The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1907-05-09
THE TIMBER SUPPLY
u. S. Department of Agriculture
Shows How Rapidly 1t
is Disappearing

| 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 a whole consumes
every year between three and four
times more wood than all of the for
ests of the United States grow in the
meantime. The average acre of
forest lays up a store of only 10 cubic
feet annually, whereas it ought to lay
up at least 80 cubic feet in order to
furnish the products taken out of it.
since 1880 more than 100000, 100000
feet of timber have been cut for
lumber alone, including S0,O00,000 900
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.
rectly to the conclusion that the rate
at which forest products in the United
States have been and are being con-
sumed is far too 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 result is
timber famine. This country is today
in the same position with regard to
forest resources as was Germany $50
years. ago. During this period of $50
years such German states as Saxony
and Prussia, particularly the latter
have applied policy of government
control and regulation which has i'm
increased the productivity OF
their forests. The same policy will
achieve even better results in the
United States, because we have the
of all the lessons which
Europe has learned and paid for in the
course of century of theory and prac-
tice.
Lest it might be assumed that the
rapid and gaining depletion of the
American forest resources is suffici-
emily accounted for by the increase
Of population, it is pointed out in the
circular that the increase in popula-
ton since 1880 is barely more than
half the increase in lumber cut in the
same period. Two areas supplying
timber have already reached and
passed their maximum production
the Northeastern States in 1870 and
the Lake States in 1890. Today the
Southern states, which cut yellow pine
to one-third the total an
nual lumber cut of the country, are
near their maximum.
The Pacific states will soon take the
The state of Washing
ton within few years has come to the
front and now ranks first of all indi-
vidual states in volume of cut.
At present but one-fifth of the total
forest area of the United States is
in National Forests. The
remaining four-fifths 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
if he is to secure second crop
of trees of the same size, the lumber
man or private forest owner must
wait, say at least one hundred years
for the second crop to grow. AS
rule, such longtime investments as
this waiting would involve do not COM
mend themselves to business men
who are accustomed to quick returns.
But the states and the nation can look
much further ahead. The larger,
then the area of national and state
control over woodlands, the greater
is the likelihood that the forests of the
will be kept permanently
productive.