Newspapers / The Pinehurst Outlook (Pinehurst, … / Feb. 20, 1915, edition 1 / Page 9
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L- j. 7TT mmmm THE PINEHURST OUTLOOK 1S You have no idea of the vast heritage that was here for the man who cut the pine trees, nor of the value it would have if he had it now to resort to for lumber. An acre of pine forest is not turning off aiuch timber if it cuts five thousand feet. I have seen big pine trees in this State that would give nearly that much to the tree, although of course such trees are the exception. I recall just now a fine big forest that a Pennsylvania lumberman estimated would cut seventy-five thousand feet to the acre, but that is also excep tional. Five thousand feet to the acre is not a big yield. We wonder at the price the Sandhill lands are bringing now, but if they had their pine trees on them at the present price of timber Sandhill wild land would be worth anywhere from twenty-five to seventy-five dollars an acre for the pine alone. Millions of dollars Moore County pine would bring if the mill man had it now. Millions more it would bring if he had it now and could save it for a few years. Hundreds of millions the pine of the Carolina would be worth were it now on the stump for the mill man. Nobody knows how much it would be worth if it could be saved for a few years yet and then marketed as the judicious uses of an intelligent demand might dictate. All that is positive is the fact that half the land in the pine belt would be worth more with the pine on than it is now made into farms, and possibly the entire pine barren territory would be worth morem oney if it could be restored with its original crop of forest and wilderness than it is now with its farms, and towns and railroads and improvements. The pity is not that this vast inheri tance of riches has gone, but that a large proportion of it is wasted. Long leaf pine lumber is a material that is sub stantial and enduring. It will last for a century and be as good at the end of the hundred years as the day it came from the saw if it is cared for. There are old houses in Moore County, built when Wash ington was President of the United States in which are boards as perfect as when the pioneers in Tennessee were try ing to set up the now long forgotten State of Frankland up there in the mountains. North Carolina's fine timber should have gone into the permanent buildings of the country. Most of it went into temporary structures or to the log piles to be burned. The old thoroughfare through Pinehurst was the Morganton road, from Fayetteville to Morganton out in the west end of the State. Mile after mile of that road was plank road built of the best quality of long leaf pine laid in the sand. Nowadays we build good clay roads in the sand and make them endur ing and cheap. A plank road of plank ten feet long and two inches thick means about a hundred thousand feet of lumber to the mile. Because lumber in the plank road days had no value the plank road was cheap, aside from the cost of sawing the stuff and putting it on the road. Plank like they ' used for thos9 roads would be worth today fifteen hundred to twenty-five hundred dollars to the mile. A mile of plank road now would build eight or ten miles of clay road. But our predecessors did not know that a clay road was a better road than a plank road, and that it could be built of material that would not depreciate in the weather, and that it could be had with less cost for moving the material than a plank road could. The money spent to make plank roads could have been spent to better advantage making clay roads, and the planks saved until the present could be used to better advantage for something else. The millions that have been thrown away in the waste of the pine forests of North Carolina will never be known, for the value of the forests is always a mat ter of temporary prices. Each year the wasted lumber would be more. Perhaps if we had ordinary good sense and a system in which we could utilize resources to the best purpose houses would have been built of cement and brick in the past and the timber saved for something better. Per haps we would have used more wire fences, or fewer fences of any kind, and saved the boards and rails that have been wasted. And possibly we are not civilized enough to think far enough ahead to make the best use of anything. And possibly it is just as well that the timber has been used. This world is so big and so abounds with materials that when we have destroyed one thing we turn around and find something else. When we have cut down our trees we devise something else to take the place of the lumber we have thrown away, and in many cases the substitute is better than the original. In Europe where lumber is scarcer and houses must be made of some more dura ble thing the fire losses are nothing com pared with the losses in this country. Yet, on the other hand, any one who has ever been in Eastern Europe in the winter knows what the lack of abundant fuel means in the problem of keeping warm. It is curious to see the way in which wood is treasured down through some parts of the Balkan country, where trees are trimmed up from time to time that the limbs may be had for fuel, and the main trunk of the big tree saved to make other branches for another crop of fuel. Fortunately the long leaf pine tree reforests its territory better than most any other big tree. All over the pine barrens are infinite numbers of the seed lings coming up, and from that to half grown trees they are in evidence in all j directions. Since the stock law has! stopped hogs from running at large it is only a question of keeping fires out of the wild land until much of the original pine woods will be growing up again to the same fine pine tree that was the occu pant of the land when the white man came. There is one of the fine points about the pine tree of this section. While in a few cases the short leaf pine follows the long leaf, in many cases the second crop is long leaf, and the growth is quite rapid. The second crop of short leaf pine can be cut in twenty to forty years, the second crop of long leaf in somewhat longer time. Much lumber now going to market is from the second crop, and probably some of it is from'the third or maybe a still older crop. There are few prettier forest sights than to get into a crop of second growth long leaf pine trees about ten to thirty feet high. It is the old field grown up with pine trees that attracts the stranger in this section as much as any other single feature. The country road that traverses (Concluded on page eleven) STILL FURTHER HONORS TO Smith & Wesson Three world records broken since January 1st, 1915 r D j,. j.j ihiiiiijui jimujiium u . ujiLi.jiiLLii.il m ml. rtai , t?r XZZzJT THIS ARM IS THE LATEST OF THE Smith & Wesson Target Arms Ask to see one at the Store. Write for Catalog. SPRINGFIELD, MASS., U. S. A. The New Mount Kineo House On Moosehead Lake at Kineo, Maine Will open for the seventy-first season on June 26, closing on September 28, 1915. A distinctive summer hotel magnificently furnished and with every modern comfort and luxury. Excellent cuisine and attendance. Accommodates 500 guests. THE HEW MOM KINEO HOUSE ANNEX Opens on May 15 for the entertainment of guests wishing to participate in the early spring fishing. Closes September 28. THE SAM0SET Located at Rockland Breakwater, on Penobscot Bay, Maine, two miles north of the City of Rockland, will open for the season of 1915 on June 17. A beautiful modern structure setting back from the sea about one thousand feet. Accommodations for 300 guests. The three hotels owned by and under the direct management of THE RICKER HOTEL COMPANY G. A. JUDKINS. Manager New Mount Kineo House, Kineo, Maine F. G. MOORE, Manager The Sam-O-Set, Rockland, Maine Household Cares are Reduced by using Perfection Oil Heaters. Are your floors hard to care for ? Our Floor and Furniture Finishes will make the cares lighter. Try our O-Cedar Mops, Liquid Veneer, etc., etc. Our Hardware Line is of Quality and the prices are right. See us first ! EAGLE HARDWARE CO. Phone SOUTHERN PINES, N. C.
The Pinehurst Outlook (Pinehurst, N.C.)
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Feb. 20, 1915, edition 1
9
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