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THE AMERICAN FOKESTY ASSOCIA
TION MEETING AT OMAHA.
The American Forestry Association
held a meeting in the Board of Trade
rooms , Omaha , September 9 and 10.
The first session was called to order at
2:20 : on Friday , September 9. There
were present Hon. R. W. Furnas , J.
Sterling Morton , Mr. E. D. Wheeler ,
S. M. Knox , Prof. Lawrence Brunei * ,
F. H. Newell , Dr. George L. Miller ,
Messrs. E. F. Stephens , S. M. Emory ,
Henry Michelson , William T. Little ,
M. Dunham and Mr. Adams.
Hon. R. W. Furnas was chosen chair
man and F. H. Newell secretary of the
meeting.
MU.NEWELL : We were anxious to hold
a meeting in the West , especially at the
time of the Omaha exposition , and the
Nebraska people were also desirous that
we should , but there seemed to be many
insuperable obstacles. Many of our of
ficers could not come to Omaha at about
this time. Many of them are active men
who are compelled to be in the forest at
this parD of the season , and therefore we
tried by correspondence to put the bur
den of the meeting upon some of our
Western members and friends. We first
tried Governor Morton , and he stated he
would be glad to act but felt that his
friendGovernorFurnaswastheouemau
who could do it properly , nnd Governor
Furnas , ! think.said that Professor Bessey
was the proper person. Professor Bessey
said that Professor Taylor was by all
odds the man who could and should do it.
Professor Taylor could not get out of it
very well , ns the time had grown short ,
and so he very kindly took it , but he has
been very busy and has not been able to
give as much time to it as ho would
wish to , and asked me to express his
regrets that he has not been able to per
sonally attend to details.
"The summer meeting is more of the
nature of a meeting for becoming ac
quainted , for seeing the country and
presenting papers. At the annual meet
ing very few papers are presented , and
we depend largely upon the summer
meeting to get the material for publi
cation. There were proposed three
meetings one in New England , devoted
to the forestry of the East ; one in
Omaha , which should be devoted to
tree planting on the Plains , and one in
California , devoted to the public forests.
The New England meeting was held in
Boston in connection with the Associa
tion for the Advancement of Science and
was quite successful , as a largo number
of members were brought together.
This is the second hero in Omaha , and
the third in California has been de
finitely abandoned , owing to the ex
treme drouth there , and wo are not will
ing to try to induce Eastern friends to
come there , as everything is burned up.
The drouth is the worst probably known
in the memory of living men. At the
same time , although our attendance is
numerically small it in exceedingly se
lect , and wo need not be discouraged ,
Because wo have the gathered experience
icro of another year. "
( Hero he read the call for the meeting
as gotten out by Professor Taylor ) .
"This plan has been carried out as far
as Professor Taylor could do it and , for
my own part , I have been in the West
and had abandoned all hopes of being
icre , having been out on one of the In-
liau reservations. I offer that as an ex-
use for my lack of definite knowledge. "
GOVERNORFURNAS : "The first sub
ject is : 'Where Does Our Timber
Come From ? ' and I will take the priv
ilege of calling upon Mr. Emory to lead. ' '
MR. EMORY : "This takes me decid
edly at a disadvantage. I can tell you
where the timber is going to , and that is
the matter that concerns us most , so far
as our institution is concerned. I can
speak for our own state. We are self-
supporting in that state ( Montana ) , per-
liaps with the exception of finishing
lumber and hardwood lumber suitable
for flooring. A great deal of interest is
now being manifested in the matter of
finishing lumber in the Tamarack tim
ber which is found on the western slopes
of the main range , a very few scattering
trees being found of that variety on
another location within our state. This
supply is very abundant and of very su
perior quality , and possesses in a re
markable degree the ability to hold to
gether in what is perhaps the most try
ing climate in the United States. We
find that it is extremely necessary in
Montana to depart from the usual
known rules of putting together furni
ture , a very prominent instance of
which came under my observation in
the last year. I will never forget the
way in which our professor of mechan
ical engineering and shop work erected
all our buildings. He is an old Moutan-
ian of many years' experience , and
when the question was asked him who
was responsible for the finishing of the
desks in our mechanical building in the
manner that is so often done in a way
to prevent the warping , ho said that not
a piece of the material handled in that
fashion stayed. We have there to con
sider the very best material that wo can
get that is going to bo used in the finish
ings of houses or furniture or any thing of
that nature , and we have great hopes in
this Tamarack on this account. I saw a
very elegant bank counter that had
been cut from the log and kiln dried ; it
was of Tamarack material and had
stayed since 1890. This was in ' 98. It
showed no marks of the trouble of
shrinking. In this Tamarack timber
we have very great hope. Then we have
a very fair quality of what I suppose in
Minnesota would bo termed Norway
pine. It is very similar to this which I
see hero.
"The Tamarack is growing at about
2,800 feet , but in the valley and well up
on the mountain slopes as well. It is
very fine timber and many trees run
from two and one-half to three feet in
diameter. These two trees are going to
give us flooring , furniture material and
finishing lumber.
"Then for the construction of houses
wo have there what is known as the
Yellow Pine , and this is often found
sixty feet in length and eighteen inches
in diameter , absolutely clear and free
from anything in the line of knots. All
of this lumber is found on the Pacific
slope , and the Yellow Pine of which I
spoke is our principal dependence for
that class of work ; and wo get , of
course , in this clear lumber much ma
terial that costs about twenty-two to
thirty-two dollars per thousand , but on
the ordinary dimension lumber we pro
bably get the benefit of as cheap prices ,
especially on that slope , as is to be found
in the United States. It is not an un
known thing to find lumber selling for
six to eight dollars per thousand not ,
of course , of the very best quality , but
dimension lumber 2x4x8 and 12 , such as
the farmer would ordinarily use in the
construction of farm buildings. On our
slope of the mountain ( Bozeman ) wo do
not find quite as good quality as the
lumber found on the west slope of the
mountains. There is a great variety.
We have a great deal of Lodgepole Pine.
It seems to be the pine which is occupy
ing the ground following fires. We
[ lave had a great deal of difficulty and
suffered great loss from campers and ir
responsible people , and whereas fairly
good lumber has been destroyed by the
fires , these grounds are occupied very
extensively by the Lodgepole Pine , the
worst evil of which is that it is brushy
and does not get to be of sufficient size to
make really first-class material.
"Wo have a good deal of Red Fir and
we have a few Yellow Pine and a great
deal of Spruce. For fencing we have
very fine Red Cedar. Our farmers are
using nothing but Red Cedar for fenc
ing , as it is very durable. The ruling
price is about $15.00 per thousand for
Red Cedar fence posts.
"The Washington Cedar we find to be
very brushy and something that is not
at all lasting in the ground. It is a .lum
ber that is not good for fencing. I
would not pay freight on the Washing
ton Cedar for fence posts.
"Wo find one very peculiar condition
011 the eastern slopes with reference to
the knots in timber. It is almost impos
sible to get clear timber. In small tim
ber the knots are tight and it makes first-
class flooring , except that the knots do
not wear down along with the main part
of the board , leaving it rough ; but for
siding , if it is well nailed , it makes a
first-class building material. We en
courage as far as we can among the
farmers the use of native timber just as
it is found for ordinary farm use. All
our buildings are made of pine logs.
Wo take the bark off before bugs or
borers get to work inside the bark and
cut the log to pieces. By cutting the