Timber trade

“ We propose to speak of some of the advantages (p. 189) which we possess in the northern half of our lower peninsula, as yet almost uninhabited and unknown.
"'No other State can boast of such valuable forests of such perfect timber. Already our lumber trade exceeds in value and importance that in any other staple products, not excepting wheat, while if it were to increase in the ratio of the past five years, in five years more it would exceed all the other staples united, excepting only copper. But such a rate of increase would exhaust the pine timber to a great extent within ten years' time. ”

“ About five-sixths of the country is forest land, nearly all the property of the government. These 78,000 square miles of timber are largely inaccessible on account of the numerous waterfalls and rapids of the rivers; a railway line to the remote interior is of the utmost importance. The timber and lumber trade is slight, though the greenheart, a wood of great strength, weighing 75 pounds the cubic foot, is sought for its use in the construction of docks, heavy flooring, etc. ”

“ The local requirements for timber being large, the industry does not depend so much upon the export trade for development. Very little totara is found here, but the supply of red and white pine is more abundant. The oldest established firm of timber merchants in the Buller district is that of Messrs Marris Brothers, who have been on the West Coast for about 17 years. ”

“ If we can regulate cutting and replenish our forests as they deserve, there is a remarkable opportunity for us to build up a large and permanent export trade.
YOUNG WHITE PINE SEEDED FROM ADJOINING PINE TREES
The Central and South American countries now have to depend on Canada, the United States and Sweden for most of their softwoods. Unless they develop home forests by the practice of modern forestry, they will always be dependent on imported timber of this type. ”

“ Nevertheless, especially in well-timbered regions, cutting is apt to be with but two considerations—the quickest clearing of land or the easiest immediate fulfillment of some need for tree products—and the passage of a few years brings realization that this early thoughtlessness must be paid for at a high price.
In the first place almost all timber of a commercial species has real and increasing value. If it is young, this value is increasing doubly because of growth. ”

“ The only timber-exporting countries of Europe are Russia, Sweden, Norway, Austria-Hungary and Rumania; all the others either have only enough for their own consumption, or import timber. Great Britain and Ireland import now upwards of 10,000,000 tons a year, Germany about 4,600,000 tons, and Belgium about 1,300,000 tons. Holland, France, Portugal, Spain and Italy are all importing countries, as also are Asia Minor, Egypt and Algeria. The west coast of Africa exports hardwoods, and imports coniferous timber. The Cape and Natal import considerable quantities of pine and fir wood. ”

“ Our thinnings and their income are like the first few apples or cherries, just enough to stall off some of the interest accumulations. The fruit grower realizes on the increasing bearing area of the trees; we realize on the quality growth of these pines and the climbing lumber values.
"Foraker's Folly is at the turning point. The value of the standing timber is commencing to overtake the interest which has been compounding away all these years, but neither the timber nor the investment is quite ripe. ”

“ No individual lives long enough to reap more 262 than one forest crop. Only corporations and States can be expected to have an interest long enough continued to justify the methods of conservative lumbering.
As a matter of fact, nearly one-half of the privately owned timber of the United States is held by 195 great holders, the principal ones being the Southern Pacific Company, the Weyerhauser Timber Company, and the Northern Pacific Railway Company, which together own nearly 11 per cent. ”

“ But even though old country dealers should make light of our products, that is no reason why we should undervalue them ourselves.
Not merely is our larger timber improvidently wasted, but the smaller kinds, such as blue beech, ironwood or hornbeam, buttonwood or plane tree, and red and white cedar, are swept away without a thought of their great marketable value in the Old World. ”

“ Next, it aims to utilize the ripe timber which can be marketed and to cut it in such a way as to insure the restocking of the land with young timber and the continuance of forest production. The price at which timber is sold represents, as required by statute, the appraised market value and a proper return to the public which owns it. ”

“ It pays to advertise in the newspapers and secure as many competitive bids as possible for the timber on the stump. Generally, unless the prices offered for such timber are unusually high, the farmer will get greater returns by logging and sawing the timber and selling it in the form of lumber and other wood products. ”

“ As a timber producing state becomes a timber importing state, (a condition existing in most of the eastern and middle states) we begin to pay a heavy toll in the loss of home industries dependent upon wood, and also in heavy freight charges on lumber that we must import from distant points to supply our needs. ”

“ If your trade is with the Celestial Empire, then some small counting house on the coast, in some Salem harbor, will be fixture enough. You will export such articles as the country affords, purely native products, much ice and pine timber and a little granite, always in native bottoms. These will be good ventures. To oversee all the details yourself in person; to be at once pilot and captain, and owner and underwriter; to buy and sell and keep the accounts; to read every letter received, and write or read every letter sent; to superintend the discharge of imports night and day; ”

“ The first effect of National forests upon prices, particularly where there is still a great deal of available timber, is to raise the price of stumpage toward its intrinsic value by withdrawing the excess supply of low-priced timber from the market. On the other hand, as the supply of timber dwindles and values are forced upward by holding for speculation, the effect of the forests will be to check advance in prices and make them lower. ”

“ In the southern and Pacific states, on the other hand, there has been a steady increase in production. These facts show that in the two geographical divisions nearest to the great centers of population, the available supply of timber is rapidly nearing exhaustion. The southern and the Pacific states, therefore, already yielding nearly forty per cent, of the total lumber product, will soon become the chief sources of supply. ”

“ But the demand for building material, fire-wood, and charcoal is so great that rapid inroads are being made upon the supply of timber. Unless a more thorough system of forestry is adopted the supply will some day be exhausted. ”

“ Many owners would prefer to have their milling business continue indefinitely. If such have or can purchase virgin timber to carry them 50 years or more they may do well to grow a log supply to come into use at that time, even if they would not do so merely as a stumpage investment. ”

“ The forests of Great Britain and Ireland, in spite of the large imports of timber, have not been appreciably extended up to the present time because (1) the rate at which foreign timber has been laid down in Britain is very low, thus keeping down the price of home-grown timber; (2) foreign timber is preferred to home-grown material, because it is in many cases of superior quality, while the latter comes into the market in an irregular and intermittent manner; (3) nearly the whole of the waste lands is private property. ”

“ The usual policy of disposing of Federal and State timber for practically nothing has acted powerfully, particularly in the West, to keep the selling price of stumpage far below its legitimate value. It is not surprising that it has always been impossible for the bulk of the owners of timber to have a broad view of the lumber industry and close acquaintance with the lumber market, for most of the cost of producing lumber lies in logging and manufacture, and the margin of profit has varied widely. ”

“ The quantity of measurable wood of the various timber trees which a certain extent of adapted ground will carry, when come to full maturity, or when they may be most profitably felled, and the quantity that may be thinned out during the maturing, with the time requisite to bring to value, with the relative selling price per foot, and also whether the greatest quantity of timber can be grown of one kind or mixed, are questions of more importance than might be judged, from the attention paid to the subject. ”

“ It can be shown that even with present prices the growing of timber can be made to pay, provided it is carried on in a rational and economic manner. Improved silvicultural methods must be applied, so as to produce a better class of timber, and the forests must be managed according to well-arranged working plans, which provide for a regular and sustained out-turn of timber year by year, so as to develop a healthy and steady market for locally-grown material. ”

“ Thus one source of profit, and that a very great one to the farming settler, has been destroyed, and the enterprising timber-merchant has established at convenient distances several saw-mills, where his lumber is converted into plank and boards for the lower markets, and where he is at all times ready to saw whatever timber the farmer has left into boards and planks for him, receiving so many feet of timber, and giving so many feet of lumber, as sawed timber is called, taking care of himself, of course, in the exchange. ”

“ Besides the plain, straight-grained timber which we heedlessly burn up to get it out of the way, there are our ornamental woods—our beautiful curled and bird's eye maple, our waved ash, our serviceable butternut or yellow walnut, our comely cherry, and even our exquisite black walnut, all doomed to the same perdition. Little of this waste would occur if once the owners of land knew that a market could be got for their timber. Cheese and butter factories for export, have already spread over the land—why not furniture factories also? ”

“ From the forester's standpoint, mature timber should be cut in order to give the small trees more light and a chance to grow and to make way for reproduction. From the standpoint of National economy, the mature timber on the forests should be utilized as needed for the development of the West, provided the local supply is not reduced below the point of safety. ”

“ Therefore, the price of lumber will be governed, as the price of every staple commodity is governed, by a cost of production including reasonable profit by those engaged in the several stages of the process. That it will include the growing of new timber on a sound, profitable basis is proved by the history of other countries which have undergone the same regulation. ”

“ Ever since the days of Tradescant and John Evelyn, British planters have excelled in arboriculture—the skilful rearing and tending of choice trees and their disposal singly or in groves for the decoration of parks and pleasure-grounds. Now, however, that the world's consumption of timber has overtaken, and bids fair soon to overtax, the supply, attention is being directed to the extent of forest capabilities in the United Kingdom. ”

“ South Africa and Egypt are both heavy importers of lumber. Africa has large tropical forests but the timber is hard to get at and move. China produces but little lumber and needs much. She is developing into a heavy importing country. Japan grows only about enough timber to supply her home needs. Australia imports softwoods from the United States and Canada. New Zealand is in the market for Douglas fir and hardwoods.
In the past, our export lumber business has been second only to that of Russia in total amount. ”

“ Are there not desolate countries enough in which to grow trees for the mere purposes of timber? Are there not soils and situations even in England, where none but timber-trees can grow? And is not the timber of many fruit-trees as useful as the timber of many of the lumber-trees which now encumber our soil? It is true, that, when wood constituted the fuel of the country, the growth of lumber-tree was essential to the comforts of the inhabitants ”

“ Although the prices of lumber may seem high to the consumer it is still true that in some sections the competition among the manufacturers is keeping the prices down to a point where it is hard to market low grades and to utilize in full any but the best trees in the forest. As long as the value of timber is below what it would cost to produce it by growth, the general public will not realize that our supplies are being depleted. ”

“ Your father is very particular about his lumbering, and he doesn’t do as many of the other timber owners do, sweep clean through a tract of land, and make it worthless as timber land for years to come. His having certain trees marked for cutting means that every year there will be a growth suitable to cut and market and thus he is assured of a steady income from his tracts.”
“Perhaps if you are not too busy every day, you could show us something of the lumbering operations. Although as you say, I come from a ‘lumber family,’ I don’t know a great deal about timber cutting. ”

“ It has been estimated by good authority that, if we go on at the present rate, the supply of timber in the United States will, in less than twenty years, fall considerably short of our home necessities. ”

“ Timber so floated down the Big Sandy River made at its mouth the largest round timber market in the world and brought untold fortunes to capitalists who ruthlessly cut down the virgin forests along its banks. ”