Troy weekly news. (Troy, Idaho) 1897-1933, 1907-05-24
The Timber Supply.

Every person in the United States
is using over six times as much wood
as he would use if he were in Europe.
The country as whole consumes 7
every year between three and four
times more wood than all of the forests
of the United States grow in the mean
time. The average acre of forest lays
up store of only 10 cubic feet an
nually, whereas it ought to be laying
up at least 80 cubic feet in order to
furnish the products taken out of it
Since 1880 more than zoo, 900, 100000 /
feet of timber have been cut for lum
Der alone, including $4,000, 900, 900 |
feet of coniferous timber in excess of
the total coniferous stumpage estimate
of the census in 1880.
These are some Of the remarkable
statements made in Circular 81 of the
Forest Service, which deals with the
timber supply of the United States and
reviews the stumpage estimates made
! by all the important authorities. A
study OF the circular must lead directly
to the conclusion that the rate at which
forest products in the Uniled States
have been and are being consumed is
f to lavish, and that only one result
can follow unless steps are promptly
taken to prevent waste in use and to
increase the growth rate Of every acre
OF forest in the United States This
| rae,,lt SC n .;r,ha- fo,oipa THE count
ry is to-day in the same position with
regard to forest resources as was Ger
many $50 years ago. During this
period of $50 years such German States
as Saxony and Prussia, particularly the
latter, have applied policy Of govern
ment control and regulation which has
immensely increased the productivity
Of their forests. The same policy will
achieve even better results in the
United States, because we have the ad
vantage Of all the lessons which Europe
has learned and paid for in the course
Of a century Of theory and practice.
Lest it might be assumed that the
rapid and gaining depletion of Ameri-
can forest resources is sufficiently ac-
counted for by the increase of popu
lation, it is pointed out in the circular
that the increase in population since
1880 is barely more than half the in
crease in lumber cut in the same peri
cd. Two areas supplying timber have
already reached and passed their maxi
mum production-the Northeastern
States in 1870 and the Lake States in
1890 To-day the Southern States,
which cut yellow pine amounting to
one-third the total annual lumber cut
of country, are undoubtedly near their
maximum. The Pacific States will
soon take the ascendency. The State
Of Washington within few years has
come to the front and now ranks first
Of all individual States in volume Of
cut.
AT present but one-ffth of the total
forest area Of the United States is en-
braced in National Forests. The re-
naming four-ffths have already passed
or are most likely to pass into private
hands. The average age of the trees
felled for lumber this year is not less
than $50 years. In other words, if he
is to secure a second crop of trees OF
the same size, the lumberman or
private forest owner must wait, say, at
least one hundred years for the second
crop to grow. AS rule, such long
me investments as this waiting would
involve do not commend themselves to
business men who are accustomed to
quick returns. But the States and the
Nation can look much farther ahead
The larger, then, the area Of National
and State control over woodlands, the
greater is the likelihood that the forests
OF the country will be kept permanently
productive.
What hoe i,,ponad tba dOl1or