry are the
two subjects which are to have a greater effect on the
future prosperity of the United States than any other
public questions, either within or without Congress.
Yours truly,
(Signed) Jas. J. Hrz1.
PART VI.
IMPORTANCE OF PUBLIC FOREST LANDS
TO MINING
fre DEVELOPMENT: OF WATER
POWER AS RELATED TO FOREST
RESERVES
BY
A. L. FELLOWS
District Engineer, United States Reclamation Service
IGHT and heat, air and water, all earth’s elements
combine in the formation of a habitation fitted
for her children. Nature has apparently employed
all her many agencies and utilized all her generative
forces in heaping up her bounteous and varied stores
for the enjoyment of her creatures. Through untold
ages she was engaged in preparing a home for her
humbler children, and throughout the countless cen-
turies that have passed since the earth was first fitted
for the sustenance of life, she has continuously been
perfecting conditions suitable for higher and yet higher
species of living, sentient creatures, until, at the present
time, man, that species which we in our self-esteem
count highest of them all, holds the center of the stage.
Amongst the many secondary agencies which the
great all-Mother has utilized in making this earth a
habitation and a home for all her creatures, the forest
stands almost preeminent. It has clothed the earth
as with a garment, protecting it from storms and
erosion. It has been the home of almost all varieties
of land life from the lowest to the highest. It has
saved its denizens from the rigors of the winter’s cold
and from the summer’s scorching heat. Not contented
with the bestowal of mere temporary benefits, it has
stored up in the coal measures the heat and sunshine
of summers long past for the use and enjoyment of
204 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
the creatures of to-day. It is to-day, as it has always
been, a most active agent in the preservation and up-
building of the human race and a most important
factor in providing in all ways for man’s comfort. It
furnishes him with both the necessities and the luxuries
of life, nourishing his body and gratifying his soul’s
desires. From and through it have come the materials
by which man has subdued both the land and the sea
and, to-day, it is, as it has ever been, the benefactor
of all, of “man and bird and beast.”
Others have touched upon its importance as the
source of our timber supply, the conservation of water
for our irrigation projects, the chief dependence of
our range industries, our railroads, our wood-working
and publishing interests, and the general welfare of
the public. I desire now to invite your attention for
a few moment to its importance as a factor in the
development of the waste power which lies dormant
in all our running streams and upon which the future
welfare of the entire country will so greatly depend.
The people of the United States are but just awak-
ening to the great possibilities existing in embryo in
our creeks and rivers. Electricity, that giant dynamic
of the present generation and of countless generations
yet unborn, is hardly more than in its infancy. Every
stream, small or large, has potential power, which can
be carried practically unlimited distances, at least sev-
eral hundreds of miles, and can be used in any amount
desired or in any desired combination with that derived
from similar streams, though they may be many miles
apart. One of the greatest needs that this country
has to-day is a cheaper form of power, so that indus-
tries as yet undeveloped on account of the excessive
cost of operation under existing conditions, may in
their turn add to the national wealth. This is true
AMERICAN ForEST CONGRESS 295
along nearly all industrial lines, but the need is perhaps
more pronounced in mining regions than it is else-
where. By far the greater number of our ore deposits
are of such low grade or are located so unfavorably
with reference to the utilization of coal or the other
more usual methods of power development that their
economical operation is out of the question. In many of
our mining camps coal costs from $10 to $15 per ton,
and at many of the mines its delivery, even at such
high rates, is impossible.
The only practicable power in such cases is that
obtained from electrical energy, and it is to this force
that mine operators are turning.
There is no doubt but that many times the amount
of power used in mining operations at present could
be utilized to advantage at prices that would well pay
capital to furnish it, provided the means for creating
the power could be depended upon.
Electrical power may be generated in many ways,
but in none more practically or more beautifully than
by the use of water. Here a great dynamic is utilized
which would otherwise waste itself. We here avail
ourselves of one of Nature’s resources without in any
way exhausting her reserve supplies as is done in the
present wasteful use of coal. Conditions may easily
be conceived—in fact, many such cases exist—where
a given water supply may be utilized several times
over in the development of power without diminution
in quantity or deterioration in quality, and be used
again finally for city water supply and in irrigation,
and the day is not far distant when all of the mountain
streams, with well sustained flow, will be utilized to
an extent now hardly dreamed of. |
The development of electrical energy on a commer-
cial basis upon a given stream and with a given fall
296 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
will depend upon a variety of conditions, and in nearly
every one of these conditions the forestation or lack of
such upon the headwaters of the stream plays an im-
portant part. First of all is the total amount of water
available which must, however, be considered in con-
nection with the nature of its discharge—whether
perennial or spasmodic.
The ideal condition for a maximum development of
power would be that prevailing under a reservoir so
large as to be able to impound all the run-off resulting
from precipitation in the given drainage basis and its
complete regulation. To insure permanence in reser-
voir capacity, the water supply must be clear, free from
the presence of silt resulting from erosion, and removed
as completely as possible from evaporative influences.
The maximum development demands that the entire
quantity shall be under such perfect control that a
little more or less as desired may be utilized at any given
time; and that it be well sustained throughout the
year or other long periods, approaching as nearly as
possible a perfectly even flow, with but little, if any,
more in May and June than in September, January,
or any other month; since the power developed, to
be of commercial value, must permit of dependence
being placed upon it throughout long periods of time.
Otherwise it will not pay to install and operate the
necessary plants.
Such conditions as have been described are not often
even approached in nature, but in many localities far-
seeing men are trying to approach them as nearly as
practicable through the construction of great storage
reservoirs and by forestation, and, where the head-
waters have been denuded of the timber, by reforestation.
Here is, to a great extent, the keynote of the situa-
tion. ‘Those regions that approach most closely to the
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 207
ideal conditions are those which are densely forested
and can, therefore, act as conservators of the water
supply with the least artificial aid.
Forests aid in controlling the run-off. Compare
two tracts similar in all other respects, but the one
densely covered with a forest canopy, while the other
has been denuded of such protection. In the first
case the forest cover, with its attendant conditions of a
more granular and porous soil, its humus and leaf
mould, holds back precipitation instead of letting it
run off as rapidly as it would otherwise do. The
snows of winter cover the ground with comparative
evenness, so that it is protected from rapid melting
when the sudden warm periods come. The moisture,
moreover, instead of disappearing rapidly as surface
run-off, goes very largely into the ground to appear
in the form of springs, perhaps months later, as seepage
run-off. The same is true of the summer rains, In-
stead of the precipitation resulting from this cause
converging rapidly into a great torrent sweeping
everything from before it, the moisture goes into the
ground to return again as run-off when it is more
particularly needed, the otherwise torrential stream
becoming well sustained and perennial.
From deforested tracts the run-off is much more
likely to be beyond human control. . Great floods made
up from the converging streams carrying logs and
debris of all kinds before them, sweep irresistibly
down the river valleys, taking with them diversion
dams, gates, power plants, and destroying what they
cannot carry away.
Then again, in a well forested tract, if over-grazing,
with its attendant ills, has not been tolerated, there is
usually a dense undergrowth, which retards the run-
off during rapid melting or after violent storms. Its
298 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
tendency in these particulars is to cut off the crest of
the destructive floods, depriving them of their power
to do harm.
The presence or absence of forests undoubtedly has
a marked bearing, too, upon the quantity of the run-
off. This effect varies with a number of different
conditions, chief amongst which are the permeability
and porosity of the soil, the different habits in different
species of plant life in the matter of transpiration and
the differences in evaporation influences. The soil con-
ditions have already been touched upon. Retention ofa
large part of the precipitation by the soil instead of its
being permitted to flow off rapidly may, and probably
must in many localities—as, for example, in the arid re-
gions—result in a decreased total run-off owing to
the probably greater increased “fly-off,” as the sum
of the evaporation and the transpiration is sometimes
termed. This diminution in the total quantity is,
however, considerably more than offset by the advan-
tages incident to a regulation of the run-off and conse-
quent increase in the low water discharge. As our
old friend “Mike” once said: “It’s better to have
a little liquid refreshment when you need it, than to |
have a high old time twice in a year.”
It has been demonstrated that evaporation, greatest
of all from a water surface in the open, is nearly as
great from a wet earth surface similarly situated, and
that the evaporation from a tract surrounded by forests
is far less than it is from otherwise similar, but un-
protected areas, this being due principally to the char-
acteristics of the forest as a modifier of temperature
and as a wind-break and shield.
This matter has been discussed at length by Mr. G.
W. Rafter in a number of valuable papers, in which
he shows beyond doubt that in humid regions at any
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 299
rate the fly-off is materially less in forested than in
unforested tracts.
In the matter of transpiration, also, it has been shown
that the amount transpired from the forest growth is
considerably less than it is from cultivated crops.
These matters have been carefully gone into in Mr.
Rafter’s papers, already mentioned, in Dr. Fernow’s
book, “The Economics of Forestry,’ and in Prof.
Toumey’s discussion of “The Relation of Forests to
Stream Flow,” as well as in many other important
papers.
The conclusions reached are, in effect, that as be-
tween forested and unforested tracts, the quantity of
run-off is materially augmented in the former case in
humid regions where rains occur with more or less-
frequency, but that in arid regions, where precipitation
occurs but rarely, that the retention of the moisture
by the forests results in some loss in total run-off,
which, however, is more than compensated by the
greatly increased flow during the periods of minimum
discharge.
Another important result of forestation must also
be considered in this connection. It has been stated
that the ideal conditions prevail when the total run-
off can be controlled at will, the water being stored in
great reservoirs. Ina great many instances those who
are interested in the development of power are endeav-
oring to attain these ideal conditions as nearly as possi-
ble, through the utilization of natural reservoir sites.
Here, too, the forests serve a most useful purpose by
preventing erosion. A tract of land that has been
denuded of its supply of timber, especially when the
denudation is due to fires so fierce as to destroy the
humus and leaf mould with the vegetation, imme-
diately becomes subject to the action of storms and
the torrential run-off resulting in the rapid erosion
300 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
of the soil, and thus filling the reservoir with silt and
debris, shortens their periods of usefulness, and de-
stroys their efficiency. That deforestation does
result in an increase in the amount of sediment con-
veyed by the running water has been amply demon-
strated by investigations carried on both in this country
and in others. All measurements of silt, so far as is
known, indicate that the run-off from unprotected
areas is much more heavily laden with gravel, sand,
earth, and organic matter than is the discharge from
areas well protected by forests.
Where storage is not practiced, forestation still
remains an important factor in power development,
since a requisite of the utilization of the water supply
for this purpose depends to some extent upon the
freedom of the water from impurities. The presence
of a greater or less quantity of silt or sand in the water
supply has an important bearing upon the longevity of
the machinery, especially the cups and bearings of the
impulse wheels. The more rapid deterioration in the
machinery may represent a very greatly increased cost
in the development of power and a consequent limita-
tion to its sphere of usefulness.
Practically all that has been said concerning the
development of electrical energy is applicable also to
the development of power directly and through the
compression of air through the agency of water falling
through a shaft, a process which it is predicted will
become much better known and utilized in the future
than it has been in the past.
Having established the fact that there is a close rela-
tion existing between forests and the development of
power through the medium of our streams it is an easy
task to demonstrate the necessity for forest reserves
and for their proper control and management.
It is clear that forest lands still remaining in the
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 301
Government possession should neither be allowed to
pass into private ownership nor should they remain
part of the unregulated public domain, especially under
the conditions that prevail at the present time. In the
former case, where such lands are permitted to pass
into private ownership, human nature remaining as
it now is, the controlling impulse will be to get the
most money possible out of the land in the shortest
possible time. This will usually result in the clearing
off of the timber by the wasteful methods now prac-
ticed, without thought for the future. Reforestation
will not be carried on, and the certain result will be
the rapid denudation of all our forested areas.
Again, it will not do for the methods and regulations
now in vogue with reference to the use of timber upon
the public domain to be continued, since it inevitably
results in the breaking out of forest fires and the wan-
ton destruction of great bodies of timber, in addition
to the great amounts of timber of which the Govern-
ment is annually robbed. In investigations which
have been made under my direction it has been clearly
shown that many fires that had broken out in thickly
forested districts of the public domain had been fol-
lowed within a year or two by requests for Government
permits for the use of the fire-killed timber left stand-
ing, which often makes the very best mine and tunnel
timbers.
The forested areas must be watered and the cutting
down upon them must be regulated. The grazing
must be restricted so that the grass and other vegeta-
tion shall not be destroyed. Deforested tracts must
be reforested and only by the establishment of forest
reserves and through their proper control by trained
foresters, can we approach to the most ideal condition
possible for the conservation of our water supply—a
forest growth covering their headwaters.
WILL THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE
FOREST RESERVES ON A CONSER-
VATIVE BASIS RETARD THE DE-
VELOPMENT OF MINING?
BY
SETH BULLOCK
Supervisor, Black Hills Forest Reserve
i § HE, request of your honored President for a paper
from me to be presented before this distinguished
gathering was a genuine surprise, as I am not an
adept in that line of forest reserve work. My first
impulse was to decline the honor, but after considering
the proposition in all its phases, I concluded that in
view of the recent favorable legislation by the Congress
of the United States, looking towards the placing of.
the forest reserves and the forest reserve officials in
the department so ably administered by Secretary
Wilson, that it would be wise for me to endeavor to
comply with the request of President Wilson, and if
the paper prepared should merit any punishment I
could enter that time-honored and usually successful
plea of self-defense in mitigation of my sentence. The
question upon which I am requested to enlighten this
ageregation of diversified wisdom is, “Will the admin-
istration of the forest reserves on a conservative basis
retard the development of mining?” To properly ar-
rive at an understanding and solution of this question
(and I assure you that it is a large one), it will first
be necessary to determine to what extent the mine is
dependent on the forest, and I wish it to be understood
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 303
that my remarks will refer chiefly to the conditions
existing in the Black Hills Forest Reserve, the only
one of the larger timber reservations with which I am
thoroughly familiar.
Nearly all the developed mines of the Black Hills
are large deposits of comparatively low grade gold ore,
either free-milling or cyaniding in its character; fre-
quently both processes are combined in the extraction
of the values from the ore. In the successful prose-
cution of the work required to make a mine productive
and remunerative to the owners, the use of timber is
an absolute necessity. Its uses are varied. It is re-
quired to timber the shafts through which the ore is
drawn to the surface. Heavy timbers are also required
to take the place of the ore mined, to hold up the roof
of the workings and sustain the sides of the stopes
and drifts. The place of every supporting atom taken
from the interior of a mine, like the Homestake,
for instance, must be filled by some other material
which can carry the burden with safety to the lives
of the miners employed. This requires timber from
the forest. No other material can be substitued for it.
The use of iron or steel posts and beams is prohibited
by their cost, to say nothing about their inadaptability
to the work of underground mining.
To form some idea of the large amount of timber
used by a mine of the magnitude of the Homestake,
it is only necessary to state that over one and one-
quarter million tons of ore are annually extracted from
this property, practically all of which is taken out at
a greater depth than 500 feet from the surface of the
ground. Its deepest workings are, I am informed,
over 1,250 feet.
It can be truly said that a veritable forest has been
used under ground in the mines of the Black Hills
304 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
during the few years they have been in operation; that
no more of the forest has been used in their develop-
ment than has been absolutely necessary, is doubtless
true. The grade of the ore, the high wages paid, and
the satisfactory returns received in most cases on the
investment, prove that the mines have been most eco-
nomically managed, the timbering being one of the
heaviest items of expense in their operation.
In addition to the timber used under ground in pre-
cious metal mining, large quantities are required on
the surface in the erection of ore reduction works and
buildings required to house the machinery necessary
in conducting the business of the mine.
The question of wood for fuel is in some districts
an important one, which happily has been in a measure
solved in the Black Hills in recent years by the advent
of railroads, connecting the mining districts with the
coal fields of Wyoming, enabling the mines to secure
a better and more economical fuel than that afforded
by the forest wood.
Another important factor in the business of mining
as conducted in the Black Hills, fully as essential as
timber, is an ample supply of water; for if this is in-
sufficient, the separation of the values from the mined
ore would be impossible and the labor and expense
of mining lost. As it is necessary, owing to these low
grade ores that the stamp mills or reduction works be
placed as near the mine as possible, large sums of
money have been expended in supplying these plants
with water which is derived from mountain streams,
the continuous flow of which is dependent upon the
preservation and maintenance of the forest conditions
at their source; the fact being now unquestioned that
the denudation of the timber and forest cover, and the
removal of vegetation at the supply points of our
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 305
mountain streams, seriously check their flow and will
in time cause their disappearance.
“Before these fields were shorn and tilled,
Full to the brim our rivers flowed.
The melody of waters filled
The fresh and boundless wood.
And torrents dash’d and rivulets played,
And fountains spouted in the shade.”
The dearly bought lessons of the East should be
heeded by the West.
The benefits derived by the stream from the forest
are amply repaid by the increase of life-giving moisture
in the air and soil. The stream is also a friend in need
to the forest when attacked by its arch enemy, fire.
It follows, then, that the forest and stream are de-
pendent each upon the other and successful mining
upon both. The dependency of the mine upon the
forest having been established, the question arises,
What is the best plan for securing a permanent supply
of the necessary timber? My reply is: intelligent and
practical forestry which can best be obtained under
forest reservation administered with business-like
methods. That the cutting of timber upon the public
domain should be permitted only under wise legisla-
tion is a self-evident fact, approved of by every one
acquainted with the subject. When no restrictions
were placed upon it, these cuttings have nearly all
resulted in the total disappearance of the forest. To
prevent future destruction, forest reserves have been
established and to them should be given the same man-
agement that a prudent merchant accords to his busi-
ness. No wise merchant would hold his goods until
shopworn and old, neither would he dispose of all of
them without taking the necessary steps to replenish
306 PROCEEDINGS OF THE one
his stock. Our system of forest reservation, as at
present conducted, has been established but a short
time, the first public timber sale under it having been
made in November, 1900. Since then giant strides
have been made in protecting the forest from waste,
depredation and fire, and the pronounced benefits
arising are apparent to the most casual observer. At
first, the plan met with considerable opposition, prin-
cipally because it was not understood, but as the policy
developed, the people began to realize that forest reser-
vation meant a saving of the wicked waste so marked
in all former logging enterprises, a just price for the
timber sold, a protection of the forest from fire and
thieves, a conserving of the streams, a preservation
of the young growth, the utilization of the dead tim-
ber; in fact, that it meant more timber for their use
and benefit. Now practically all opposition to forest
reservation has disappeared and to-day it has the hearty
good will and support of every honest man in and
about the reserve.
The present system could be improved upon by
replanting and reforesting. In successful forestry
there should be a seed time as well as a harvest. De-
nuded areas in and adjoining the reserves suitable to
the growing of timber should be planted with trees
adapted to climate and soil. This, with a practical
administration of the forest reserves, an administra-
tion beneficial alike to the forest and the mine, one
that takes into consideration not only the preservation
and propagation of the timber, but the necessities of
the mine as well, and that gives to the latter the most
liberal treatment compatible with the permanency of
the forest, will not, in my opinion, retard the develop-
ment of mining, but, on the contrary, materially assist
it. :
IMPORTANCE OF THE PUBLIC FOREST
LANDS TO MINING
BY
T. J. GRIER
Superintendent, Homestake Mining Company
THINK our President made a mistake when he
asked me to address the array of talent I see
before me here today upon a subject of such far-reach-
ing and vital importance as is indicated in the title to
this paper, and I am sorry, therefore, that he did not go
farther and secure for your entertainment someone
better able to give the subject the careful and exhaus-
tive review it deserves.
Responsive to the query suggested by the title, per-
mit me to suggest that “Forests help mining” in much
the same general way that they help all other industries
which require forest products. The forest furnishes
the supply; the industries make the demand. The
main and chief products of the forest being wood and
water, I fear that the progress of very many of our
great industries would not be rapid if they were
deprived of those articles. The importance to the
nation’s great industries of the forest therefore is not
questioned, but a very great deal of interest and impor-
tance is centered in such conservation of it as will
enable it to meet the great and growing demand of
those industries.
The question of tree supply and demand presents
itself for that solution which will bring about an ample
and increasing supply to meet an ever-increasing
demand that is being made upon it. I trust that the
308 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
deliberations of this Congress may point the way to
that solution.
Prodigal in the use of our woods, and forgetful of
the resulting damage to our mountain streams and
springs, perhaps we have too long neglected the care
of our forests; or does our rapid progress in the devel-
opment of the manifold resources of this country,
which calls for generous quantities of forest products,
merely lead us to imagine that such is the case? I
incline to the former belief, and I think that a visit to
the denuded areas within regions once forested, and
to the dry places where springs of clear water once
flowed, will bear me out. If this is true, we must
meet the demands of such rapid progress, or a halt
must be called.
I do not believe that the American people are built
upon lines that would make palatable the calling of a
halt in their onward march, but that, the necessity
being made apparent to them, they will rise to the
occasion as one man, and with all of the energy with
which they are by nature endowed quickly set about
correcting the sins of omission of which they have
heretofore been guilty.
Fresh from the southwestern corner of South
Dakota, the former home of the Sioux Indians, who
once thought, and perhaps yet think, that in defending
their forest home death in tribal warfare was an honor
rather than a calamity, and where I have resided for
over a quarter of a century, I have noted with much
concern the slow but sure dwindling of the forest.
Although the extensive operations in that region of
the great mining industry with which I have been
connected have during that period been conducted, and
are still being pursued, with the view of conserving
the forest, the dwindling of the forest area still goes
AMERICAN Forest CoNncRESS 309
on. Inthe pursuit of this policy of forest conservation
it is only right to say that the forest has been the
gainer, while the mining company has been the loser.
The company I have the honor to represent, in using
wood as fuel instead of coal, does so at a material loss,
because the only wood used for fuel in the Black Hills
is the dead, down and insect-infested trees which the
departmental regulations very properly insist shall be
removed from the forest. Such very inferior material
costs the mining industry and all other industries using
it approximately 100 per cent more than coal for either
heating or steam-making purposes. If a suggestion in
this connection is pertinent, I desire to say that the
Government should give such material for the taking,
so that the consumers of forest products who can and
are willing to conserve the best interests of the forests
by taking the inferior stuff should not be compelled,
through having to pay for it, to bear an excessive share
of the burden of cost of forest conservation. The
Government enjoys excessive gain in having such
refuse removed through promoting, in a material
degree, the health and thrift of its green trees that
remain. I think that should satisfy it. Its gain, how-
ever, does not stop there, because the removal of this
débris practically eliminates all danger of loss or dam-
age to the green trees from forest fires. Trees breathe,
digest their food, live, thrive, sigh, and die much as
we of the higher order of animals do; therefore, if the
fittest are to survive and thrive, the conditions around
them must be favorable and the elements of danger
must be removed. I think the forest supervisors and
rangers, and the scientists from the Entomological
Division and the Forest Bureau who have made so
careful a study of this subject and these conditions
will second this suggestion.
K
310 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
Forests are important to mining, and benefits accrue
to mining from forests; but it is not sufficient to say
so and there stop. ‘The forests are an absolute neces-
sity to the mines. Nor is it true to say that the timber
produced by the forests is the only benefit accruing
from them. Conservation of water by a thrifty growth
of trees is to the credit of the forest, while alike impor-
tant and necessary to the mineral industry, and when
that water is thus conserved it becomes invaluable as
it flows upon such agricultural areas as may be adja-
cent to the mineral lands. I say adjacent, but I do not
mean within the exterior boundaries of the mineral
zone, because I do not believe that the narrow strips
of soil oftentimes found alongside of mountain streams
which have cut through ledges of metal-bearing rocks
and which consist largely of the erosion of those rocks
constitute agricultural areas entitled to consideration
or rights equal in any degree with the rights of the
mines. And I think any legislation looking to the
giving of grants to such so-called agricultural areas a
hindrance and stumbling block in the way of progres-
sive and successful mineral development.
Not many, perhaps, fully appreciate the enormous
quantity of timber needed in and about a great mine in
order to carry on its operations and protect the lives
of its operatives. The hoisting works, metallurgical,
and other buildings on the surface which are always
in sight perhaps render the casual observer unmindful
of the fact that further supplies of the forest product
are required with every foot of progress made in pene-
trating underground. As the miner’s work of taking
out the ore advances, he surrounds himself with a
framework of timber which is intended to hold in place
the sides and roof of his excavation. Wherever it is
possible to hold in place these sides and roofs with
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 311
waste rock instead of timber it is done; so that there
need be no division of opinion as to the willingness of
the miner to adopt such practice whenever it can be
done. The better protection of his property from
disastrous caves suggests it; the protection of his
operatives makes it imperative; it is cheaper.
It is true that a substitution of metal for wood in
certain permanent improvements about the works of
some of our great mines has been made, and it is
probable that wood will continue to give way to iron,
steel, and possibly other non-combustible materials in
limited extent. At the every-day task of mining ore
and developing underground, however, I do not antici-
pate any such substitution, nor do I think that the
importance of the public forest lands to mining will
be lessened by the change in practice in making such
permanent improvements, because of the small ratio
the consumption by such improvements bears to the
whole.
I am not familiar with all of the conditions that now
surround the several areas in the United States which
constitute its forest reserves, or that surrounded those
areas when the reserves were created, but I have inti-
mate knowledge of the conditions which prevailed and
surrounded the home of the Sioux Indian up to the
spring of 1877. Inasmuch as Article II of the By-laws
of this Association suggests, as one of the objects of
its being, the advancement of such legislative measures
as the Association thinks may tend to promote the
general welfare of forests, I am persuaded to call the
attention of this Congress to the importance of consid-
ering well such local conditions as may be found at
each and every reserve before advancing general legis-
lation, the operation of which would affect all of the
reserves alike. I further desire to submit to the
213 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
attention of the Association the fact that there are
certain conditions in and about the Black Hills Reserve
which should not be forgotten when suggesting laws,
rules, and regulations for its government. In the first
place, it will be remembered that the Black Hills
Reserve was the home of the Sioux Indian until 1877,
and that the Government, having satisfied itself that
there was within the exterior boundaries of that home
a valuable mineral kingdom, arranged for the red man
to vacate the premises. Announcement of the new
find was then made to the world, the area was platted
on the Government maps as a mineral zone, and the
miner was invited to enter, explore, and develop the
zone. ‘The miner came upon this invitation, has been
diligent ever since, and has invested millions of dollars
in exploration, development, and improvements, rely-
ing in the prosecution of his work upon having the full
benefit of all of the natural resources of the country,
and without which his work cannot continue success-
fully. I therefore submit to this Congress that it will
be manifestly unfair to advance any legislation having
for its effect the depriving of the Black Hills miner
of those natural resources in any degree.
Touching another subject, suggested in Article IT
of its By-laws as justification for the being of this
Association—the advancement of educational measures
tending to promote forest welfare—I think that we
may confidently rely upon that department of the
Association which will have in hand the dissemination
of knowledge relating to forest welfare to do its duty.
Fully realizing that the benefit of the forest to
mining is of such importance that it can only be
appraised by giving it the value that attaches to an
absolute necessity, and that much value also attaches
to the forest in its relation to the other great industries
AMERICAN ForEsT CONGRESS ama
of the country which, combined with the mineral indus-
try, go far towards making the nation the great,
glorious, and prosperous whole that it is, I cannot
refrain from suggesting at this time that the custodian
of the public domain and its natural resources should
not be unmindful of the immense value to it from the
operation of those combined industries.
While the receipts and expenditures of all industries
except mining can be so fixed as to return interest on
the investment, and that such industries have practi-
cally life in perpetuity, it is not so in the mineral
industry. With it the day comes when, after having
given to the country their treasures, the mines, one by
one, become exhausted, and their costly improvements
are allowed to decay. Is it asking too much, then,
that the mineral industry be most considerately treated
by this Government? If not, most liberal should the
consideration be that is given to the precious metal
mines which furnish the foundation of the nation’s
credit, and which saved that credit from annihilation
after the civil war.
I become more and more impressed with the neces-
sity of tree planting to insure forest perpetuation and
enlargement, and to insure the maintenance of stream-
flow, and I am amazed at the indifference upon the
subject so long displayed by a people otherwise so
mindful. Dwelling upon the subject for a moment, I
next wonder how the tree planting can be most success-
fully and economically accomplished, when something
says to me it can be done by the forest rangers. I
submit the thought for your consideration.
Will you bear with me a moment longer, Mr. Presi-
dent, and gentlemen of the Congress, while I call
attention to a condition obtaining in and about all of
the forest reserves of the United States, and which
314 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
looks to me to be very unfair to a few of the great
industries operating about and within those reserves.
Under the presidential proclamations creating the
reserves, and under the laws as they now exist, it is
not possible for any industry—railroads and irrigating
companies excepted—to be made secure in the posses-
sion of a right of way extending through a forest
reserve. Is that fair? Is there any reason why a
great mine, after spending a large sum of money in
constructing a waterway through a reserve for the
purpose of bringing a supply of water to its works
and to the people manning those works, should not be
able to get as good title or right of way for such
conduit as is given to the irrigating company or to the
railroad company that builds a line through the same
reserve in order to haul other kinds of supplies to the
same works and to the same people operating the
works?
Under the laws and proclamations creating the Black
Hills forest reserve the miner is protected in the pos-
session of such mining locations as he possessed at the
time of the creation of the reserve. Further than that,
he is permitted to make new and additional locations.
Both these provisions are just. ‘They are, however,
inadequate. ‘They stop short of giving that protection
to which the mining industry in the Hills is justly
entitled. The absolute necessity of water for the devel-
opment of the mining claim is universally conceded.
The United States Government recognized this neces-
sity. It has thus far failed, however, to make adequate
provision to enable the miner to secure himself in the
possession of this necessity. Since 1866, the Govern-
ment of the United States has granted to the miner the
right to construct upon its public lands ditches and
flumes to conduct the waters-of the streams required
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS ars
in legitimate mining operations. It has in effect
granted rights of way across such public lands for
such ditches. It has provided that all patents issued
shall be subject to such ditches and rights of way.
This eminently just and wise policy seems to have
been suddenly abandoned in regard to those lands
comprised within forest reserves. Since the creation
of these reserves there has been, so far as I am advised,
no provision made by which the miner can secure the
grant of a right of way for his ditches and flumes,
without which his property may be utterly valueless.
It is true that the act of February 15, 1901, entitled
“An Act Relating to Rights of Way Through Certain
Parks, Reservations, and Other Public Lands,” does
provide that the Honorable Secretary of the Interior
may permit the use of rights of way through the forest
reservations for ditches and flumes used in connection
with mining and other operations. But the authority
conferred upon the Honorable Secretary is so emascu-
lated by the concluding provision of this act as to leave
him in effect no authority to grant any substantial
right, but unlimited power to revoke the favors already
conferred. That proviso reads as follows: “And
provided further that any permission given by the
Secretary of the Interior under the provisions of this
Act may be revoked by him or his successor in his
discretion, and shall not be held to confer any right
or easement or interest in, to, or over any public land,
reservation or park.”
I particularly call your attention to Regulations No.
2 and No. 11 promulgated by the Honorable Secretary
under this act. (Circular July 8, 1901).
No. 2 reads as follows: “It is to be specially noted
that this act does not make a grant in the nature of
an easement, but authorizes a mere permission in the
nature of a license, revocable at any time.”
316 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
No. 11 reads as follows: “Upon receipt of applica-
tions for right of way by the General Land Office, the
same will be examined and then submitted to the
Secretary of the Interior with recommendation as to
their approval. Permission to use rights of way
through a reservation or any park designated in the
act will only be granted upon approval of the chief
officer of the department under whose supervision
such park or reservation falls and upon finding by
him that the same is not incompatible with the public
interest. If the application and the showing made in
support thereof is satisfactory, the Secretary of the
Interior will give the required permission in such form
as may be deemed proper, according to the features
of each case; and it is to be expressly understood, in
accordance with the final proviso of the act, that any
permission given thereunder may be modified or
revoked by the Secretary or his successor, in his discre-
tion, at any time, and shall not be held to confer any
right, easement, or interest in, to or over any public
land, reservation or park. The final disposal by the
United States of any tract traversed by the permitted
right of way is of itself without further act on the part
of the department a revocation of the permission so
far as it affects that tract, and any permission granted
hereunder is also subject to such further and future
regulations as may be adopted by the Department.”
In short, gentlemen, the miner who, at a cost of
thousands, nay hundreds of thousands of dollars, has
constructed his ditches across the public lands of the
reservation in order to make profitable a mining prop-
erty otherwise idle and worthless, holds his investment
of dollars and brains subject not only to the changing
policy, to say naught of the whims and caprices, of an
administrative officer of the Government, but, what is
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 317
a far more serious danger, subject to the blackmailing
schemes of the mine adventurer who, by obtaining a
patent for one mining claim across which the ditch is
constructed, has the absolute power of obstructing the
operation of the ditch and thus of the mine.
Certainly, such results could not have been foreseen
by our law-makers. But they are not only probable;
they are inevitable. There is a remedy—simple,
speedy, just—and that is a law promptly giving to the
miner the same rights given to railroad corporations
and irrigating ditches; at least, a law by which the
miner in a reserve is protected to the same extent that
he is protected upon public lands not within a reserve.
The law, as it stands, puts a premium upon the dis-
honesty of the nomadic mining adventurer. It offers
no protection whatever to the bona fide miner. It
should be promptly amended.
For the respectful attention given to a few thoughts
of a brand-new member of your Association, hurriedly
incorporated into a so-called paper, I thank you,
gentlemen, most heartily.
MINING IN THE FOREST RESERVES.
BY
MAJOR F. A. FENN
Supervisor of Forest Reserves in Idaho and Montana
[|X many of the Western States where forest reserves
have been established, mining holds the foremost
place among our industries. With coal mining we
have little to do; hence, in the remarks that I shall
make, the term mining will be confined to metalliferous
mining. No other industry is more directly and inti- —
mately connected with the administration of forest
reserves than mining. The preservation of timber and
the conservation of the water supply—the two great
purposes of the forester—are exactly suited to meet
the demands of the two chief branches of the mining
industry, lode mining and placer mining. The lode
miner must have timber for his underground workings ;
and without water, the placer miner is helpless. The
Government has ever guarded the miner’s interests
most carefully. Every inducement has been given
the prospector, and the development of the mineral
resources of the country has been encouraged and
stimulated. Consistently with its steadfast policy,
Congress took pains to see that the law authorizing
and setting apart portions of the public domain as
forest reserves should contain nothing of detriment
to the mining industry. The act of June 4, 1897 (com-
monly called the Forest Reserve Law), among other
things provides as follows:
“Tt is not the purpose or intent of these provisions,
or of the act providing for such reservations, to author-
AMERICAN ForEST CONGRESS 319
ize the inclusion therein of lands more -valuable for
the minerals therein, than for forest purposes.”
And further: “Nor shall anything herein prohibit
any person from entering upon such forest reservation
for all proper and lawful purposes, including that of
prospecting, locating, and developing the mineral re-
sources thereof: Provided, That such persons comply
with the rules and regulations covering such forest
reservations.”
And further still: “And any mineral lands in any
forest reservation which have been or which may be
shown to be such, and subject to entry under the exist-
ing mining laws of the United States and the rules and
regulations applying thereto, shall continue to be sub-
ject to such location and entry, notwithstanding any
provisions herein contained.”
While the act contains the above-quoted provisions,
it also outlines a plan for the preservation of the forests
within the reserves and gives to the Secretary of the
Interior power to elaborate the system and make it
effective, by authorizing him to “make such rules and
regulations and establish service as will insure the
objects of such reservations, namely, to regulate their
occupancy and use and to preserve the forests thereon
from destruction.”’
Realizing the vital importance of the mining industry
to the national prosperity, and at the same time appre-
ciating the necessity of protecting the forests for the
benefit of the people, the law-makers devised a scheme
of forest protection that enables forest reserves to be
maintained and the mining industry to be carried on
simultaneously in the same territory, not only without
conflict or friction, but in such manner that scientific
forest methods may be applied in fullest measure, while
the best interests of the bona fide miner are subserved
and promoted.
320 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
Under the same law, the authority given the Secre-
tary of the Interior to prescribe rules and regulations
to effectuate the system outlined in the law, provided
the means whereby the details of the reserve policy
might be worked out and adapted to the conditions of
the mining industry as they should be encountered in
the different localities where mining interests and forest
methods might come in contact. The scheme devised
enables every miner to secure from forest reserves in
the State in which his mines are situated whatever tim-
ber is necessary to the prosecution of his enterprise.
Prior to the enactment of this law, a different condi-
tion prevailed. Before the act of June 4, 1897, was
passed, almost the only way for the miner to obtain
timber from the public lands legitimately was under
the act of 1878, which allowed the cutting and removal
of timber from public mineral lands for mining and
other specified uses. This act placed miners in an
embarrassing position. Under the general laws, and
according to the policy of the Department of the Inte-
rior, the public lands are presumed to be non-mineral,
and held to be such until the contrary is shown; hence,
to justify the cutting and removal of timber from a
given tract, under the provisions of the act of 1878 it is
incumbent upon miners to be in position to show that
the land involved is mineral in character. ‘This neces-
sitates the discovery of mineral; for ordinarily the fact
that some mines are known to exist in a certain region
does not establish the mineral character of the whole
territory included. To demonstrate by prospecting
or otherwise that a particular tract from which it is
proposed to cut timber is mineral lands, is to invite the
location of it by others as mining ground, and thereby
defeat the very purpose of the person needing the tim-
ber; for, under the mining laws, the locator has the
AMERICAN ForEST CONGRESS 331
right of possession, and is entitled to the exclusive
enjoyment of the surface of the ground located. The
consequence has been that no effort to determine the
real character of the land was made, the needy miner
preferring to take the timber on land separated from
his claim and run the risk of being brought before the
court for cutting and removing timber from public
lands illegitimately, rather than to place the timber
beyond his own reach through proving the tract to be
mineral in character, and assure its subsequent location
by interested parties, who would surely take advantage
of the showing made, to their benefit and to his injury.
It may be suggested that the person desiring the
timber might himself locate and secure control of both
timber and land; but the reply is that the law as con-
strued requires that the timber cut from a given claim
must be used on that claim, or on a group of which that
claim forms a part, and cannot be removed for use on
a different claim. This most annoying complication
has been fully appreciated by the Government and by
courts, and the result has been that really very little
regard has been paid to the character of the land from
which timber was cut for mining purposes. The con-
dition precedent to justify the cutting was practically
neglected,.and it was deemed sufficient that the timber
taken was devoted to a use contemplated in the law.
The necessities of the miners, and the peculiar provis-
ions referred to, combined to make the majority of the
miners of the Northwest law-breakers. In fact, few
miners knew the exact requirements of the law. It
was commonly understood that whatever forest pro-
ducts might be needed could be taken anywhere any
at any time. This erroneous view often resulted in
prosecutions, which usually terminated in acquittals
that have brought discredit upon the administration
322 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
of justice in the far West. Now, happily, this deplor-
able condition of affairs is obviated through the passage
of the Forest Reserve Law, and the bona fide miner
is given opportunity to secure timber in a legitimate
manner from the public lands.
This one point alone, gained through the develop-
ment of American forestry, should commend the sys-
tem to every person truly interested in the continued
prosperity of the mining industry. Still, the difficulties
mentioned might have been overcome by direct legisla-
tion, and the vital matter of forest preservation left
untouched.
Every successful lode mine is a consumer of enor-
mous quantities of forest products. Such properties
as the Homestake mine in South Dakota, the great
copper mines of Butte and Anaconda in Montana, or
the lead-silver producers of the Coeur d’Alenes in
Idaho, require almost incredible amounts of timber
for their operation. While commonly there is natu-
rally a fair supply of timber in the mountainous regions
where such mines are found, it is far from inexhausti-
ble. The first impulse of the miner in the hurry and
scurry of the newly discovered mining region is to
cut and slash indiscriminately. He takes a tree here,
another there, as his immediate needs may suggest.
He gives no thought to the refuse from his cutting.
He is heedless of the damage that may be done to the
remaining timber, and he is utterly extravagant in the
use of that which costs him nothing, and which there
is no one to claim or protect.
What might be expected, ensues. Fires start in the
cut-over tracts, spreads through the accumulated debris
to the adjacent forests; and the country for miles
around is devastated. Recurring fires continue the
destruction, and in a relatively few years the mining
AMERICAN ForEsST CONGRESS 323
camp is surrounded by denuded hills, and the miners
are face to face with the timber famine, the penalty
of their own thoughtless extravagance and careless-
ness.
Another cause of destruction is the wanton burning
of forest cover where brush and other material impede
the hasty work of the prospector. oo often it occurs
that the prospector, his imagination fired by finding a
rich piece of float, without thought of the injury he
may do to others or even to himself, deliberately sets
fire to the forest to clear the ground and facilitate his
operations. Not only is immeasurable damage done
to the mining industry at large by such criminal prac-
tices, but the fire-bug is likely to render the mine, if
he discover one, wholly valueless, because of the de-
struction of timber on which successful operation of
the property may depend.
It is useless to cite examples to illustrate what has
been said concerning the destruction of timber in the
vicinity of mining camps by prospectors. The expe-
rience of any practical miner is sufficient to prove the
correctness of what is stated.
The preservation of the forests in a State of highest
continued production involves the economic use of
timber, encouragement and stimulation of reproduc-
tion, and protection from fire and spoliation.
It frequently happens that mining properties are
found at altitudes where the better grades of timber
cannot grow. Such species as are adapted to these
high elevations rarely attain dimensions suitable for
ordinary commercial purposes; and again, too, the
stand is limited, so that he who appreciates the situa-
tion must realize the vital necessity of husbanding the
available supply. In spite of these conditions, how-
ever, miners, particularly in the boom days of any
324 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
mining camp, are, as before stated, prone to extrava-
gance in the use of timber and to be careless in their
methods. After a few years of such work, the in-
creasing cost of forest products and the rapid diminu-
tion of the supply arouse consumers to their early
folly, and stir them to an appreciation of conservative
forest methods and to the importance of enforcing
them.
But at this stage, proper protection of the young
growth is most difficult. The needs of the consumers
prompt the cutting of immature trees for.all purposes
where such timber can be utilized ; and to withhold such
material is, under the circumstances, looked upon as
a hardship. Large areas are now in process of refor-
estation around many mining camps, where repeated
fires, following in the wake of choppers, have cleared
off the remnants of the original forest and also de-
stroyed one or more second crops that have sprung up.
The present growth is frequently sparse in conse-
quence ; but it is usually largely composed of lodgepole
pine, a variety of timber fortunately well suited to
many of the miner’s purposes when it is mature, but
not calculated for any other use than lagging when in
the sapling stage. This timber, too, is largely a pre-
paratory crop, which nature provides to fit ares
that have been devastated by fires for the growth of
other and more valuable varieties of timber. ‘This is
a critical time in the process of reforestation, and it
occurs just when the miner is experiencing the first
pinch of timber famine, and he looks with longing upon
the growing trees that might be employed as a make-
shift to tide over present difficulties; hence, the
apparent hardship. A comprehensive view of the
situation will convince him that the ultimate good of
the industry he represents will be advanced by prac-
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 325
ticing the most rigid economy in the use of this
immature timber and by husbanding it and stimulating
its growth to insure a later abundant supply.
Right here I would call attention to the possible
shortage of timber in certain reserves where the de-
mands of miners may be most urgent. I have in mind
the Black Hills Forest Reserve, in South Dakota.
Vast mining interests are at stake there; at present
there is an apparently sufficient supply of timber in
the reserve to satisfy the needs of the mines, but the
appearances are deceptive. The forests are badly in-
fested, the pine beetle is doing his deadly work; and
unless the ravages of the insect be stopped, the present
forests of that reserve within a relatively short time
will have been destroyed. Investigations made by
competent forestry officials have proven that a remedy
for the evil exists. The infested timber must be
promptly cut down and the breeding places of the
beetle sought out and the insects exposed to the ele-
ments and killed. This heroic treatment fills the minds
of Black Hills miners with apprehension. They
therefore object to it; they fear that if this now in-
fected timber be all cut and removed they will be left
without any available timber. Such a result would
indeed be disastrous; but by opposing the cutting and
removal of the timber beyond the present needs of the
consumers, the evil will not be eradicated; further de-
struction is a certainty so long as the insects are
allowed to harbor and propagate there. By thus pro-
crastinating, the suffering miners but increase their
difficulties; and if things be allowed to drift along as
they are now going, not only will all the timber, young
as well as old, be destroyed, but the possibility of a
future crop will disappear. Now it would appear that
if there is any chance for a supply of timber for present
326 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
needs from the public lands to be assured for usé in
the mines in the Black Hills, the wisest course would
be for every tree in the affected district to be cut and
the threatened disaster averted, while at the same time
the present young growth could be given an oppor-
tunity to develop and become valuable, free from the
blighting influence of the now tireless pest. Such a
cutting would result in throwing a vast amount of
timber on the market at once, an amount far beyond
the demands of the day in that immediate vicinity.
To attempt to retain it until the local market could
dispose of it, would be to allow a large part to rot on
the hands of the Government. Wastefulness of that
character would be criminal. The only reasonable
course would be to ship the stuff to other points, to
‘other States probably for consumption. The law,
however, prevents such shipments; timber cut from
public lands may not be transported outside the State
in which it is cut. Here is a dilemma. If the timber
be not cut, the forests will be irretrievably ruined; if
it be cut, it must be either burned or allowed to rot on
the ground instead of being utilized to satisfy the wants
of people in other States which nature has not blessed
with timber growth. |
If the timber could be cut from public lands in one
State and shipped to other States, the solution of the
difficulty would be easy. ‘The insect-infested timber
could be cut and the surplus exported to other locali-
ties; and then,- whenever the needs of the miners
of the Black Hills should require it, the forests of
Oregon, Washington, and northern Idaho, where there
is no local demand at all, could be drawn upon for an
indefinite time and until the young growth in the South
Dakota hills should be again adequate to the necessities
of the people there.
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 327
The present law on this point should be changed.
Instead of remaining inflexible, as it now is, positively
prohibiting the exportation of timber cut from public
lands from one State to another, the law should be
so modified as to allow the department in charge of
the forest reserves in its discretion to authorize such
exportation when the interests of the people would be
subserved and the forest reserves benefited or at least
not injured thereby.
It should not be understood that the present legal
difficulty is applicable only to the case cited above. In
many of the great forest reserves of the Northwest,
where there are hundreds of millions of feet of mature
timber which is deteriorating in value every day, there
is no local demand; the lumber manufactured in Ore-
gon, Washington, and northern Idaho is practically all
shipped to markets outside those States. Because of
the inhibiting law now on the statute books, the reserve
timber cannot be utilized. It must remain neither
useful nor ornamental, and finally die and rot where
it grew; while the people of the prairie States of the
Middle West appeal in vain for that which they so
much need, that which they might have but for this
absurd provision of a law enacted long ago to meet
conditions that no longer exist. The incongruity of
things is manifest.
This Congress is deliberating here for the purpose
of encouraging and making practicable an American
forestry system, a system national in its scope; while
the law referred to renders impossible the application
of some of the most fundamental principles of true
forestry by circumscribing vast areas of available ma-
ture timber by the impassable barrier of a State
boundary line.
The economical use cannot subserve the miner’s
328 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
needs unless it be supplemented by adequate protection
against fire; and here is where an intelligent forest
patrol is a necessary auxiliary to the mining industry.
Protection from fire makes requisite certain precau-
tions. Where trees are felled and removed, a minimum
of the débris should be left on the ground to serve as
a conductor of the flames, and all of it should be so
disposed of that when the season of least danger
arrives, the refuse may be burned without damage.
These outlines indicate the importance of enforcing
adequate supervision if the greatest benefit is to be
derived from our forests; but, aside from any theo-
retical view of the subject of forest preservation, there
is a feature of the forest reserve policy which often
escapes attention, but which every bona fide miner
must recognize and appreciate.
I refer to the prevention of illegitimate location of
timber lands as mining claims. How many mining
enterprises of great promise have been balked by such
practices? Every experienced lode miner knows in-
stances where “‘stake locators” have claimed every acre
of timber land within miles of a promising discovery,
for no other purpose than to compel the owner of the
legitimate mining claim to purchase a fraudulent one
in order to secure the timber essential to the operation
of his property. Many of these nefarious schemes
have been defeated through the efforts of forest offi-
cers, and a more effective method of dealing with such
blackmailers is being carefully worked out. Illustra-
tions are not wanting to show that where opposition to
the inclusion of certain tracts within forest reserves
has resulted in the elimination of such tracts, and the
land shark relieved from the vigilance that has pre-
vented the carrying out of his plan, he at once makes
application for patent to alleged mineral land and
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 329
promptly secures absolute control of it. These specu-
lative entries place the legitimate miner at the mercy
of the unscrupulous holder of the title. One or two
alternatives the miner must adopt: either to sell out
and practically abandon his property, or else to pay an
exorbitant price for the timber his tormentor controls.
Usually it is the object of the speculator to force the
former; sometimes the latter is sufficient to satisfy
his greed. In either case rascality triumphs, and the
man whom the Government would assist and encourage
is victimized and his meritorious enterprise embar-
rassed or defeated. Further than this, in certain cases
where formerly there was an abundant supply of timber
available from the forest reserve, since eliminations
have been made, residents find themselves unable to
secure timber for domestic and other purposes without
infringing the law; and it has been demonstrated that
ordinarily where a tract of timber land in a mining
region, once included in a forest reserve, has later
been excluded from it, the honest miner and prospector
not only had little to do with securing the elimination,
but is now anxious to be again within the reserve;
while the purely speculative individual, whose schemes
were formerly circumvented by forest officers, and
through whose efforts the eliminations were made,
instead of being thwarted, may do whatever his sinister
motives may permit.
It is commonly supposed that the conservation of
the water supply and the maintenance of an equable
flow in the streams of the country are of interest chiefly
to the irrigationists ; the placer miner in this connection
is forgotten. But he is an important factor in the
nation’s prosperity. Without an adequate water sup-
ply, he cannot conduct his operations successfully, no
matter whether his work be done with the primitive
330 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
rock and the sluice box, or carried on with the most
advanced dredging or hydraulic elevator machinery.
Moreover, as shown by the history of placer mining
in California, Montana, and other great gold-producing
States, there is a diminishing supply of water in every
mining locality. ‘The barren hills, once clothed with
timber, tell the tale of repeated fires and testify to the
reduced water-storing capacity of the drainage basin
involved. ‘The methods of practical forestry as carried
out in the administration of forest reserves make it
easy for miners of all descriptions to secure adequate
supplies of timber to satisfy their needs, and wherever
a reserve has been established a sufficient length of
time, the honest miner is ever the friend of the reserve
system.
Like any other innovation, the introduction of
forestry methods in a mining camp commonly arouses
apprehension and antagonism ; but experience cures the
troubles. ‘The conservative business administration of
the forest reserve quickly results in the appreciation
of the beneficent purposes of the reserve system, and
converts enemies into friends. The honest prospector
and the bona fide miner have nothing to fear from the
forest reserve. As the forest policy shall be elaborated
and adapted to the varying local conditions, the ad-
ministration of the reserve will be improved, and the
interests of the mining industry more enhanced. Ex-
amined from the viewpoint of experience, the relation
of forest reserves to the mining industry appears so
intimate, the success of one so directly interwoven with
and dependent upon the continued prosperity of the
other, that the possibility of real antagonism between
them cannot be entertained. The forest reserve system
has come as a benefactor of the mining industry, and
when properly understood, it gives every incentive
AMERICAN ForEsT CONGRESS 331
to miners to yield it their loyal support. American
forestry and American mining should work hand in
hand. Forest officers, laboring for the common good
of all, reciprocally miners, as active and efficient
friends, may codperate in the achievement of noble
objects alike beneficial to themselves and conducive to
the public weal.
THE VALUE OF FORESTRY TO COM-
MERCIAL INTERESTS
BY
GEORGE H. MAXWELL
Executive Chairman, The National Irrigation Association
S OME ten days age a telegram reached me from the
Governor of California asking if I could attend
this Congress as a delegate from California. I replied
that I could, and in due time received his appointment.
I mention that merely in order that I may impress upon
your minds that in the few words I have to say to you
at this gathering, I speak as a delegate from and a
citizen of California and a resident of that State, from
the time of my birth until the last few years, which
warrants me in speaking of forestry from the stand-
point of a Western man.
I think it is only proper that I should further say to
you that I also represent on this occasion the National
Irrigation Association, an organization of between two
and three thousand of the largest commercial and
manufacturing firms in the United States, located
chiefly in the Eastern States, and that I speak also
from the standpoint of the Eastern commercial and
manufacturing interests.
I think the mistake which those of us who are from
the west make to-day, and always have made, is in
looking upon this question of forestry in any sense as
a sectional question. It is necessarily as much a
national question as the maintenance of an army or
the construction of a navy.
I wish I had the power by some telepathic process
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 333
of impressing upon the mind of every man present the
picture that is in my own mind as I stand here.
I crossed the Mississippi river on my way to the
west a little over two years ago on a ferry boat on
which was loaded a train of overland passenger cars,
and as we crossed that great river opposite the city of
New Orleans, during one of the greatest floods in
years, the flood was almost up to the tops of the levees
on both sides of the river. It was a serious question
whether the city of New Orleans was not in danger;
and as we landed on the west side of the river we
looked down over the bank and saw the plantations
way down below the level of the water, and exposed to
overflow and destruction any moment that artificial
barrier gave way. Before we had gone twentyfour
hours further west the levee did break and one of those
great crevasses was formed, and practically destroyed
the crop for that season over a large area; though
other localities and the city of New Orleans were saved
by the diminished pressure of the flood on the adjacent
levees.
As I stood on the boat and looked out over that great
river, then at its highest flood stage, I realized the fact
that from over more than one-third of the entire area
of this nation, the water that falls upon it must escape
to the ocean through that one gateway; and that as
the years go by, year after year, we are destroying the
grass and plowing up the prairies and stripping the
trees and the brush and forests from the mountains so
that the engineers can see that every flood plane gets
a little bit higher than the last.
I could not help thinking to myself whether it might
not be possible some day or other to awaken the people
of the Mississippi valley to a realization of the fact
that forestry is a problem extending from New Orleans
334 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
to the Continental divide of the Rocky Mountains on
the west, to Canada on the north, and to the crest of
the Alleghenies on the east, where the Ohio river has
its source. And if it is expected in the years to come
to control that great flood by building the levees higher
and higher, I have only to say to the people of the
lower Mississippi valley, the sugar bowl of the conti-
~ nent, that the time will come when they cannot build
them higher and the country will go back to a swamp
and be as desolate as it is to-day where the St. Francis
basin is covered with water through which you may
look down and see the tops of the trees that once grew
on dry land. How are you going to prevent that?
I say to you as a commercial proposition, if you look
at it solely from that standpoint, as a proposition of
cold, hard figures, that it is the duty of the national
government to conserve that flood of water so that
every drop of it can be used in the State where it falls
before it finds its way into that great river and goes
down to destroy the plantations. And that year by
year the use of that water, if it were all used for power,
for irrigation, for the navigation of the streams in the
summer season (because the water would be in the
streams then in the summer season), that it would
more than double, more than treble, more than quad-
ruple the productive power of more than one-third
of the United States.
Isn’t it worth doing?
Let us carry the picture in our minds a little farther
up the river and look at Kansas City and that great
flood that came so near destroying its business section
that same winter. Look at the Ohio River flood in
the Pittsburg vicinity that same winter. Look at the
Allegheny Mountain region a year later. I came
down from Harrisburg to Washington last spring
AMERICAN ForEst CONGRESS 335
when Congress was in session. The railroad track
had been submerged and torn to pieces in many places
by the flood, and the ice was banked up as high as the
second story windows of the farmhouses to the left
as we came down the river. .
It is only within the last two weeks that I read an
article in the New York papers to the effect that the
cities of that Allegheny region were without water,
the railroads were hauling water and the mines were
shut down because the rivers were dry.
I ask, why is that? And I will answer the question
for you. It is because we have gone over those hills
and mountains with axe and fire and stripped the
hillside and the mountain tops of the whole Allegheny
region, and instead of having a natural forest cover,
which is the greatest reservoir known to nature or to
man, we have a surface which sheds water as fast as
the floor of this hall would shed it if you stood it at
an angle of 45 degrees.
There is no other question of as much interest to the
commercial, manufacturing and transportation inter-
ests of the country, to say nothing of agriculture, as
that one question, forestry.
It is not a western problem or an eastern problem—
it is a national problem.
When I appeal to you for this broad consideration
of it, all that I ask is that you will project your minds
across the ocean to the shores of the Mediterranean,
to Palestine, to Persia, to the plains of Mesopotamia,
and answer me this question:
Where is there a nation that has been desolated by
war that has not been restored to fertility when it
lived upon a land that was productive?
Where has there been a nation destroyed by the
desert that has been restored or ever will be?
336 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
Instead of talking about national protection by
“army and navy,” we should talk about national pro-
tection by “forest, army, and navy.”
I am in favor of an army commensurate with our
needs. I am in favor of this nation having not the
second best, but the greatest navy of any nation, but
if we can afford to do that, we can afford to spend as
much upon the preservation of our forests and the
protection of our country from destruction by the
desert as we can afford to spend for the protection
of our frontiers from a foreign foe, or to carry our
flag upon foreign seas.
This great problem of forestry is not alone a matter
of sentiment. It is just as much a cold-blooded ques-
tion of business. ‘The speakers who preceded me have
spoken upon the importance of forestry to mining. I
have listened with much interest to their masterly dis-
cussions on the relation of forestry to mining, and it
brought more forcibly than ever to my mind the con-
viction that the whole country and those engaged in
all its industries are fast coming to recognize the
importance of forestry. I regret that we cannot in-
clude the lower house of Congress. They do not seem
to have yet waked up to it. I have read that the
Japanese have been throwing 800 shells a day into
Port Arthur, which have cost $1,000 apiece. I think
we could, well afford to go to that expense with shells
that were physically harmless to see whether we could
not wake Congress up, by exploding that many such
shells over the heads of the members of the House of
Representatives.
I am not going to take up your time with any further
dissertations upon the importance of forestry. But I
want to offer some practical suggestions as to what we
should do to get what we want done. I listened with
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 337
the greatest interest and pleasure to the President’s
address yesterday, and one of his sentences struck me
very forcibly. He said: “We want to change the hope
of accomplishment to the knowledge of things done.”
If we are going to do that we must have a clear-cut
idea of what we are going to do and of what we want
Congress to do—so plain and clear that there is no
possibility of any man being so stupid that he cannot
understand it.
We have listened to these gentlemen here to-day
telling of the necessities of the mining industries and
of the injustice brought about by insufficient laws.
There is a most simple way to get all the things done
that they have recommended, and more, too. The
first is to bring about a perfect understanding with a
business bureau of the Government, if we can create
such a bureau, and the way to do that is to pass the
bill consolidating the forest reserves under the control
of Mr. Gifford Pinchot.
And after you have done that and he has consulted
with the lumberman and the miner and the farmer
and understands what they want, then back him up
and make-your Congressman help to get it done.
There has been a good deal said here about tree
planting, and I want to speak of the importance of
tree planting to California. The water that comes
from the Sierra Madre and San Bernardino Mountains
produces annually $20,000,000 worth of fruit and other
products of the irrigated farms to exchange with the
manufacturers of the east for the products of their
factories. The forests of those mountains have been
neglected, thousands of acres have been burnt over
and destroyed. One citizen of that State has interested
himself prominently in tree planting. I refer to Mr.
Lukens. He deserves to be mentioned by name. He
338 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
has given generously of his own time and his own
money and the Government has helped in a niggardly
way. There is now a nursery of trees ready to be
planted upon the hillsides of those burnt wastes and
we cannot get a few thousand dollars’ appropriation
to plant the trees.
Now why is it that such a condition as that can
exist? Why is it? I will tell you the reason. It is
because we have “Watch Dogs of the Treasury” in
Congress who object to large appropriations for for-
estry. They can see the vast importance of huge
contracts for armor plate and for building fortifications,
but they care nothing about protecting our country.
from destruction by the desert.
Let us look at the business end of that proposition.
There are other things besides bees that have business
ends. For a number of years the President of the
United States, the Secretary of the Interior and the
Commissioner of the General Land Office have been
trying to impress upon Congress, without success, the
necessity of repealing the Timber and Stone act. I
want to give the exact facts. The President, in De-
cember, 1902, more than two years ago, called the
attention of Congress in the strongest possible lan-
guage to the necessity of doing something to stop the
frauds and depredations upon the public domain under
the Timber and Stone Act. The Secretary of the
Interior reiterated his demand, and specifically urged
Congress to repeal that law.
The secretary said in his annual report more than
two years ago:
“The Timber and Stone Act will, if not repealed or
radically amended, result ultimately in the complete
destruction of the timber on the unappropriated and
unreserved public lands.”
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 339
I find these words in the report of the Senate Com-
mittee on the Public Lands, and the date is February
19, 1903: :
“Tt can be plainly seen that all the valuable timbe
lands of the United States will be owned by speculators
within three years if the opportunity to acquire them
at $2.50 an acre is continued.”
That was February 19, 1903.
It is now pretty close to February 19, 1905, and one
year from that date the three years will be exhausted,
all the timber land will be gone, according to this
official statement.
Has the bill been repealed? No! Has the House
of Representatives done anything to stop this shameful
waste of the public property under the Timber and
Stone Act? No!
They have done nothing whatever to stop the abuses
and frauds constantly being committed under that act.
Again, the following year the President in his mes-
sage to Congress made substantially the same recom-
mendation. They were reiterated by the Secretary
of the Interior. The Senate Committee on Public
Lands recommended a bill to repeal the Timber and
Stone Act and the Senate passed the bill in the last
session of Congress.
It went to the Public Lands Committee of the House
of Representatives.
Mr. T. B. Walker appeared before that committee
and waved his magic wand and they gave two votes
for the repeal of the bill out of eighteen members of
the committee. Two votes! And the bill is lying
there in that committee yet.
In this session of Congress, without waiting for
anything, or for anybody to do anything, they passed
a resolution in the Public Lands Committee of the
340 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
House continuing this whole subject over until the
next session of Congress.
The next session of Congress will convene at a time
within two months of the expiration of the three years
within which the Senate committee told Congress that
all the timber land would be gone unless they got
action.
T. B. Walker is one of those astute business men
who has taken full advantage of the idiocy and incom-
petency of the men who have framed our timber laws
in the past to amass a fortune for himself in timber-
lands. He is reputed to be the largest individual owner
of timberland in the United States. I do not charge
Mr. Walker with having committed any fraud himself,
and the fact that he has acquired a fortune running
into mitlions by the utilization of laws which enabled
him to absorb the public forests into his private owner-
ship is one of the severest criticisms that can be made
of the law I am talking about.
Now it is a question of money. From the standpoint
of Congress this great nation has not enough money
to plant those few trees we have in the nursery, to
protect the forests of Southern California and the
water supply of its farms and of the cities of Los
Angeles and Pasadena.
In the two years that have expired since the Presi-
dent has called the attention of Congress to that timber
and stone law there has been located under the Timber
and Stone Act over 3,000,000 acres of timberland,
the greater part of it the magnificent timber of the
Northwest, which, according to the report of the Sec-
retary of the Interior and the Commissioner of the
General Land Office, is worth anywhere from $20 to
$100 an acre, for the mere value of the stumpage, to
say nothing of the young timber or the land itself.
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 34i
In other words, as a result of the deliberate delay
of the Public Lands Committee of the House, instead
of having the value of the stumpage from that 3,000,-
ooo acres of timber in the national treasury, we have
parted with the timber and the land and the young
growth and everything for $2.50 an acre.
Taking the value of that timber at what the stumpage
actually sold for upon some of the Government land
in Minnesota, $15.06 an acre, the Government has lost
$40,000,000 by that proceeding. But the stumpage on
the 3,000,000 acres located during the last two years
was much more valuable than that. And if the Gov-
ernment had managed its timberland business as any
business man or any man of sense would have managed
it, we might just as well as not have realized $70,000,-
ooo from that stumpage, and have had our young
forest trees planted in southern California and the
surplus left over.
We are told that there is going to be a deficit this
year in the revenues of the United States of $22,000,-
ooo. If we had not thrown away that $70,000,000
we could have covered that deficit at least twice over
and still have had money left in the treasury. In other
words, the Public Lands Committee of the House has
thrown away over $70,000,000 of the people’s money
in the last two years. If we should put this total loss
_at only $50,000,000 for the two years it has amounted
to over $2,000,000 a month, or about $70,000 a day.
Now suppose some enterprising and ingenious per-
son had succeeded in tunnelling under the United
States treasury and cut a hole into the vaults and was
carrying off $70,000 a day. Don’t you suppose we
could get the people of the United States to wake up
the Public Lands Committee if it required some action
by them to stop the stealing? That is exactly what is
L
342 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
going on; for if the House Public Lands Committee
does nothing in this session of Congress (and they have
already voted to do nothing), the loss to this country
of $70,000 a day—$2,000,000 a month—$25,000,000
a year, and it is much more than that—will go right
along and continue until all the timberland of our
Government has been stolen. That will be a little
over a year, according to the report of the Senate
Public Lands Committee. And after the land is all
gone—aiter the horse has been stolen, the House Public
Lands Committee will awaken from their Rip Van
Winkle slumbers and close the stable door with a bang.
Now who has got this vast sum of money that has
been lost to the people and the Government? Some
very enterprising gentlemen of the West have made
it, who are taking advantage of this law to their own
personal profit and we are very seriously told that the
West does not want the repeal of the Timber and Stone
Act. Mr. Lacey, of Iowa, the chairman of the commit-
tee, says that “the boys on the committee do not want
the law repealed.” Let me illustrate this condition in
the West. Suppose we hadalaw by which $70,000 a day
or $2,000,000 a month was being paid to Tammany
Hall from the national treasury, to be divided among
the members of that organization and expended by
them as each of them in his judgment should deem
most meet and proper for the promotion of good gov-
ernment in New York City.
Don’t you suppose that Tammany Hall would be
opposed to the repeal of that law?
You might apply the same idea with reference to
this question of the West. But it is a more serious
matter than that. ‘There are men in Congress who will
deliberately stand up and say that this law should not
and shall not be repealed.
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 343
There was one thing the President said yesterday
that I asa Western man cannot fully endorse. He said,
in substance, that if the forests of the West are to be
saved, the people of the West must save them. I say
to you that if the forests of Oregon and Idaho and
Washington and Montana and Colorado are not to be
saved unless the people of those States save them,
they will never be saved. If they are to be saved at
all, it will be by Theodore Roosevelt and the people
of the East.
I want right here to express the obligations we owe
to President Roosevelt for going into the West and
making forest reserves which have saved thousands
upon thousands of acres of forests of the West that
never would have been saved had it not been for
Theodore Roosevelt.
It is also a matter of history that the forest policy
which now exists was forced upon the West against
its will by Grover Cleveland by executive order.
You find such Congressmen as Mr. French, from
Idaho, arguing against the repeal of the Timber and
Stone Act and making such arguments as I have
heard him make, that it was a good thing for the Gov-
ernment to sell a man for $400 a quarter section of
land, which he could turn around and sell for $4,000—
that it induced people to go to Idaho and gave them
capital to start in business. Don’t you suppose that
if you offered a bonus of $3,600 in cash out of the
national treasury to every many who would come to
Washington to live that you could get more people to
reside here and raise the value of real estate in the
city? That is the proposition from the Idaho stand-
point as applied to the city of Washington.
Before I close I wish to specify some definite and
specific things which should be done:
344 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
First. Repeal the Timber and Stone Act.
Second. Pass the consolidation bill putting the Gov-
ernment forests under the management of the Bureau
of Forestry.
Third. Provide by national legislation that every
acre of agricultural land that can be reclaimed under
the national irrigation system must be saved for the
homemaker who will go there and make a home upon
it.
In that way you can break up the timber combina-
tion, and in that way only; because the land thieves
of North Dakota, under the Commutation Clause—the
land thieves of Montana under the Desert Land Act—
the land thieves, under the Timber and Stone Act—
well, perhaps I might be permitted to mention Oregon
in this connection—are working together. You will
have to explode some of those Japanese shells among
them to break up the combination.
The situation in Oregon reminds me of a saying of
Mayor Henry, of the city of Oakland, out in California,
twenty or more years ago. There had been a good
deal of rottenness in the municipal affairs. The newly-
elected mayor was something of a rival of Mrs. Part-
ington. His knowledge of Greek names were a little
mixed, and in his inaugural address he declared with
great energy, “Gentlemen, I am going to clean out
the Oregon stables!”
I really think we are going to get the Oregon stables
cleaned out.
To show you why we cannot depend upon Congress-
men from the timber State of the West to correct this
enormous evil, a year ago both Oregon Senators and
both Representatives from Oregon were bitterly op-
posed to any change in the land laws. Representatives
Hermann and Williamson both went before the com-
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 345
mittee and protested against any change. Mr. Her-
mann was before the committee. At that exact moment
the Oregon grand jury was in session in the city of
Portland, composed of men drawn by lot from all
over the State, and that grand jury urged the repeal
of all those laws—the Timber and Stone Act, the
Desert Land Act, and the Commutation Clause, and
sent a memorial to the Public Lands Commission to
that effect. Now the grand jury has had some busi-
ness with Mr. Hermann since that time.
I understand that Mr. Williamson is not here, and
I do not know where he is. I did see an article in an
Oregon paper charging that he put up the money
himself for some fellow to buy a lot of worthless school
land, and then they tried to get it into a forest reserve
and failed and Williamson lost his money.
I am lifting the sheet off the corpse a little, but I
don’t think it will do any harm. If you don’t have these
cold, hard facts impressed upon you by somebody you
are not going to accomplish anything.
If you want to do something, go ahead and talk to
your member of Congress and get him to help to get
the House of Representatives to carry the public lands
legislation right straight over the heads of the com-
mittee.
They passed one land bill at the last session of
Congress, a bill throwing away thousands and hun-
dreds of thousands of acres of lands, in tracts of 640
acres, in western Nebraska, which should have been
retained and trees planted on it to be used in the
mines of South Dakota, and of the whole Rocky
Mountain region. Nebraska sold its birthright for
a mess of pottage when it allowed the Kinkaid bill
to become a law. The whole scheme for 640-acre
homesteads is a rank deception and offers a premium
for fraud.
346 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
There are a number of other things that I have in
my mind to suggest that ought to be done:
One is to pass the Appalachian Forest Reserve bill,
which is ready to be passed.
Another is to stop now and for all time all exchanges
of lands in forest reserves for other lands. If the
Government needs any such lands let it buy them and
pay for them their fair value and no more. All lieu
land scrip should be called in and cancelled and no
more ever issued under any circumstances. The
forest lieu land exchange law should be repealed.
And if this session of Congress adjourns without
the bill being passed by the House, which has passed
the Senate, repealing the Timber and Stone Act, every
member of the Public Lands Committee, who voted
for delay, ought to be held up to popular obloquy and
whipped at the cart’s tail with a lash that would make
them feel the full weight of an outraged national public
sentiment.
They are not liable to punishment criminally, but
they are morally responsible for every fraud committed
under the Timber and Stone Act since they shelved the
bill passed by the Senate in the last session of Congress
to repeal it.
But it is not enough merely to repeal the Timber
and Stone Act. Every acre of public forest lands or
brush or woodlands which conserve a water supply
should be at once embraced in permanent forest
reserves, the title to be always retained by the national
government, and the stumpage only of matured timber
to be sold.
The whole great plains region should be studied and
developed as a vast area which can be transformed
from a semi-arid region to one of great fertility and
more humid climate by the planting of immense areas,
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 347
hundreds of thousands of acres, of new forests by the
national government on the wide level prairies and
bare, rolling foot-hills which are now supposed to be
among the waste places of the land and only fit for
grazing ground for a few stray cattle and sheep.
It is the vast possibilities of forest planting and tim-
ber production in this region that makes it almost a
crime against future generations to part with the land
in its present condition to stockmen under such a
scheme as the Kinkaid bill for the creation of large
grazing estates in private ownership.
~The mining and transportation interests, more im-
mediately than any other, ought to oppose this 640-acre
homestead idea anywhere in the great plains or Rocky
Mountain States, and help to inaugurate a great
national policy of planting new forests, not only to
furnish wood and timber for the mines, and railroad
ties and timber for railroad construction and repair,
but to conserve and increase the rainfall, regulate the
flow of the rivers, stop floods and furnish water for
irrigation. |
In all those Western States, the State has the power
to form districts for local public improvements, such
as irrigation districts, sanitary districts, drainage dis-
tricts, or levee districts, and I, for one, do not believe
that it is the right policy that the national government
should assume the burden of protecting from fire
forests now owned by men who have gotten them
from the Government for one-tenth of their value.
The State and nation should codperate to form forestry
districts and have assessments levied on all private
lands in the district, and every acre, whether in public
or private ownership, should contribute its proportion
to the cost of preserving it from fire.
There is one more thing I am going to urge as a
348 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
mere matter of personal opinion. In making the sug-
gestion I do not speak for California or for the Na-
tional Irrigation Association, but for myself alone. I
have been all my life a republican, and in my earlier :
years advocated the republican doctrine of a tariff for
protection in many political campaigns in my native
State of California from the Oregon line to Mexico;
but because I believe in preserving our industries and
not in destroying them, I believe that in order to
preserve the forest industries of this nation, we should
repeal every tariff law imposing a tariff upon the
products of the forests whether timber or wood or
wood pulp, at any rate for a limited number of years,
and until we have planted forests enough to annually
harvest from our own forests all the wood and timber
we use in any one year.
STATISTICAL RELATION BETWEEN
FORESTRY AND MINING
(Impromptu Address)
BY
Dr. DAVID T. DAY
United States Geological Survey
HE relations of the mining industry to timber
supplies and the consequently necessary forest
culture, have been stated many times and many ways
so that the views on this subject are not novel, neither
are they clear. They are not clear because of
fragmentary statements made largely from very differ-
ent viewpoints by miners and by foresters. Further,
during the few years in which this subject has been
discussed the relations have been changing.
The mining company is recognized as a good cus-
tomer by the lumberman and by the preserver of
forests he is recognized as a wanton destroyer and a
deadly foe.
The miner has established his reputation as a good
customer to the lumberman and he is daily becoming
a better customer. This is because mine timber seldom
costs more than Io per cent. of the cost of the ore, and
the large consumers want the best and can easily afford
to pay good prices for it. He can afford to send
farther for his supply than most other customers. He
is much in the same category as the railroad, except
that frequently poor timber will last longer than it
needs to last in a mine, and this is never the case with
ties. The miner outran the railroads as a timber con-
sumer, for it was stated here yesterday that a forest
reserve of half a million acres would (properly man-
aged) furnish the United States with ties. I doubt
350 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
if 10,000,000 acres would suffice to keep the miners
going.
We have no accurate knowledge of the amount of
timber used in a year in the mines. But we do know
that it requires about a cubic foot for each ton of
anthracite, say 70,000,000 cubic feet per year, some-
what less for each ton of bituminous, say 250,000,000
cubic feet yearly. Iron ore needs at least 20,000,000
feet, precious metal mining needs a cubic foot for each
cube of gold, such as I have here, or say 75,000,000
cubic feet, or say 400,000,000 cubic feet a year for the
whole mining industry.
As a deadly foe to the forester the reputation of the
miner is losing his former picturesque position, as fast
as many of the sensational stories of the miner’s
depravity cease to represent present conditions, and
pass with old pioneer conditions into the legends of old
days.
Foremost among these dear old classic legends is
that of the prospector who burns off the forest to get
rid of the undergrowth so he can more easily discover
his hidden treasure. Of course, prospectors include
every sort of man, even the kind so foolish as to resort
to such methods, but such men are disclaimed by the
profession and in no way characterize the prospectors.
I doubt if any species of tramp ever traverses the
forest who uses such thoroughly trained care in ex-
tinguishing every spark of fire he kindles as the genuine
life-time prospector. He is accustomed to use every
mark of changing vegetation to guide him in looking
for changes in rock and soil conditions. He wants
trees for landmarks if nothing more, and the only
places where vegetation is so dense that burning off
would compensate for the loss of guiding marks is in
regions so wet that you could not build a forest fire
with kerosene.
AMERICAN ForEst CONGRESS 351
The main reason why the miner is no longer a foe
to forest protection, is on account of two influences at
work upon him. First, the missionary work of the
foresters has converted him from wantonness in cut-
ting timber. The mines are growing larger and less
of them, there are fewer mining superintendents to
educate and they are men of high grade. But most
significant is a changing condition in mining practice
by which the mining company falls into the same cate-
gory as the lumberman as regards forestry. The
change is this, the mining company cuts a continually
lessening percentage of its own timber and buys corre-
spondingly more from a distance. This increased
attention to their own specialty of mining and buying
their supplies of all kinds, especially their timber, from
outside agencies is as marked a development as any
other kind of industrial specialization and is as greatly
aided by increased facilities for transporting supplies
from considerable distances.
The timber merchant will in the future stand between
the forester and the mining company. ‘This is fortu-
nate, especially in one way. There is no more difficult
task than trying to educate the average mining man into
any attribute of patience such as planting trees for his
successor to use. His whole training is in the line of
getting out all his ore with the greatest possible speed—
to work out the deposit and go somewhere else.
Frankly, the mining company often has been and
occasionally still may be, worse than the man who
skins a country, the miner disembowels it and leaves
an absolute desert above and below. If the miner can
be taught by forestry methods something of conserva-
tism in rushing his mineral to market, the whole
country will be better off.
Further, it seems that as the friends of good govern-
352 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
ment all citizens may take another lesson from the
Government’s attitude to the public forest lands, and
just as the general people’s valuable forest assets are
being set apart for careful husbandry in forest reserves,
so the citizens may well insist that our public mineral
lands have ceased to serve a useful purpose as a bait to
immigration. It is no longer necessary nor good public
policy for the Government to give away practically free
to the mine promoter valuable coal, oil, gas lands, and
also lands where valuable metalliferous deposits may
be reasonably looked for.
The prospector is no longer greatly aided by such
laws. He can be helped much more by governmental
cooperation and joint ownership. It seems timely that
the same wise regulations adopted for the sale and
lease of lands belonging to the Indians should be ap-
plied to lands belonging to the people as a whole, and
it is to be hoped that Death Valley, many regions in
eastern Utah, in the Rocky Mountain regions, may
soon become Government mineral reserves.
~
PART VII
NATIONAL AND STATE FOREST POLICY
eos |
*
Py =
in a
i on
PAE WORK sOF THE - BUREAU ‘OF
FORESTRY
BY
OVERTON W. PRICE
Associate Forester, United States Department of Agriculture
| N THIS opportunity to say a word to you about the
work of the Bureau of Forestry, I want to go a
little further than merely to catalogue its present
achievement. Because it seems to me that your chief
interest lies not merely in what the Bureau has already
done. It lies rather in the power of the Bureau for
future accomplishment, which its organization and its
point of view make possible. For although in the light
of its results, the achievement of the Bureau is tangible
and far-reaching, it marks only a small beginning, in
the light of the work not yet done. And since the
great bulk of the forest work is ahead of us, I want
particularly to indicate how the policy of the Bureau
enables it to assist in the practical solution of the forest
problems still before the great industries represented
here.
Six years ago the reorganization of the Bureau took
place. At that time, the foundation of an individual,
a state, and a national forest policy had in part been
laid, but its practical application had scarcely begun.
It was the attitude of the Division then, as it is the
attitude of the Bureau now, that the printing press and
the lecture room are not in themselves adequate to get
forestry generally into effect in this country; that the
urgent need is practical field work with which to meet
great forest problems on their own ground, and that
the results of this field work, the practical solution of
356 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
these forest problems, should be published and distrib-
uted for the benefit of all—therein, as the Bureau sees
it, lies its province, its duty, and its great opportunity
for usefulness. Under this policy, the Division became
a Bureau. Above all, it is the policy under which it
has been able to attack effectively the forest problem
in all its parts.
Since its reorganization, the Bureau of Forestry has
directed its earnest and constant endeavor along these
four main lines:
First. It codperates by practical assistance and
advice in forest work which not only benefits individual
cooperators but is of help to many others.
Second. It attacks, independently, those urgent for-
est problems whose solution by private enterprise is
impossible, and thus becomes a national duty.
Third. It renders all assistance within its power in
the best use of the federal forest lands; and finally,
Fourth. It publishes and distributes the results of
its investigations for the benefit of all.
The codperative work of the Rureau began in Octo-
ber, 1898, with the offer of assistance to private owners
in the handling of their own lands. From this begin-
ning it has broadened as the direct result of an insistent
demand, until it now offers assistance not only in the
preparation of working plans, but also in tree-planting,
either for commercial purposes or for protection, and
in discovering the most conservative and profitable
methods for the use of the products of the forest. The
cooperative state forest studies, which offer a great
and increasing field for usefulness, have also grown
out of the policy of the Bureau’s cooperation with
private owners.
The codperative work in all its branches has had two
important and tangible results: Not only has it brought
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 357
about the use of new and better methods on the
ground, but, above and beyond the benefit to the indi-
vidual codperator, this work, through the publication
of its results, has been a far-reaching influence in fur-
thering that understanding of the purpose and methods
of forestry, without which its general application is
impossible. Thus, the results of the cooperative work
cannot be measured by the great areas of forest land
now under management as the result of working plans
prepared by the Bureau, or the three hundred and
thirty-four planting plans which the Bureau has pre-
pared for lands in fifty-two states and territories.
In its cooperation with railroads, the Bureau, at an
expense truly insignificant in comparison with the
value of the results, has developed facts regarding the
preservative treatment of ties and construction timbers
and the profitable use of woods of inferior kinds whose
value is beyond estimate both to the great transporta-
tion systems themselves and in its decrease in the drain
upon our forests. In its cooperative state forest
studies the Bureau’s work has in each instance had a
definite and tangible result in preparing a solid basis
for a comprehensive state forest policy. But each
piece of cooperative work, whether with the individual,
the corporation, or the state; whether in tree-planting,
in working plans, or in studies of forest products, is
justified not merely by the direct benefit to the
cooperator, but by the acquisition of knowledge for the
common good, in which its widest usefulness lies.
To the statement that this cooperative work, valu-
able as its results may be, falls properly not within the
sphere of the Government, but to the private forester,
the answer is that the Bureau of Forestry took up this
work only because no private foresters were available
to do it. It is work which the Bureau has from the
358 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
beginning recognized as purely temporary in its char-
acter. To postpone it until the private forester was in
the field would have meant that the better use of our
forests would have been for a long time delayed. The
area in woodlots and timber tracts in this country is
approximately five hundred million acres. It is from
them that our future timber supply must chiefly come.
And the inauguration of better methods in their man-
agement is thus a national duty until the private
forester is present in sufficient numbers to carry the
work. When that time comes, the Bureau will step
aside. As a matter of fact, the Bureau has by its
cooperative work not only instituted better methods
in the use of the forest, but it has hastened, by making
clear the business advantages of these methods, the
growth of forestry as a commercial enterprise, and
hence the employment of the private forester. And
right there it is significant that, with very few excep-
tions, the private foresters employed in this country
to-day owe their work either to the recommendation
of the Bureau of Forestry or as the direct result of its
cooperative work. ‘
The second line of endeavor which it is the duty of
the Bureau of Forestry to follow is that of independent
investigation. This embraces the solution of those
urgent forest problems which are beyond the scope,
the means, or the trained knowledge of the individual,
but which confront him, and through him materially
affect the development of the great industries. Just
as it is the duty of the Government through the United
States Geological Survey to map this country, so is it
also the duty of the Government through the Bureau
of Forestry to put in the hands of the people knowledge
essential to the best use of the forest, and as unobtain-
able through private enterprise only as are the maps.
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 359
The Bureau of Plant Industry, of Animal Industry, of
Soils—the scientific work of the Government through-
out—conducts studies national in their importance
whose solution is beyond the power of the individual.
In exactly the same way, the Bureau of Forestry
attacks those forest problems necessary to the perma-
nent prosperity of all industries dependent upon wood
and water. Under this policy the Bureau is conducting
studies of commercial trees, since the published results
of these studies serve as.a basis for working plans, as
a source of useful information to lumbermen, and as a
valuable contribution to our knowledge of American
forests. It is conducting independent studies of forest
fires as a means for the solution of the urgent national
problems which they present, both in the form of legis-
lation which will be effective against forest fires and
in methods for their prevention and control.
In its timber tests the Bureau of Forestry is supply-
ing an urgent need of fuller technical knowledge of
the strength of our commercial timbers, and is thus
paving the way for economy in their use as well as in
the woods.
In the preparation of forest yield and volume tables
the Bureau is laying the foundation for conservative
forest management in all parts of this country. In its
forest maps, its dendrological studies, and in many
other ways, it is equipping the great industries depen-
dent upon the forest with knowledge essential to their
development.
In the third line of its endeavor, the rendering of
all assistance within its power in the best use of the
Government forest lands, the Bureau is to the full
extent of the province which legislation has entrusted
to it giving assistance and advice in the management
not only of the national reserves, but also of Indian
360 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
and military reservations. Briefly outlined, this assist-
ance has been as follows:
On December 7, 1899, the Secretary of the Interior
requested the Secretary of Agriculture for advice upon
technical questions envolved in the administration of
the reserves. The work of the Bureau of Forestry
under this request has increased steadily in volume and
scope, until at present practically all technical questions
involved in the administration of the reserves are
referred to it.
During the past two years practically all of the
recommendations for new forest reserves and changes
in the boundaries of existing forest reserves either
originated with or were submitted directly by the
Bureau of Forestry. Since it took up this line of
work the Bureau has examined 130 separate areas
proposed as forest reserves or as additions to existing
reserves.
Regulations for grazing recommended by the Bureau
are now in effect on two forest reserves in Utah and
on four forest reserves in Arizona.
Six members of the Bureau were loaned to the for-
estry division of the General Land Office for periods
of from one year to fourteen months (1902-1903).
One of these members was chief of that division, two
were inspectors, and two were head rangers.
Under the request of the Secretary of the Interior,
studies have been made of several Indian reservations,
and recommendations submitted for their forest man-
agement. The Bureau has also prepared detailed
working plans for the Prescott, Black Hills, Big Horn,
and Priest River forest reserves.
To sum up, the principles and practice recommended
by the Bureau to govern the administration of the
national forest reserves have been approved by the
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 361
Department of the Interior. The Bureau is now the
recognized source of information upon the suitability
of lands for forest reserves or of changes in the boun-
daries of existing reserves, for working plans for the
management of the reserves, and for special reports
upon grazing and other matters involved in their
administration. In no case has the Bureau mixed in
the details of reserve management. It has dealt exclu-
sively with matters of policy.
In its work under the Morris bill the Bureau has
proved that conservative lumbering pays in the pine
region of northern Minnesota. It was charged with
drawing up the regulations for conservative lumbering
and with their enforcement upon lands which, after
they have been lumbered, will constitute the Minnesota
National Forest Reserve. The result has proved that
the Bureau of Forestry can institute and conduct
successfully large administrative duties in forest man-
agement.
In the fourth branch of its work, the publication of
the results of its investigations for the benefit of all,
the Bureau has distributed well on toward 2,000,000
copies of its bulletins, circulars, and reports. I do not
wish to inflict too much statistical information regard-
ing publications upon you. But the distribution of
publications is in large measure a test of the Bureau’s
usefulness, and the demand for them a proof of the
appreciation of its work. .And I want to give you
enough facts to show, both that the publications are
going out and that they are being read and used.
Although the regular editions have been largely
increased in order to meet the demand, no less than
seventy-seven reprints have been required to satisfy it.
A notable example of the scope of this demand is The
Primer of Forestry, of which the first edition of 35,000
362 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
was authorized by congressional action. Two editions
of 10,000 each have since been printed, and since they,
too, proved insufficient, a Farmers’ Bulletin edition
became necessary. Of this, 170,000, in eight editions,
have been printed, making the total issue of the Primer
to the present time 225,000 copies. Another instance
is The Woodman’s Handbook, a compilation of log
scales and rules for forest measurements. The first
edition of 15,000 was not off the press before the
necessity for an additional supply was realized, and
before the demand began to slacken, 25,000 copies, in
three editions, were printed. The circulars giving the
Bureau’s offers of codperation have passed through the
press sixteen times in all, with a total issue of 123,000.
To sum up, the Bureau is not only the direct and
prevailing force behind the forest movement in this
country, but it is furthering the application of those
new and better methods on the ground without which
the broadest, the most enlightened forest policy will
utterly fail. It has, in my judgment, reached its pres-
ent achievement, and it possesses its power of future
achievement, as the direct result not only of an ade-
quate organization and a comprehensive point of view,
but above all because it keeps the practical aspect of
its work constantly before it; because its policy is not
one of arbitrary interference, but to bring about a
relation between the forest and the interests dependent
upon it which develops the highest usefulness and the
highest permanent profit from them both.
One of the most gratifying features of the work of
the Bureau, full of promise for its further usefulness,
is, that in spite of the overwhelming demands upon it
and of the utter impossibility, with the men and the
money at its disposal, to meet all these demands, the
technical standard of its work has grown steadily
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 363
higher. The Bureau has fallen into no rut of routine
in field work. Its methods in the field and in the office
as well are thus showing year by year improvement
which corresponds directly with the added experience
of its men and the added funds at its disposal. The
net result is a constant gain in effectiveness.
I have said very little about the past achievement of
the Bureau because you have that in its bulletins, in its
reports, and you find it in the woods on the ground.
But unless I have entirely failed, the points I hope I
have made clear are these: that the policy of the
Bureau is to help every man in the use of the forest
or of its products; that the Bureau stands ready to
take up with you the solution of the forest problem
confronting you, whatever it may be, and to take it up
not academically, not theoretically, but practically, with
due regard not only for the preservation of the forest
but for the business advantage of the interests depen-
dent upon it. That point of view has alone made the
present achievement of the Bureau possible. It is a
guarantee of still wider usefulness in the future,
because it means that you and the Bureau can begin
the larger work ahead, can face new forest problems
as they come, not singly, as a purely governmental
enterprise on the one side, or by private endeavor on
the other, but together, in active and effective accord
on the same ground.
WORK OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
IN MAPPING THE RESERVES
BY
CHARLES D. WALCOTT
Director of the United States Geological Survey
HAVE been asked many times during the last seven
years how it came about that the Geological
Survey was taking part in matters pertaining to the
Government forest reserves; and I am glad to have
the opportunity to give to this notable Congress some
of the reasons for the activity of the Survey in this
direction, and to record what has been done by it in
surveying and examining the reserves.
Let me first speak very briefly of the influences and
events that led to the Survey’s taking up the work
assigned to it by the Congress of the United States.
Not many years ago one of our leading foresters said
that, apparently, the forest policy of the Government
had been to get rid of the land and that of the people
to get rid of the timber; but within the last decade the
country has awakened to a realization of the vast
importance of its woodlands. Perhaps most influential
in this awakening were the American Forestry Associ-
ation and the Division of Forestry of the Department
of Agriculture, under the leadership of Dr. Bernhard
E. Fernow. From these organizations there came
many reports, essays, and lectures on the subject, and
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 365
these had a strong influence in creating the public
sentiment that at last manifested itself in the passage,
on March 3, 1891, of an act granting authority to the
President to set aside as public reservations public
lands bearing forests, wholly or in part covered with
timber or undergrowth. (Stat. L., vol. 26, p. 1103,
sec. 24.) Under this act seventeen forest reserves
were established prior to September 28, 1893, aggre-
gating in area 17,564,800 acres.
The establishment of these reserves did not excite
any special approval or disapproval of the policy,
except as some local interest was affected favorably
or unfavorably. - In the latter case, little attention was
given the matter by the parties directly concerned, for
there was no real protection of the reserves by patrol,
and the cutting of timber and the destruction by fires
went on as before. But by executive proclamations
of February 22, 1897, based upon recommendations of
the Forestry Commission of the National Academy
of Sciences, there were established thirteen additional
forest reserves, containing an aggregate of 21,379,840
acres. This action was followed by strong opposition
to the policy, especially in the Northwestern States, in
which many of the reserves were situated.
In the letter recommending the establishment of the
forest reserves the Forestry Commission stated, in
effect, that it had purposely recommended very large
reserves in order to create a public sentiment which
would cause Congress to enact laws securing the
proper administration of the reserves. The result of
establishing the reserves more than met the anticipa-
tions of the commission that legislation would follow,
owing to the pressure of the people on their repre-
sentatives in Congress. The first storm of protest
came mainly from South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana,
366 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
and Washington. Early in March, Congress inserted
in the Sundry Civil Bill an amendment revoking the
forest-reserve proclamations of February 22, 1897, and
repealing the authority for setting aside public forested
lands as reserves; but the bill failed, because President
Cleveland did not sign it; and when the new Congress
assembled on March 15, 1897, the agitation against
the reserves was resumed.
My predecessor, Major J. W. Powell, was much
interested in the forests of the country, but did not
take an active part in shaping the policy of the Govern-
ment control or administration of forest lands. I had
kept in touch with the general movement for the
preservation of the forests, and with the commission
of the National Academy of. Sciences, of which Mr.
Gifford Pinchot was secretary; also with the members
of Congress who were especially interested in the com-
mission’s recommendations, and knew the sentiment
these recommendations had developed. After the
attack on the policy of forest reserves in the spring of
1897, I found that the National Academy commission
could not take further action, and that nothing was
being done by the forestry officers of the Government
toward urging constructive legislation and combating
the movement to repeal the law and return the forest
reserves to the open public domain. After consulta-
tion with a number of senators from the Western
States, I drew up, at the suggestion of Senator Petti-
grew, of South Dakota, an amendment providing for
the survey and administration of the forest reserves.
The administrative features of the amendment were
based upon previously proposed but not enacted legis-
lation, and upon the recommendations of the commis-
sion of the National Academy of Sciences, modified to
meet conditions in April, 1897. The preliminary draft
AMERICAN Forest CoNGRESS 367
was then thoroughly examined by and discussed with
Senator Pettigrew.* The amendment met with the ap-
proval of the Secretary of the Interior and of the Presi-
dent, and it was introduced in the Senate in a modified
form by Senator Pettigrew on April 6, 1897, as a pro-
posed amendment to the Sundry Civil Bill and was re-
ferred tothe Committee on Appropriations. On April 8,
1897, Senator Pettigrew offered the amendment as
originally prepared, and it was referred to the Com-
* Hote, Victorta, NEw York City,
January II, 1905.
Cuar_Es D. Watcort, Eso.,
U. S. Geological Survey,
Washington, D. C.
My Dear Sir:
Your letter of January Ist has just reached me, too late, I
suppose, for me to be of use to you in connection with the
Forestry Congress. I think your account of the amendment
to the Sundry Civil Bill with regard to the administration of
the forests of the United States is substantially correct. I
was the author of the legislation of 1891, authorizing the
President to set apart forest reservations out of the public
domain, and therefore always in favor of a policy which should
protect these forests and perpetuate them, so that they would
grow better year by year.
I studied with great care Napoleon’s method for administer-
ing the forests of France; I also investigated the English
policy in India, and the policy pursued by the Austrian Gov-
ernment, and I reviewed and slightly amended the suggestions
which you made to what is now the existing law. I remember
my colleague, Senator Moody, made such modifications and
amendments as it seemed to me were not advisable, and that
you and I together went over the manuscript and struck them
out; that the result of our joint labor was the law as it now
stands, under which the forests are administered.
For my part I should be pleased if all the forest lands, and
all the other lands now owned by the Government of the
United States, were withdrawn from sale and were admin-
istered by the Government, so that the title weuld remain
forever in the Government for the benefit of the people of the
United States. Very truly yours,
(Signed) R. F. PETTIGREW.
368 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
mittee on Forest Reserves and the Protection of Game.
The amendment of April 8 was reported back to the
Senate by the latter committee with favorable recom-
mendation.
When the Sundry Civil Bill was under consideration
in the Senate on May 5, 1897, Mr. Pettigrew offered
the amendment of April 8 as an amendment to an
appropriation for the Geological Survey. (Congres-
sional Record, vol. 30, p. 899.) After discussion in
the Senate, it was accepted on May 6 (Congressional
Record, p. 908-925) and soon after went to the Con-
ference Committee of the Senate and House on the
Sundry Civil Bill, where minor amendments were
made to the provision for the administration of the
forest reserves. On May 27 the Senate agreed to the
conference report (Congressional Record, p. 1278-
1285), and on June 1 the House of Representatives
accepted it. (Congressional Record, p. 1397-1401.)
On June 4 the President approved the Sundry Civil
Bill, and thus completed the legislation providing for
the survey and administration of the forest reserves
of the United States.
The period from March 4, when President Cleveland
killed the scheme to revoke all forest reserve procla-
mations, to June 4, when President McKinley signed
the act containing the forest reserve legislation, was
a strenuous one for those directly interested in the
protection and utilization of the public forests. Con-
ferences were held at the office of the Secretary of the
Interior, Cornelius N. Bliss, and many hours of anxious
suspense followed the formulation of a plan that met
with the approbation of the department and of the
members of Congress from the western states directly
affected by the forest reserve policy. The new law
was not ideal, but it was all that could be obtained
under the conditions then existing.
AMERICAN Forest CONGRESS 369
The administration of the forest reserves was placed
in charge of Commissioner Binger Hermann, of the
General Land Office, and continued in his charge until
1903, when Commissioner Richards succeeded him.
The surveys and examinations of the reserves were,
by the act, placed under the Geological Survey.
The survey of the reserves was begun in 1897 and
has continued to the present time. The results, briefly
stated, are as follows:
Five reserves have been completely mapped—the
Black Hills, South Dakota-Wyoming; Bighorn, Wyo-
ming ; Teton,Wyoming (now a part of the Yellowstone
Reserve); Santa Rita and Prescott, Arizona; and
work has been commenced in twenty-nine other
reserves.
The boundary lines of the Black Hills, Bighorn,
Aquarius, Logan, and Pocatello reserves have been
completely surveyed and marked with iron posts; also
parts of the Lewis and Clarke, Washington, Mount
Ranier, Madison and Payson, and Black Mesa and
Mount Graham reserves have been surveyed, com-
prising 1,328 miles of boundary line. In connection
with this, there have been surveyed 1,976 miles of
standard and subdivision lines of various kinds, for
which notes and plats have been filed in the General
Land Office, as required by law.
Reconnaissance maps have been made of the entire
Lewis and Clarke, Bitter Root, and Priest River re-
serves, comprising an area of over 12,000 square miles.
The total area mapped for publication as regular
atlas sheets, on scales of one or two miles to the inch,
in and adjacent to forest reserves, is 48,963 square
miles (not including 12,072 square miles of reconnais-
sance maps), in connection with which 12,679 miles
of levels were run and 2,983 permanent bench marks
370 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
were established. This area comprises sixty-seven
whole and five partial atlas sheets.
In the act of Congress creating the Geological
Survey the director is charged, among other things,
with the classification of the public lands. The work
done under the forest reserve legislation was therefore
in strict accord with one of the original purposes of
the Survey.
Cruisings by private parties for private purposes
have been made in this country for many years, but
the work here briefly described is the first attempt to
estimate and report upon the forests on a large scale
for the information of the public.
The field force employed in the examination of
forests has varied in different years, and most of the
men have been employed for a part of the year only.
This work being the first attempt to accurately examine
and appraise the forests of this country, it was neces-
sary both to build up an organization and to originate
plans and methods for field work and for presentation
of the results in reports and maps.
The work consists in the classification of lands as
arable, pasture, desert, wooded, and timbered, timber
land being defined as that bearing timber of merchant-
able size and quality, while wooded land bears only
trees of sizes and species suitable for firewood, posts,
poles, etc. The timber land has been roughly cruised
to learn the approximate stand of timber, with the
stand per acre; the species of trees, with the proportion
which each species bears to the total forest, and the
average height, diameter, age, and condition of the
trees. [he lands on which the timber has been cut or
culled have also been defined, and the amount and
character of the undergrowth, with its various species,
and the depth of humus and litter on the forest floor,
have been examined.
AMERICAN FOREST CONGRESS 371
The subject of fires, both ancient and recent, with
their effects upon the present forest, has been carefully
studied, and the accounts of large fires in times past
have been recorded. A study has been made of the
streams as means of transporting lumber, and the lay
of the country has been considered with a view to the
- building of roads and railroads for lumbering pur-
poses. The question of existing and future markets
for the forest products has also been studied. The
effects of grazing, especially the grazing of sheep, upon
the present forests, and their reproduction, have been
carefully investigated. The purpose of these exam-
inations has been to ascertain the economic value of
the lands and the forests.
Reports on the areas examined have been prepared
and published, the earlier ones in volumes of the
annual reports of the Survey and the later ones as
professional papers. These reports are illustrated by
maps showing the classification of the lands and the
stand of timber per acre upon the forested lands. For
this purpose the atlas sheets of the Survey are used, if
completed. The reports are also illustrated by dia-
grams showing the stand of timber per township and
the proportional distribution of the species represented.
The map and the diagram together tell a large part of
the story of the reserve.
During the last eight years there has been examined
a total of about 75,000,000 acres, or 117,000 square
miles. This area includes nearly all the reserves in
the country, besides great extents of land adjoining
them, and other regions which have been withheld
from settlement with the expectation of reserving
them.
Among these regions one was examined jointly with
the Bureau of Forestry of the Department of Agricul-
372 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
ture and the Geological Survey of North Carolina. It
is a region of about 8,000 square miles in the Southern
Appalachian Mountains.