trouble stands out clear as daylight. I guess a
big scale contour map is the key to it. We've 'hand-weeded' the
Shagaunty Valley. It's picked bare to the bone. The folks have cleared
the forests right away to the higher slopes of the river. We're moving
farther and farther away from the river highway. Well, that's all right
in its way. Ordinarily that would just mean our light railways are
extending farther, and a few cents more are added to our transport
costs. Owing to our concentration of organisation that wouldn't signify.
No. It's Nature, it's the forest itself turning us down. And the map,
and the reports show that. The camps are right out on the plateau
surrounding the valley, which is unprotected from winter storms. The
close, luxurious growth of the valley we have been accustomed to is
gone. The standing cordage of lumber is no less, only in bulk, girth.
The trees are mostly less than half the girth. The result? Why, they
have to work farther out. Each camp cuts over four times the area.
Instead of a proportion of, say, two trees in five, it's about one in,
say, ten. It looks like a simple sum. I should say we've lumbered that
valley at least one season too long."

The man's smile had passed. There was no longer derision in his keen
eyes. He had invited this girl's talk for the sake of hearing it. Now he
was caught in admiration of her clear perception.

"Do the reports bear out those facts?"

His question was sharp, and Nancy realised she had done well.

She shook her head.

"No. They do just the thing you'd expect them to do," she said. "They
make every sort of excuse that couldn't possibly account for the drop.
And avoid the real cause which their writers are perfectly aware of."
She shrugged her pretty shoulders. "You wouldn't expect it otherwise.
You want to remember those reports are written by bosses who're more
interested in their own comfort than in the affairs of the Skandinavia."

"How?"

Again the girl's expressive shrug.

"To quit the Shagaunty and break new ground means the break up of those
amenities and comforts they've accumulated in years. It means work, real
hard work, and discomfort for at least two seasons. You see, we need to
get into the skin of these folk. They can keep the booms full from these
forests, and the kick only comes when the grinders get to work. Output
falls automatically with the girth of the lumber sent down. It's a close
calculation; but on the year it means a lo