The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-12-11
THE HARDWOOD SUPPLY.

s States forest service. expert are correct, there stands in the forests of this coun- try about fifteen years supply of hard wood lumber now ready to cut. If the present system of cutting and neglect is continued there will soon come an end to the hardwood supply. If some system of protection and good manage ment of the cut-over lands be inaugur- ated immediately. there will still be an appreciabie gap between the supply ] which exists and the quantity that might be used. for the forests yield of merchantable timber cannot be greatly Increased inside of from thirty to forty years.''
 | The quesion of timber supply of all kinds is one of the acute problems of l the future in .this country. and espe- cialiy is this true of the hard woods. Soft wood for building purposes is fast being exhausted. but so much is now being done in the substitution of iron. steel and concrete for buildings of all kinds that the decreasing supply of wood heretofore used for this purpose is not SC material. Houses are now built with a comparatively small quan- tity of wood in them. and thus the timber decrease does not offer such a serious obstacle as might otherwise be the ease.
 With the hard woods 1t is different, for they are almost or quite indispen- sable. Oak, beech. hickory. maple. birch, walnut and perhaps a few others go to make up the larger part of the furniture that is made in this country as may be noted by visit to any fur niture establishment where large stocks are kept on hand. It will there be seen that most of the furnitvre is made wholly or in part from some of the several varieties of hardwoods, and the report shows that unless something Is done the end is plainly in sight. As a matter of general interest. we quote somewhat at length from the report of the expert. which will repay careful reading. He says:
 Of the four great hardwood regions, the Ohio Valley States have been all most most completely turned tsr nte asrieIis, the lower Mississippi tvalley are rap idly following their example. In the Appalachian Mountains we have exten- I., Ia 1a fNN. kna culled and greatly damaged by fire. These are practically all in private hands, and while they contain a large amount of inferior young timber. they and even such young timber as exists is making but slight growth.
 There seems to be but one practi- cal solution (of the hardwood prob nently under proper system of for estry, 8 sufficient area of hardwood land>to produce by growth a large pro portion of the hardwood timber which | the nation requires.
 where is this land to be found? Not in the Ohio Valley. the Lake States. or the Mississippi Valley. for the reasons already given. It is to be found in the Appalachian Mountains. These mountains increased their pro- portion in the nations hardwood out past seven years On the principle of using the land for it's highest purpose l they should further increase their pro- poEtion to not less tha than n oS per cent iii readily furnish the remaining 25 per cent. .,-.. -..,~
 to Alabama should be made to pro- duce the greater part of the hardwood supply. because growing hardwood | timber is their most profitable use. the surface of these mountains can permanently be put. That they can not be successfully farmed has been proved | in thousands of cases. For the most part they can not even be permanently grazed.
 Tt is in the production of timber that they excel. They bear the great est variety of species and the best re- maining hardwood growth anywhere to | be found. Freed from their enemies fire and unwise cuttfng--forests read fly reproduce the best kinds. of tim Der. Outside of local areas of the Pa cific coast nowhere else is forest growth so rapid. Even land cleared and farm ed to the complete exhaustion of its soil will in this region in time reclothe tected.
 Field estimates by counties show that south of Pennsylvania there are of forest land, practically all of which Is covered by hardwood and over S5 per cent. of which is in a cut-over or culled condition; Including ling tSe Horr noun snd | New England, it is probably safe to es- timate that the entire Appalachian area | includes as much as 75.000,000 acres primarily adapted for hardwood tim Der. Only a very small part of this is still in virgin growth. By far the great part of it has been cut over, and some of it has been cleared.
 Well managed and protected from fire, this area has enormous producing powers. Studies by the forest service | of average virgin and cut-ove lands in Eastern Tennessee show that under producing fifty cubic feet of wood per acre annually. Even taking the pro- duction as forty cubic feet, this means for the area of 75,000.000 acres pos sible annual production of 5000, ,000, 900 cubic feet. If the Appalachian forests are rightly managed and taken soon enough. they will insure continuously the hardwood supply of the country, and do 1t without exhausting the for est In fact 1t can be done so that the systematic treatment will at the same time improve the forest.
 . It is true that much of the finer va rieties of hard woods such as mahog any, rosewood. etc, are imported from abroad, but besides being an expensive process it may reasonably be supposed that this supply will be exhausted at a not distant period, if the demand for it increases. as it must do unless means are found in our own country to in- crease or preserve the home supply.
 Plainly there are but two ways to do