ROCKPORT REDWOOD

Producl of Rockport Red wood Co.

YOU CAil ATWAYS RELY OlI ROCKPORT

Never o question crbout quolity; olwcys fully up to C.R.A. grading. Nothing surpssses Rockport's Certified Dry Redwood Bevel Siding ond Finish. Ssme woy wirh service. Rockporl's mills hove modern equipment built for speed in every operotion from sqwmills to fqst delivery system. *

Rounds Lumber Company is excfusive distribvtor fior Rockporf Redwood ond sofes qgent lor other leading Redwood mlffs. Rounds ofso represents producers of top quolily Douglos Fir, White Fir, ponderoso pine ond Sugor Pfne.

ROUIIDS 1UTIBER COTIPAilY

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The above statement was uttered some 25 years ago by a famous Canadian forester named Arthur Richardson. It has been frequently quoted in recent years by thousands of proponents of eternal forests, produced through human ingenuity and with the help of Providence.

**t<

In this space in our last issue we told the story of how Arkansas has risen almost from the dead in. a forestry way, my intention being the same as that of the rooster in the oldest story in,the world, who rolled a big ostrich egg into the chicken yard, not to criticize or complain, but simply to show the hens what can be done. ***

Says the Good Book: "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." It took the lumber industry a mighty long time to know the truth about forests and forestry but, as the Good Book says, when it finally did start to learn, that learning unlocked the fetters that had held it in bondage for so long, and it began making trees grow where otherwise there would be wilderness. The story we told about Arkansas proves that point convincingly. ***

The writer of this piece pleads guilty to being as shortsighted as the worst with regard to forest perpetuation, in spite of the fact that the truth had been plainly shown to me. In 1918 I visited Henry Hardtner on his great tree farm in Central Louisiana, and he personally showed me the wonders he had performed and was performing in the way of growing forests scientifically. I went away and wrote about it, aqd Mr. Hardtner told me that I was the only man he knew who seemed to understand what it was all about. But even then I doubted, as did Thomas of Bible times

Mind you, even in 1918, Henry Hardtner was doing all of the things in scientific forest replacement that our ablest foresters are doing today, and he had been doing them for many years. He was a great prophet in his own right, yet he died before the industry of which he was seer and sage had recognized his greatness. Some of our most respected

BY JACK DIONNE

and ,famous professional foresters admitted to me some thirty years ago that they doubted that growing comrnercial trees for market was a practical investment. The lumber industry of the South actually laughed at Henry Hardtner, just as those whb would or could not see have laughed at our prophets _"i.ti.

For Henry had unlocked the key to future forests when he thought up the theory and practical philosophy of selective instead of clean cutting, added to careful logging, and the growing and harvesting of a continuous forest; never any second-growth, just a permanent and evergrowing crop of trees. Cut the mature tfees, the defective trees, said Henry, and let the young stuff grow at double its previous rate. So it is that in the South today many are harvesting their forest in cycles, some of the faster growing species and regions taking off a crop of sawlogs every nine or ten "a"r". * * *

And now the once popular song, "Everybody's Doing ft," should be the official song of the timber industry. North, East, South and West, in all the timbered areas of the nation, they are now practicing forest growing along proven and intelligent lines, and nowhere without success. Some species grow faster than others, and some regions grow timber more rapidly, but everyone is growing trees for commercial use. As the Canadian forester remarked: "A forest is immortal; only the ignorance of .man makes it otherrvise." * * +

Long ago Southern lumber folks, criticizing the teaching of Henry Hardtner, were accustomed to saying: "It takes one hundred years to grow a Long Leaf Pine and 75 years to grow a Short Leaf Pine, so why should short-lived man be interested in financing such a crop?" Of course selective cutting and modern methods have taught the truth of that matter, but today practical men do not even flinch at providing for a far distant tree crop. Weyerhaeuser, as a worthy example, has huge 'Western forest areas laid out in tree farms that will be harvested in cycles as long as one hundred years apart. They plan, not just for the present, but for future generations. * >[

What a change in the viewpoint, the perspective, of the lumber and timber industry. In British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California and Arizona; as well as in the Inland Empire, the growing of trees and the perpetuation oI our commercial forests is foremost in industry ambitions and performances, just as it is in Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and the other Southern timbered states. There will always be forests and sawmills in these areas' and in various others as well. Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota are successful tree farming states. In Wisconsin there are modern sawmills that have been running for generations, and have an endless supply of timber. In Minnesota more people are employed today in wood using industries than there were in the days when mighty sawmills cut into virgin tor.tj..

When you stop to consider that in the Redwood industry, where there are trees thousands of years old and where the average tree is as old as Methuselah, they are practicing scientific methods of forest perpetuation, planting, protecting, conserving, to the end that there will always be Redwood for building purposes, you will understand how completely thoughts of the future have found their way into the practical ltrmber business of today. We can truly and proudly say that this*is a forward-looking industry.

Paper is one of our greatest wood products, so a recent report of the Hoover Comrnittee is interesting. The Committee reports that Uncle Sam has 750,000 full time employes in its paper departments, handling 25 billion pieces of paper a year, and costing 4 billions of dollars annually. The Committee thinks something should be done about it. Read those figures over, dear reader, and see what you think'

Bill Henry, Washington writer, says that we don't need more lav,rs with which to watch people; we need more people who don't need watching. Someone else says that we keep turning out bundles of new laws before we have time to break all the oldnones.*

Bob Witt, a thinking friend of mine, writes: "There is convincing proof that our destiny lies in our own hands, and not in the hands of little men in high places each of whom assumes that he is God's right hand man installed by Providence to run the*affairs of other people."

Woodrow Wilson wrote these hard facts that you might take home for careful study and re-reading: "America is now sauntering through her resources and through the mazes of her politics with easy nonchalance; but presently there will come a time when she will be surprised to find herself grown old; a country crowded, strained, perplexed; when she will be obliged to fall back upon her conserva- tism, obliged to pull herself together, adopt a new regimen of life, husband her resources, concentrate her strength, steady her methods, sober her views, restrict her vagaries, and trust her best-not he; a:er1ge-members."

It has been suggested at this income paying time, that they simplify a short form for the average man that reads: "flow much did you rnake? How rnuch did you spend? How much you got left? SEND IT IN." ***

Two small shopkeepers were talking. One said: "I see where Pres. Ike says business gets better all the time. My business is rotten and getting worse." The other one said: "MAYBE HE'S GOT A BETTER LOCATION."

Survey of Do-h-Yourself Morket

The American Magazine has completed a national survey covering all phases of the do-it-yourself market, including extent of participation by families, kinds of jobs undertaken, seasonal factors, equipment, sources of do-it-yourself instruction and plans for do-it-vourself projects during the next twelve months.

The printed report, available to manufacturers and agencies in the do-it-yourself field, found that participation in do-it-yourself jobs rose with incomes up to $10,000, where it then decreased sharply. Average family expenditure was $144 for materials alone, excluding tools and work clothes. Average expenditure ranged from $102 for families with incomes of less than $2,000, to $188 for those in the $7,000-$10,000 bracket, and dropped to $143 for families r,r'ith incomes of $10,000 or more.

Noting that most do-it-yourself projects were family affairs, the report also shows that the most frequent job undertaken was inside paintingengaged in by 46/s of all families. Next followed carpentry, construction and repairs (25/s), o\ttside paintinC QaVd and plumbing repairs (zWd.

Two out of every five jobs are begun in the spring, the survey showed. 35/o ol all families were found to have a home workshop, and' 32/o of them or,vned one or more power tools-the most popular type being portable drills owned by ll/o of all families.