Range Contests and Livestock Estimates

American, estimates the numbers of livestock now feeding in the arid land states,and ranging chiefly on tfie public lands, as follows: Cattle, 14,000,0(10; sheep, 24,0<Xi,OOO; horses, 2,(100,00(1, mules, 50,000. Under our existing land system, the contest for range privileges to which no man hns an e.xclusive right leads to rivalry and strife which not infrequentlj' culminate in lawlessness and bloodslied. Give leases to applicants on nominal terms, or sell, under conditions, at very lo\v rates, securing to those making permanent improvements in either case the appraised value of such improvements, whether on the plains, parched and dry, or on the grassy highlands, which are a haven of comfort for man and beast in the summer months. From all the range countr3' at elevations producing the pine trees, timber and water will he carried to and conserved on the plains, and timber preserved on the mountains by local energies, guided and impelled bj' personal and local interests. Double the number of cattle, sheep and horses will be kept, and belter kept than now; and lands now deemed not worth the purchase will furnish homes for thousands and tens of thousands of happy people -- lands on which yet the wood growth is sage brush and the pennanent live stock, jack-rabbits. The lease and conditional sale system in use in Australasia induced the change from loose herding to the Paddock system of keeping stock, and one-third more stock is better kept, and at less cost, it is claimed, on the same area of land than under the former method. What Australianscan do, Americans can do. In the national report on sheep, to which I have referred, will be found a letter of J. Parker Whitney, another kind of Boston man, who sent his brother to Australia in and 18,")5 bought 3M such sheep, at $.'i(1.0() per head. He succeeded in getting 120 of them to California, which he subsequently estimated as paj'ing him $1,0(K),000. They induced him to buy 20,000 acres of the then cheap land in Placer county, California, which he was selling in small parcels in 1892 at $1.")0 to $3'.)0 per acre, for peach orchards. This was near Rocklin, from which district he was the first man to send a train load of peaches east of the Rockies, and where I saw tlie Central Pacific railroad company, and private parties clearing lands of the pine and other scrub which had grown up on closely grazed lands within the past twenty-five years, just as it has done in Western Oregon. The estimated area of forest land in Oregon has been con- sidered at about l(j,0(X),0(X) acres in the entire state. Dr. J. R. Cardwell, Commissioner at large of the State Board of Horticulture, considering the economical values of the conifer- ous growth of coinmercial value, estimated it at 16,000 square miles, or 10,000,0(iO acres, in 1893. This estimate Mr. A. W. Haininond, of Wiiner, Oregon, vice-president of the American Forestrj' Association, adopted in his report to that body in 18tKJ. He puts "the merchantable timber on the 14 latter nrea at 100,000,000,000 feet, board measure." I learned from the Oregonian, tluit Mr. Hammoiitl, was the first to publish these estimates. He says: "The annual out-put is now estimated at about 200,000,000 feet; but even this amount must be insijrnificant in comparison with the amount annually decayinu- and in a sense "oing- to waste in the forests throujjh natural causes. Fn many places, even about the settlements, one will see numbers of the ver3' largest and -- handsomest pine trees in ever)' respect maonificent speci- inens--200 to 2.')0 years old and more, dead and dying, that inust go to waste because of the entire absence of means of converting them into lumber. "The annual out-put, in fact, represents an amount equal to about 10 per cent, only of the annua! growth. Whence it follows (if the forest remains stationary) that an amount equal to 90 per cent, of this new growth is annuallj' going to waste. This means, in other words, that if the mature timber could be culled anually from the forests of this state, they could be made to yield annually about 2,000,000,000 feet, board measurement, without detriment." I quote a little farther from Mr. Hammond to show how impractical a good man can be. He says: "In the opinion of the writer, what is most needed here just now is, first, some efficient regulation in regard to forest fires; second, proper measures to prevent the gobbling up of large tracts of the most valuable portions of forests by private corporations where lumbering operations are liable to be carried on without reference to future needs or to future conditions of the country. The general sentiment here is yet far from being sufficienti)' alive on this important subject. So many interests would like to share in the general prosperity that that would follow the working on any adequate scale of the great forests of this state, that public sentiment, it is only too well feared, would be in sympathy with any movement of that kind, and the future needs or the future condition of the country would receive no attention except at the hands of a few." How restful the mental condition of a man must be who can contemplate 1 ,800,(WO,onO feet of lumber wasting annually for lack of users, yet let the waste (which is one hundred fold more than annual destruction by forest fires) go on for fear of over-cutting in a country like this. The writer greatly prefers to meet present human interests, and is very glad to believe the people of Oregon are of the same mind in very large majority. They are proving this by the very great 15 increase in the lumber cut since Mr. Haiiniiond wrote down his estimates and his fears. The enterprise of the managers of the Oretfonian lias given us the lumber cut of 1897. Believini>- they will be interesting reading to ideal foresters and friends of forestry for its u-es to humanity, I insert two papers relative to the subject from the Daily Oregonian of January 1, 1S<)S: LUMBER CUT. �The saw mills of Oregon cut o49,823,179 feet of lumber last year. Bj' counties the cut was: Baker Benton Clackamas Clatsop Columbia Coos Crook Curry Douglas Gilliam _' Grant , - - Harney Jackson Josephine Klamath Lake. Lane Lincoln Linn Malheur Marion- - Morrow Multnomah Polk Sherman Tillamook --- Umatilla--- Union Wallowa Wasco Washington '- Yamhill $ ;M),0(X1.IX�I .._ 1.1iki,i�ki 4,iKKi,iK�i LN.HIKI.IHKI 1>*,17(;,IIIX) .' '.'�.'.(XO.IKHI 1,5()0,IKK) ^0(J,(XHI 35,000,00(1 1,I100.0(� 400,000 2,000,0(K1 �27,5()0,(XW 15,IX�i,00<i r.VmMHXi _. WJ0,0(�1 -- -- 1.5,(XH),(ii�i .',(X1II,(KKI ai,OOII,(IO<i 5f)0,(KKI 2,455,000 830,000 130,000,000 7,415,879 22,000,000 1U0,U(H) 24,,->0O,0O0 �2fi,000 2,.500,000 12,000,000 fiOO,(K)U "The mills of Multnomah county cut 1.30,0(10,000 feet, valued at $1,040,01X1, an average of J8 per thousand. Tfie same average applied to other counties, brings the value of the cut in the state to $4,398,,585. 43. "Oregon's timber svtpply is practically inexhaustible. The great belt, comprising the counties of Clatsop, Columbia, Washington and Tillamook, contains, as is set forth in another part of this paper, approximately o(i,0(K),000,000 feet of standing timber. Last year the lumber cut in the four l(i counties jnst naiiierl was about 811,170,(111(1 feet. At that rate it will take nearly 7(HI j'ears to exhaust the standing timber in the belt. "Multnomah county cuts more lumber than any other country on the Pacific coast. Portland cuts more lumber than any other city on the Pacific coast. She leads the Pacific nortlnvest in lumber as she leads it in every other commodity. As Portland is situated close to the world's greatest timber belt, there is no likelihood that she ever will lose her position as the greatest lutnber-manufacturing city on the Pacific coast Development of the great belt, which must take place within the next ten years, will make Portland the greatest lumber-manufacturing city in the world." THE WORLD'S GREATEST TIMBER BELT. ( )reg<mian, January, 1, 1898. I | The greatest timber belt in the world is in the counties of Clatsop, Washington, Columbia and Tillamook, in North- wertern Oregon. In the four counties there are l,.SS4,!ll>0 acres, containing .")f),l-t9,'20U,0(10 feet of timber. The standing timber is worth on the average .50 cents per 10(10 feet, Imard measure, or !f28,07-t,{)OI). Manufactured into rough lumlnr. it is worth, at the rate of $7 per 1000, the enormous sum of $:�3,0 17,400. Clatsop county has about .530,000 acres of timber land, averaging :r>,(l(KI feet per acre, making a total of 18,,V)0,(1(10,(100 feet. Tillamook county has about 7oO,(Kl(l acres, which will aver- making age .3,>,(KH1 feet to the acre, a total of '.'i..^: 10,000.01 XI feet. Washington county has about 2i)4,900 acres, which will average 20,000 feet to the acre, making a total of .5,2il'.�,000,iHlo feet. Columbia countj' has about :3tH;i,000 acres, which will average 20,0(K> feet to the acre, making a total of 7,80(1,000,0011 feet. The foregoing totals of 1,S84.0H(1 acres of timl)er land and ,5(i,140,aiO,0(IO feet of standing timber are conservative. The majoritj' of people who figure on Oregon's available timber supply base their calculations on an average of 40,000 feet per acre. The average value of 50 cents per 1,01X1 feet for standing timber is reasonable. Present prices of stumpage in the t)regon timber belt is from ,50 cents to $1 per 1,000. Government forestry experts have placed the average for Oregon at (52 cents per 1,000 feet. The principal rivers in the timber belt are the Nelialem, the Wilson, and the Trask. Along the Nehalem are 57(I,M()0 acres, averaging 40,000 feet, making a total of 22,812,000,000 17 feet. Along the Wilson are 111,040 acres averaging 35,000 feet, making a total of 3,907,4(IO,(X)0 feet. Along the Trask are 102,400 acres, averaging 40,(X)0 feet, making a total of 3,.')84,(X)0,- 01)0 feet. The tiinber in the belt consists of fir, cedar, hemlock, spruce and larch. The fir is the genuine yellow or Douglas fir. It constitutes 8 per cent, of the entire growth. Timber in the belt is less subject to fire than timber in any section in Oregon. This is because the lands slope toward the ocean, and the heavy fogs which prevail in the summer keep the leaves and underbrush so damp that fires cannot take hold. Michigan and Wisconsin lumbermen of large capital own immense bodies of timber land in the belt. This showing of forest wealth in the five counties in the northwest corner of the state of Oregon will be agreeable reading for her citizens, and a study of the question of natural supply of the entire state will lead to endorsement of the words of the Oregonian that it is "practically inexhaustible" if our fellow citizens of the American Forestry Association can be persuaded to refrain from such methods of procuring legislation affecting their fellow citizens on -- this side of the continent the conditions of whom they can- not understand sufficiently to justify their meddling, by open action or secret intrigue, obstructive of the most economical mode of harvesting this great source of natural wealth. Information derived from the assessor of Clatsop county enables me to confirm the statement of the Oregonian, that "Michigan and Wisconsin lumber firms of large capital own immense bodies of timber in this belt. But these companies are not operating the large and costly harvesting agencies in their own timber. Why? Because the Wilson bill gave the lumber market of the world to Canada, and the wool market of the world to Australia, and these men of Michigan and Wisconsin were compelled either to let their machinery rust in idleness or set it up near the line of the Canadian railway, and it has been employed there during the past four years, while the waste of decay has been going on in the woods of Oregon. On the other hand, the development of Oregon's portion of the great inland empire has been obstructed by the policy alluded to and the insidious methods of the American Forestry Association, as I have shown. The Oregoiiiau's tables show the lumljer cut of the five northwestern counties of the state to be 210,17f>.00() feet; that of the five grazin" counties of Crook, Grant, Harney, Lake, � 18 and Mallieur, 5,300,000 feet. The nation has >j"iven about 2,100,0IK) acres of the public lands to induce the construction of so-called military roads into these counties. Thirtj-seven years ag^o families of the pioneer class of citizen ^\vhose early settlement of Oreij^on and Washington gave the nation its most important title of occupancy to half of the then Oregon territory) began to settle within the boundary of these five counties, making investments in full faith that the liberal policy which had caused the construction of these roads would be continued, and tfie country be developed. There they liavelived. Their familieshave increased, but many of the younger generation, on coming to maturitj-, have left the isolation of the pastoral life behind them, and have left many remaining wfio would follow their example if they could lind purchasers for their properties. They have endured the hardships that attend the occupation of raising cattle, horses, and sheep in that region, and tlie dangers inseparable from the contiguity of the native race. There is no