Econornic 4alue of 0ur Forests

By"John'A. Johnson, John A. Johnson Lumber Co., Phoenix, and

Arizona

Lumber & Timber Co., Flagstafi.

Excerpts frcm paper read at the Annud Meeting of the Lumbennen's Club of Arizona recendy held at Douglas, Arizona

'T.he economic value of our forests is incalculable. The us'e of 'wood is so ,closely interwoven with our whole ibheme' .of eiistence that we cannot do without it. We cannot do without the forests that produce it. We must have the industries, whose job it is to take the timber from where it stands in the woods and convert it into its useful forms.

The main problem of the lumberman ha's always been constantly to devise more efficient methods of bringing the logs from the forest to the mill, and t"etter and more economical processes of manufacture. The pioneering courage and engineering skill which achieved success in this endeavor is something of which we can well be nationally proud. It has enabled us to become the foremost lumber using country in the world, with all of the accompanying benefits and advantages..

Logging methods differ with every variation in topogrbphy, climate, and kind and size of timber. With every new region he has entered the lumberman has adapted himself readily to the new conditions, has abandoned old ways no longer practicable, and invented in their place new ones.

Through the whole history of the industry there has been constant progress in the substitution of machinery and mechanical power for the less effective manual labor and horse power. The modern mill of today, and the logging operations behind it, are equipped with the most efficient and powerful machinery that the science and ingenu- ity of man can devise and perfect in this age of quantity prod'uction. There are individual mills that turn out a million feet of finished lumber in twenty-four hours.

Time was when virgin timber was superabundant. The cheapest way to get a ne\M supply for the mill was to move into new territory. Moreover it used to be the common conception that the cutover land would be needed immediately t-y the settler for farms. The lumberman then held that his role was to harvest the virgin forest, and thus help prepare the way for permanent agricultural settlement.

We still have left 130 million acres of saw timber; enough to serve our needs with economy, for a generation or two longer. For the lumber and paper industries to continue indefinitely as leading basic industries and for our country to ,continue to use wood freely, new forests hereafter must be grown as the virgin ones are harvested. Some of the forest industries have already taken up this new problem of reforestation, and to their work aJ harvesters of ttre forest crop have added the work of forest growing. The start that has been made in various sections of the country gives promise that industrial forestry will do its part in perpetuating the timber supply.

The forests annually supply the logs for 37,000,00O,000 board feet of lumber, which-niore tha;15i000 sawmills'are busily engaged in manufacturing-enough for a500,000 h.ouses. Forty-six states produce lumber in varying guantttles.

Of pulpwood, 7,000,000 cords are used by more than 230 pulp and paper plants in the manufacture of our news, book, magazine, writing and wrapping paper, pasteboard boxes, napkins, drinking cups, rayon stockings and a thousand and one other articles to meet our daily needs.

Thousands of wood using plants reqirire-15,000,000,000 feet of wood from which they produci all of the other wooden things which we cannot do without; tennis racquets, golf sticks, baseball bats, and such like for sports; telephone poles, hewn ties, t"arrels, clothes pins, tool handles, furniture, railway cars, auto bodies, boxes, matches, etc., for the more serious affairs of life.

We annually use for fuel 100,000,000 cords of wood.

The forest industries compose our fourth largest industrial group. The lumber industry is the greatest of them. Ninety millions of us occupy lumber built houses. The most modern fireproof skyscraper requires thousands of feet in its construction. To build so woodless a thing as a hydro-electric power dam nearly as much lumber is necessary as concrete.

The forest industries as a whole directly employ more than 1,100,000 active workers. Of these the lumber industry alone keeps @0,000 busy with a payroll of 10 billion dollars. More railroad than there is in all France is built and maintained by the lumber industry in the United States for the sole purpose of bringing the logs from the woods to the mill. Cities are supported in the forest regions by the activities of lumber and other forest industries. The inhabitants make their living from the wealth which the forests produce.

Millions of additional workers are engaged in the secondary wood using industries which remanufacture the lumber from the sawmills into the innumerat-le finished products for the ultimate consumer. Here again new industrial centers are created, all of whose inhabitants derive their support from the wealth of the forests.

Add together the workers in the'forest industribs, in the secondary wood using industries and in the transportation and other services, their wives, children and other dependents, the lawyers, doctors, and merchants who serve them, and the result is: one-tenth of our population gets its living from the forests and the wealth they produce. The products which they turn out are used by our 120,@0,000 of people every day and in every way, and are indispensable.

The magnitude of the problem really cannot be conceived without close s'crutiny of the national system of industrial production and distribution in thousands of lines of activity. Production values totalling ninety billion dollars a year in this country are affected by, and affect, the operations of lumbermen. It is impossible to carry on the work of any agency of human service-from the baby's doll to the soaring aeroplane-without the immediate cooperation of the lumberman. The advertising on which commerce depends, the infinite variety of devices by which the 120,000,000 of our population are supplied with the necessaries of every passing moment, hark back to the ring of the woodman's axe and the whirr of the saw in the lumber mill.

Probably the greatest worry which the lumberman has to contend with is the fire hazard in the timber. At the first sign of smoke, although it may be miles and miles away, from camp or office, he is on edge until the location is discovered and the fire extinguished. These fires take t huge toll in the nation's timber resources each year. Probably the largest number of fiies in history occurred in 1926 when there were 8263,covering a total area of 722,W acres. While this number was the largest in history, quick action by the forestry service prevented the damage from becoming as great as that in other years. In 1919 there were 6800 fires, which destroyed a much larger amount of timber than was destroyed in 1926. Covering a period of ten years, from 1916 to and including 7926, a total of 67,824 fires destroyed a total of 6,64O,24O,000 board feet of timber. Very few of us realize the imtnense damage which is being done every year to the lumber industry by these fires.

While a great many fires are caused by lightning, still by far the greater amount is due to the carelessness and negligence of the tourists, sightseers, picnickers, and campers, while travelling through the forests. Fires caused by lightning are generally preceded and followed by rain, and there is not near the danger of spreading that there is in dry seasons when the fire is caused by throwing away lighted cigarettes and cigar stubs, or not entirely guishing camp fires in the forests.

When John Smith, everyday citizen, goes to build himself a home the chances are ninety-six out of a hundred that he will use wood if he lives in- the country; and fifty- nine out of a hundred if he lives in town or in the city. The average frame house requires 20,833 feet of lumber in its construction, and there are four hundred thousand houses built each year. Even if other material is used for walls, about three-fifths as much lumber is used in a sixroom house as would be used in all frame construction.

Every hour of the day wood performs some service for us. The average business man arises in the morning from a wooden bed, walks over a wooden floor, and sits on a rvooden seat. at a wooden tat*le. He leaves for his office in a car partly built of wood, gripping a wooden steeringwheel, enters his place of business through a wooden door, seats himself in a wooden chair at a wooden desk, picks up a wooden pencil and starts to work. If he shops for the family, he buys his groceries, drygoods, clothing, and hardware over a wooden counter. During the day he is probably engaged in smoking a wooden pipe and after the evening meal he reads the news of the day from the local paper made from wood. On Sunday when he goes to church he sits in a wooden pew, and listens to a sermon delivered from a wooden pulpit; In fact, he is constantly receiving service from somethinp mdde of wood from the cradle to thi grave, for the first'thing done after he enters this world is to place him in a wooden crib and when he passes from this earth he is laid away in a wooden casket. - t

This universal demand has made the lumber industry one of the greatest industries in the United States.