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United States Department of Agriculture,

BUREAU OF FORESTRY—CIRCULAR No. 25.

GIFFORD PINCHOT, Forester.

U. 8. DEPARTMENT oF AGRICULTURE,
BurREAvU OF Forestry,
Washington, D. C., June 11, 1903.
Str: I have the honor to transmit herewith three papers on forestry, which are
especially intended for lumbermen, and to recommend their publication as Circular
No. 25 of the Bureau of Forestry.
Respecttully,
GIFFORD PrncHot, Forester.
Hon. James WILson,
Secretary of Agriculture.

FORESTRY AND THE LUMBER SUPPLY.
INTRODUCTION.

This circular is addressed particularly to lumbermen.

In the three papers printed below the President of the United
States, the secretary of a great lumber company, and the chief of the
Bureau of Forestry show that forestry is necessary for the perpetua-
tion of the lumber industry in this country. The statement is not
new, but never before has it been given such authority, nor has the
urgent need of forestry on lumber tracts been so emphatically set
forth. Three men in positions that compel them to regard such a
question from different view points—the President regarding it as a
National problem, Mr. McCormick from the standpoint of a lumber-
man, Mr. Pinchot from that of a forester—have reached practically
the same conclusion. President Roosevelt declares that forestry is
*‘in many ways the most vital internal problem in the United States,”
and that ‘‘the very existence of lumbering depends upon the success
of our work as a nation in putting practical forestry into effective
operation.” Mr. McCormick calls attention to the critical condition
of the lumber industry, recommends the practice of conservative
lumbering wherever it pays, and calls the working plans for timber
tracts prepared by the Bureau of Foresty ‘‘the best business policy

3

+

for their management, based on a thorough expert examination.”
Mr. Pinchot shows just why forestry is a good business measure for
the lumberman, and explains the various ways in which the Bureau
of Forestry is serving the lumber interests of the country.

FORESTRY AND FORESTERS. 4

By THEopore Rooskvetr.

I have felt that the meeting this evening was of such a character as
not merely to warrant but to require that I should break through my
custom of not going out to make speeches of this sort, for I believe
that there is no body of men who have it in their power to-day to do
a greater service to the country than those engaged in the scientific
study of, and practical application of, approved methods of forestry
for the preservation of the woods of the United States. Iam glad to
see here this evening not only the officials, including the head of the
Department of Agriculture, but such men as Governor Richards, who
are most concerned in carrying out the policy of the Department of
the Interior, because the forest policy of any country must be an
essential part of its land policy. ;

And now, first and foremost, you can never afford to forget for one
moment what is the object of our forest policy. That object is not to
preserve the forests because they are beautiful, though that is good
in itself, nor because they are refuges for the wild creatures of the
wilderness, though that, too, is good in itself; but the primary object
of our forest policy, as of the land policy of the United States, is the
making of prosperous homes. It is part of the traditional policy of
home making of our country. Every other consideration comes as
secondary. The whole effort of the Government in deaiing with the
forests must be directed to this end, keeping in view the fact that it is

not only necessary to start the homes as prosperous, but to keep them

so. That is why the forests have got to be kept. You can starta
prosperous home by destroying the forests, but you can not keep it
prosperous that way.

And you are going to be able to make that policy permanently the
policy of the country only in so far as you are able to make the people
at large, and, above all, the people concretely interested in the results
in the different localities, appreciative of what it means. Impress
upon them the full recognition of the value of its policy, and make
them earnest and zealous adherents of it. Keep in mind the fact that
in a government such as ours it is out of the question to impose a
policy like this from without. The policy, as a permanent policy, can
come only from the intelligent conviction of the people themselves
that it is wise and useful; nay, indispensable. We shall decide, in the

« Address delivered March 26, 1903, before The Society of American Foresters, a
professional body, of which President Roosevelt is an associate member.

5

long run, whether or not we are to preserve or destroy the forests of
the Rocky Mountains accordingly as we are or are not able to make
the people of the mountain States hearty believers in the policy of
forest preservation.

That is the only way in which this policy can be made a permanent
success. You must convince the people of the truth—and it is the
truth—that the success of home makers depends in the long run upon
the wisdom with which the nation takes care of its forests. That
‘seems a strong statement, but it is none too strong.

You yourselves have got to keep this practical object before your
mind; to remember that a forest which contributes nothing to the
wealth, progress, or safety of the country is of no interest to the Goy-
ernment and should be of little interest to the forester. Your atten-
tion, must be directed to the preservation of the forests, not as an end
in itcelf, but as a means of preserving and increasing, -he prosperity
of the nation.

‘*Forestry is the preservation of forests by wise use,” to quote a
phrase I used in my first message to Congress... Keep before your
minds that definition. Forestry does not mean abbreviating that use;
it means making the forest useful not only to the settler, the rancher,
the miner, the man who lives in the neighborhood, but, indirectly, to
the man who may live hundreds of miles off down the course of some
great river which has had its rise among the forest-bearing mountains.

The forest problem is in many ways the most vital internal problem
in the United States. The more closely this statement is examined
the more evident its truth becomes. In the arid region of the West
agriculture depends first of all upon the available water supply. In
such a region forest protection alone can maintain the stream flow
necessary for irrigation, and can prevent the great and destructive
floods so ruinous to communities farther down the same streams that
head in the arid regions.

The relation between the forests and the whole mineral industry is

an extremely intimate one; for, as every man who has had experience

in the West knows, mines can not be developed without timber—
usually not without timber close at hand. In many regions through-
out the arid country ore is more abundant than wood, and this means
that if the ore is of low grade, the transportation of timber from any
distance being out of the question, the use of the mine is limited by
the amount of timber available.

The very existence of lumbering, of course—and lumbering is the
fourth great industry of the United States—depends upon the success
of our work as a nation in putting practical forestry into effective
operation.

As it is with mining and lumbering, so it is in only a less degree
with transportation, manufactures, commerce in general. The relation

6

of all of these industries to forestry is of the most intimate and
dependent kind. It is a matter for congratulation that so many of
these great industries are now waking up to this fact; the railroads
especially, managed as they are by men who are compelled to look
ahead, who are obliged by the very nature of their profession to
possess a keen insight into the future, have awakened to a clearer
realization of the vast importance of the economic use both of timber
and of forests.

Even the grazing industry, as it is carried on in the great West,
which might at first sight appear to have little relation to forestry,
is nevertheless closely related to it, because great areas of winter
range, available and good for winter grazing, would be absolutely
useless vithout the summer range in the mountains where the forest
reserves lie.

As all of you know, the forest resources of our country are already
seriously depleted. They can be renewed and maintained only by the
cooperation of the forester with the practical man of business in all
his types, but above all, with the lumberman. And the most striking
and encouraging fact in the forest situation is that lumbermen are
realizing that practical lumbering and practical forestry are allies, not
enemies, and that the future of each depends upon the other. The
resolutions passed at the last meeting of the representatives of the
lumber interests, which occurred here in Washington, were a strik-
ing proof of this fact and a most encouraging feature of the present
situation. So long as we could not make the men concerned in the
great lumber industry realize that the foresters were endeavoring to
work in their interest, and not against them, the headway that could
be made was but small. We shall be able to work effectively and
bring about important results of a permanent character largely in
proportion as we are able to convince those men, the men at the head
of that great business, of the practical wisdom of what the foresters
of the United States are seeking to accomplish.

In the last analysis, the attitude of the lumbermen toward your
work will be the chief factor in the success or failure of that work.
In other words, gentlemen, I can not too often say to you, as, indeed,
it can not be too often said to any body of men of high ideals and
good scientific training who are endeavoring to accomplish work of
worth for the country, that you must keep your ideals high and yet
must seek to realize them in practical ways.

The United States is exhausting its forest supplies far more rapidly
than they are being produced. The situation is grave, and there is
only oneremedy. That remedy is the introduction of practical forestry
on a large scale, and of course that is impossible without trained men,
men trained in the closet, and also by actual field work under practical
conditions.

f

You have created a new profession of the highest importance, of
the highest usefulness to the State, and you are in honor bound to
yourselves and the people to make that profession stand as high as any
other profession, however intimately connected with our highest and
finest development as a nation. You are engaged in pioneer work in
a calling whose opportunities for public service are very great. Treat
that calling seriously; remember how much it means to the country
asa whole. The profession you have adopted is one which touches
the Republic on almost every side—political, social, industrial, com-
mercial; to rise to its level you will need a wide acquaintance with the
general life of the nation, and a view point both broad and high.

Any profession which makes you deal with your fellow-men at large
makes it necessary that if you are to succeed you should understand
what those fellow-men are, and not merely what they are thought to
be by people who live in the closet or the parlor. You have got to
know who the men are with whom you are to work, how they feel,
how far you can go, when you have to stop, when it is both safe and
necessary to push on. ~

I believe that the foresters of the United States will create a more
effective system of forestry than we have yet seen. If not, gentlemen,
if you do not, I shall feel that you have fallen behind your brethren in
other callings, and I do not believe that you will fall behind them.
Nowhere else is the development of a country more closely bound up
with the creation and execution of a judicious forest policy. This is,
of course, especially true of the West, but it is true of the East also.
Fortunately, in the West we have been able, relatively to the growth
of the country, to begin at an earlier day, so that we have been able
to establish great forest reserves in the Rocky Mountains instead of
having te wait and attempt to get Congress to pay large sums for their
creation, as we are now endeavoring to do in the Southern Appalachians.

In the administration of the national forest reserves, in the intro-
duction of conservative lumbering on the timber tract of the lumber-
man and the wood lot of the farmer, in the practical solution of forest
oroblems which affect well nigh every industry and every activity of
the nation, the members of this society have an unexampled field
before them. You have a heavy responsibility—every man that does
serious work, work worth doing, has on him a heavy responsibility—
for upon the development of your work the development of forestry
in the United States and the production of the industries which depend
upon it will largely rest. You have made a good beginning, and I
congratulate you upon it. Not only is a sound national forest policy
coming rapidly into being, but the lumbermen of the country are
proving their interest in forestry by practicing it.

Twenty years ago a meeting such as this to-night would have been
impossible, and the desires we here express would have been treated

8

as haying no possible relation to practical life. I think that since the
present Secretary of Agriculture first came into Congress here there
has been a complete revolution in the attitude of the public mind toward
this question. We have reached a point where American foresters
trained in American forest schools are attacking American forest prob-
lems with success. That is the way to meet the larger work you have
before you. You must instill your own ideals into the mass of your
fellow-men and at the same time show your ability to work with them
in practical and business fashion. This is the condition precedent to
your being of use to the body politie. 7 |

THE EXHAUSTION OF THE LUMBER SUPPLY.

By R. L. McCormick.

President of the Mississippi Valley Lumbermen’s Association, and Secretary of the Weyer-
haeuser Timber Company.

Every man in the lumber business to-day whose dealings are of

sufficient extent to be subject to influences beyond those of purely

local demand and supply realizes that the lumber industry is in many
regions confronted by a growing scarcity of available timber. Statis-
tics point to it. Estimates of timber resources still remaining point
toit also. But the strongest proof hes in the conditions which already
affect our industry.

It is just cause for congratulation that so far as the actual harvesting
of timber and its manufacture into lumber is concerned, American
lumbermen are far ahead of those of any other country in enterprise,
ingenuity, and skill in methods and machinery. But in spite of the
money saved in lumbering by better methods, we are obliged to charge
more and more for our lumber in order to manufacture it at a profit.
In every operation in the woods and in the mill rigid economy is
necessary now instead of the loose and lavish methods under which it
was possible formerly to make lumbering a profitable business. We
have gone so far already that it is probable we can not materially
lower the cost of our product in the future. Labor-saving devices
can never in themselves prove an adequate remedy.* The trouble lies,
not in the cost of manufacture, but in the dwindling supplies of the
timber itself.

It is not necessary to turn to statistics for proof that the supply of
certain kinds of valuable timber trees of the United States is rapidly
failing, of others is practically gone, and of still others has entirely
vanished as a factor in the lumber market. For example, ten years
ago the use of balsam in the manufacture of paper pulp was practically
unknown. The eastern hemlock is now valuable for its timber as well

0

as for its bark. A more modern instance is the gradual rise in impor-
tance of the western hemlock, until very recently altogether discredited
as a timber tree, although, in fact, of great commercial power. The
red fir of the Northwest and the southern pines are rapidly invading
markets formerly controlled altogether by the white pine of the North
Central States, while species of peculiar value, such as black walnut
and black cherry, have practically vanished from the market in the
grades which once were common. The southern pines are being
destroyed with a rapidity which finds its parallel only in the case of
northern white pine. It is true that the list of commercial timbers
lengthens from year to year. Just as the balsam is taking the place
of the spruce, so are substitutes coming in for other woods which no
longer exist in sufficient quantity to supply the demand. But neither
ean this prove a sufficient remedy. The supply of the substitutes will
be exhausted in its turn, and the final situation will be worse than that
which confronts us now. It is no longer a question of methods of
manufacture, or of substitutes for exhausted supplies. The time for
us to look after the trees themselves has in many cases already arrived.

Statistics of the merchantable timber still standing in this country
are difficult to make because the forest area is vast, and for large por-
tions of it we are without accurate knowledge. But in Mr. Henry
Gannett’s report upon lumber, in the Twelfth Census of the United
States, he has made good use of the data at hand, and he presents
facts which are significant, based upon information sufficient to sus-
tain them. I wish to call your attention to a few of these.

There is probably no forest in the world so immense, so accessible,
so easy to lumber, and so regular in the high quality of its timber as
was the great pinery which occupied the region of the Great Lakes
and of the Upper Mississippi. The forests of Michigan, Wisconsin,
and Minnesota originally contained a stand of about 350,000,000,000
feet. Of this Michigan had about 150,000,000,000; Wisconsin,
130,000,000,000; and Minnesota about 70,000,000,000 feet. Luumber-
ing began in Michigan and Wisconsin during the thirties, and was of
small importance until the early seventies. Since then the great

pinery has been cut over in a way unprecedented in lumbering. In

1873 the cut was about 4,000,000,000 feet. It reached high-water
mark in 1892, when it was over 8,500,000,000 feet. Since then it has
steadily fallen, and in 1902 it was a little over 5,000,000,000. To the
enormous total of about 188,000,000,000 feet cut in the last thirty
years there must be added about 28,000,000,000 feet, or 15 per cent,
for laths, shingles, and minor produce, making a total of 216,000,000,000
feet. Fifty billion feet were probably cut prior to 1873, which would
bring the total product of the Lake States to about 265,000,000,000
feet. As the estimate of the original stand amounted to about 350,000,-
000,000 feet, it would seem that after the cut of 1902, exclusive of

10

second growth, there were 85,000,000,000 feet standing. There are,
however, by careful estimate, not more than 35,000,000,000 feet of
merchantable timber, which also includes undoubtedly a considerable
amount of second growth. Of the vast discrepancy only a part can
be. put down to error, since we know enough of the fire history of
these States to ascribe the loss*of 60,000,000,000 feet to fire. These
figures show that it is a safe and conservative statement that the end
of the white pine is near, and that ten years will see it disappear as
an important factor in the lumber trade.

The present stand of yellow pine in the Southern States has been
stated by Mr. R. A. Lone, in a paper read before the annual meeting
of the Southern Lumber Manufacturers’ Association, to be about
137,000,000,000 feet. About 163,000,000,000 feet have probably been
lumbered already. For the census year of 1900 the total cut of yellow
pine was given as nearly 10,000,000,000 feet. These figures show
that at the present rate of consumption the present stand of longleaf
vellow pine will be exhausted routs before a second crop can be pro-
duced to take its place.

It is not necessary to multiply instances. It would merely be to
provide you with facts of which you have a keen realization already.
The lumber industry ranks fourth among the great industries of the

United States. It has, in my judgment, done more to develop this —

country than any other private enterprise except the railroads, and
the rapid growth of the latter would in many cases have been impos-
sible without the parallel development of lumbering. But in lumber-
ing, as in ali other great private industries, the necessity for care is
not seen until the harm has been done and until the results of it are
bitterly felt. We have reached the point now. when we are often
unable to supply the enormous demand for lumber which we have
fostered. We must look to the production of a second crop upon
lumbered lands or prepare to stop lumbering when the first crop is
gone. In the old days it was easy to lumber one forest and then turn
to another. To-day, however, we can not count upon new fields to
turn to. We must make the best of what we have, and wherever it
pays we must lumber conservatively.

Practical forestry means conservative lumbering. The question
whether conservative lumbering pays depends upon whether the value
of the second crop upon lumbered lands is sufficient to make it a profit-
able enterprise to foster and protect it, and in many cases the time has
already come when practical forestry is a good business investment
for lumbermen. We have received a good deal of abuse for what has
been called our vand: abuse which was unreasonable and which
was not accompanied by pertinent suggestions for reform; but now
the Bureau of Forestry of the United States Department of Agricul-
ture puts the question of conservative lumbering in a way which makes

i

it worthy the attention of lumbermen. It is the attitude of this
Bureau that forestry and lumbering are allies, not enemies, and that
the interests of one depend directly upon those of the other. The
Bureau does not claim that forestry is the panacea for every lumber-
man’s troubles, nor that it is now applicable to every timber tract in
this country. It simply holds itself in readiness to assist lumbermen
in applying practical forestry to their holdings in those cases in which
it is evident that conservative lumbering will pay. The Bureau of
Forestry does not deal with forest problems merely in a general way.
It gives each timber tract upon which its assistance is requested a care-
ful study on the ground, and it draws up its final plan for manage-
ment with due regard to the purpose and point of view of the
lumberman. In other words, its work is eminently practical and
businesslike, not purely scientific and theoretical.

The advice given by the Bureau of Forestry in its workine plans
for the handling of timber tracts is, in a word, the best business
policy for their management based on a thorough expert examination.
In my judgment, the opportunity is worthy of your close attention,
and I commend it to you.

THE LUMBERMAN AND THE FORESTER. 4

By Girrorp PixcHor,

Forester, U. S. Department of Agriculture.

It is only a few days since President Roosevelt, speaking to The
Society of American Foresters, a body of professional foresters, said
that in the final analysis the success of forestry must depend upon the
attitude of the lumbermen toward it. That view is accepted and
believed by no one more completely than by the foresters, and it is,
first of all, for that reason that Iam glad of this opportunity to say a
word to you. I realize that the great majority of the timber lands of
the United States will pass through your hands first or last, and that
upon your attitude toward them will depend the final result not only
to you in your business but to the nation at large in the perpetuation
of its forests.

One of the recent tendencies in the lumber business has been to
reduce waste in every possible direction. You have taken this up first
of all in the mill; it has gone from the mill to the woods and the
methods of logging, and in many parts of the country has already
begun to affect methods of cutting. This tendency to avoid waste, to
make better use of natural resources, is not confined to the lumber
trade by any means. It is characteristic now of all the industries

@ Address delivered before convention of National Lumber Manufacturers’ Associa-
tion, Washington, D. C., April 20, 1903.

12

of the United States. and is the logical outcome of the economic
situation, Just as, in my belief, the interest of the lumbermen in
forestry must necessarily be the logical outcome of the economic
conditions under which the lumber business is placed. You have
naturally and logically moved forward step by step in this progress of
eliminating waste, making more out of the material with which you
have to work. It is perfectly logical and natural, therefore, that the
next step for you to consider is the use of your standing timber, not
merely for itself alone but also in relation to the value of the land to
you later on. That is the whole essence of forestry. As President
Roosevelt has phrased it, ‘‘ The principal idea in forestry is the pres-
ervation of forests by wise use,” and the conception upon which the
whole matter is based is simply the question of whether or not you
intend to get a second crop. z

The old idea that the forester was the enemy of the lumberman, and,
above all, the enemy of cutting timber, disappeared long ago from the
minds of foresters, or rather friends of forestry—tfor no true forester
ever held it—and is rapidly disappearing from your minds and those
of other lumbermen. And that is perhaps the happiest aspect of the
whole situation, for the perpetuation alike of your industry and of
forestry depends upon your attitude toward this single question: Do
you or do you not intend to get a second crop?

I am very far from wanting to discuss with you the supplies of
standing timber or the prospect of a timber famine—questions with
which you are more familiar than I am; but it is perfectly obvious
that the supplies of certain kinds of timber are rapidly disappearing,
that the lumber trade is falling back year by year on poorer material
and longer hauls, and that the question of its continuance is already
demanding an answer.

This is purely a business proposition which I want to lay before you,
to be considered, accepted, or rejected on a business basis. Forestry
deals with the forest in some ways with which you have but an indirect
interest. I am not talking now about the effect of forests on the flow
of streams, on winds, or on the general prosperity—matters of vital
importance in their place; but the question I want to bring to you is
simply this: Is it worth your while, from a commercial point of view,
to consider the forest as a part of your plant, and from that point of
view should you cut off your timber and let the land go back for
taxes /

Let us take an illustration. Suppose any one of you has a tract of
timber land in Arkansas, for example—for we have some good figures
for that State. You find that under certain conditions, which make
practically no difference in the cost of getting out your logs—and it Is
the business of the Bureau of Forestry to ascertain what those condi-
tions are—you can get a second crop of the same amount off that land

13

in forty years. It will be a man’s tendency, as it was mine when I
began this work, to think of forty years as a very long time, a period
beyond ordinary calculation, hardly worth while to figure on. Never-
theless, if I interpret the economic tendency of the country at all
rightly, men look farther ahead now than they once did, and it is very
well worth their while to do so. We will say that in forty years you
can get a second crop on that land equal to the first. We take the
stumpage at its present value, with taxes as they now stand, and we
estimate the expense of protection against fire and theft. We find in
this particular case that the returns on the capital invested for those
forty years is 6 per cent net. That is calculated on the basis of the
present value of stumpage. We all know that the value of stumpage
will increase largely in forty years. The matter becomes, then, simply
a question of whether or not it is worth your while to take the inci-
dental risks and hold your land for forty years rather than to put your
money into something else. But it is not a question of whether you
will put the money back into your land after taking the timber off of
it, but whether you will take the timber off in such a way that when
you have cut over the land it will be in condition to go on producing
timber without further expense. Either the timber land is part of the
manufacturing plant, or it is not, and that is the whole difference.

If you are the owner of a mill, as of course you all are, you must
necessarily consider, if you want to keep that mill in permanent oper-
ation, how much land you need to grow timber to supply you with
your daily cut. Then you have a complete plant which is like a
machine shop, turning out material for its own needs. From the
point of view of the forester, wnere a business question is as clear cut
as that, it becomes as foolish to destroy the productive capacity of
your land as it would be for the owner of a machine shop, when he had
an order for a shaft or a cog wheel, to take that shaft or cog wheel out
of his own machinery and sell it rather than make his machines pro-
duce it. As I have said, and repeat, this is purely a business question.

The Bureau of Forestry offers certain assistance to lumbermen in
preparing the basis upon which such questions can be most intelli-
gently decided. What it does is simply to put a certain amount of
trained skill at your command. You pay the expense and we prepare
for you the necessary figures. The way we do it is to send a man to
the spot who finds out what there is on the ground, with special
reference to the smaller sizes—-how fast each diameter class of trees
grows, how much will be left of certain sizes after cutting out others,
and how much will be standing to the acre after a definite number of
years. We put the thing purely and entirely on a business basis.

These methods of forestry are not at present as fully applicable
everywhere in the United States as they will be later on, and it is as
far from me as possible to want to urge any man to adopt the methods

14

of forestry unless they are going to pay. The arrangement we make
with timber owners is never that they shall be compelled to apply the
plans we submit, but always that they shall apply them or not as they
find it wisest to do. J would be exceedingly sorry if any man should
take up a proposition in forestry and apply it if he was not confident
it would turn out well, because this is not a question of a few days or
merely for present conditions.

What I have been describing to you is, of course, only ene of the
ways in which the Bureau of Forestry is attempting to serve the lum-
ber interests of the United States. Another is a very extensive series
of timber tests which we are just taking up to learn the comparative
merits of different timbers for different purposes; and there are many
others, some dealing directly with the lumber interests and some indi-
rectly. But the essence of what I have to say to you to-day is simply
that this matter of practical forestry is presented to you as a business
proposition, to be accepted or rejected as a business proposition, and
that my interest in it and the object of my presence here is simply to
ask you whether it is worth your while to consider your forests as a
part of your plant or whether it is better worth your while to abandon
them after they have been cut.

I shall be very glad, indeed, if I can answer any questions which
may come up now or later on, and I shall be especially glad if I or any
other member of the Bureau of Forestry can be of use to you, indi-
vidually or collectively, in any possible direction. There has been too
long a feeling that the foresters were trying to force the lumbermen
to do something or other against the lumbermen’s will. I think it is
time for the lumbermen to give the Bureau of Forestry a chance to
do some things which they would like to have it do.

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