53

21

V.

NEW TREES FOR OLD.

BUT while we have done nothing
in the way of coping with fire
by systematic means, we have
done just as little in the way
of making the best and the most
of our natural timber resources in other
ways. For Forest Conservation, as the
secretary of the Kauri Timber Company
recently reminded the Timber Commis-
sion, means a great deal more than pro-
tecting standing trees. To the expert in
forestry, conservation means tending the
forest, planting new trees to replace the
old ones, cutting out only the trees ready
for immediate use, and generally making
the very best of our natural resources.
And I leave it to anyone and everyone
in the least degree conversant with the
methods of timber cutting gen-
erally pursued in this country to decide
whether they can be termed careful and
economical. So far back as 1870, Sir James
(then Doctor) Hector, addresing a Select
Committee on Colonial Industries, said
that the complete destruction of our
native bush was most wasteful and un-
necessary. "It is not all necessary," said
this eminent scientist, "that the forest
should be completely removed in the way
that it usually is, either for the purpsoes
of agricultural settlement, or the obtain-
ing of timber for mills, firewood, and
gencing. The thinning out of the forest
would be ample in most cases to supply
all our wants." No doubt our system of
deforestation is just as extravagant as it
was forthy years ago in New Zealand; and
so far as the rest of the world is con-
cerned there seems to be a general consen-
sus of opinion that careful and scientific
methods of timber cutting would make a
vast difference to the present position,
and the future prospects of the industry.
Rudolf Cronau, an authority who has had
wide experience of American forests dur-
ing the past thirty years, tells us in an
article on "A Continent Despoiled," in a
recent issue of "McClure's Magazine,"
that the lumbermen waste half of every
tree they cut. "One-fourth of the stand-
ing timber is left or otherwise lost in log-
ging. The loss in the mill is from one-
thrid to two-thirds of the timber sawed.
The loss in the mill product though
seasoning and fitting for use is from one-
seventh to one-fourth. Only 320 feet of
timber are used for each thousand feet
that stood in the forest." This estimate
corresponds closely enough with the
opinion advanced by D. Bristol, of the
United States Forestry Department, who
states that at least fifty per cent, if not
more, of the average tree as it stands in
the forest is wasted befroe reaching the
market in the form of timber. In similar
terms Mr M. G. Seckendorf, writing on
"The Elimination of Waste" in "Mun-
sey's Magazine," has shown that some
seventy-five per cent of America's forest
products is wasted, and that most of
this disastrous loss is due to preventible
fires, careless logging, and wasteful mill
operations.

THE WASTE OF TIMBER.

In view of these facts, it is not sur-
prising to find that in the countries
where some practical attempt is being
made to avert the coming timber famine
careful regulations are laid down for the
cutting out of the State forests. In the
American national forests, for example, it
is stipulated that all trees cut down must
be felled in such a manner as to protect
the young growth as far as possible from
injury, and that wherever necessary the
brush and tops must be piled and
burned. But mrely to cut down the best
trees in the best way to save the
residue from fire is not enough. Mr
Julian Helburn, writing in the "American
Magazine" on deforestation under the