The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1907-08-16
TIMBE SUPPLY OF THE
UNITED STATES.

Every person in the United States
is using over six times as much wood
as be 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 mp store of only 10 cubic feet
annually, whereas it ought to be lay
ing up at least 80 cubic feet in order
to furnish the products taken out of
it. Since 1880 more than 100 900.
100000 feet of timber have been cut
for lumber alone, including sO,OeO,-
000,0 feet of coniferous timber in
excess Of the total coniferous stump
age 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
United States have been and are be.
ing consumed 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
mensely 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
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 since 1880 is barely more than
half the increase in lumber cut in the
same period. Two aroas supplying
timber have already reached and pass
ed their maximum production-the
States in 1870 and the
Lake States in 1890. Today the
Southern States, which cut yellow
pine amounting to third the total
annual lumber cut Of the country, are
undou btedly near their maximum.
The Pacific States will soon take the
ascendency. The State of Washing
ton within few years has come to
the front and now ranks first of all
individual States in volume of cut.
At present but one fifth of the total
forest area of the United States is i'm
braced in national forests The re-
naming four fifths hsse already passed
or are most likely to pass into private
hands. The average age of the trees
felled for lumber this yesr is not less
that $50 years. In other words, if he
is to secure a second crop of trees of
the same size, the lumberman or pri-
vate forest owner must wait, say, at
least one hundred years for the second
crop to grow. AS rule, such long
time investments as this waiting
would involve do not commend them.
selves to business men who are ac
customed to quicl 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 coun-
try will be kept permanently pro.
ductive.