The San Francisco call., 1908-11-08
BUREAU PREDICTS
A LUMBER FAMINE
Forest Service Declares Virgin
Timber Will Only Last
Thirty Years
Economy at Mills and Better
Methods of Conservation
and Growth Advocated

WASHINGTON. Nov. I've are
now cutting timber from the forests
of the United States at the rate of 500
feet board measure year for every
man, woman and child. In Europe
they use only 60 board feet"
Few statements could be made which
would better convince the average man
that this country leads the world in
the demand for timber. 1t is made by
Treadwen Cleveland Jr. in a circular
which treats of the conservation of
the forests. soil, water and all the
other great natural resources, which
has just been published by the United
States forest service, In speaking &
further of the consumption of timber
in this country Cleveland says:
''At this rate in less than 80 years
all our remaining virgin timber will
be cut. Meantime the forests which
have been cut over are generally in
a bad way for want of care; they will
produce only inferior second growths
We are clearly over the verge of a
timber famine.
WASTE Is ENORMOUS
This is not due to necessity, for
the forests are one of the renewable
resources. Rightly used, they go on
producing crop after crop indefinitely.
The countries of Europe know this,
and Japan knows 1t; and their forests
are becoming with time not less, but
more, productive. We probably still
possess sufficient forest land to grow
wood enough at home to supply our
own needs. If we are not blind or
willfully wasteful we may yet pre-
serve our forest independence and with
1t the fourth of our great Industries.
, present wastes in lumber production
are enormous. Take the case of yellow
pine, which now heads the list in the
volume of annual cut. 1t is estimated
that in 1907 only one-half of all the
yellow pine cut during the season was
used, and that the other half, amount
ing to 100000 cords, was wasted.
Such waste is typical r. A. Long, in
his address on Forest Conservation
at the conference, pointed out that 20
per cent of the yellow pine was simply
left in the woods-a waste which rep
resents the timber growing on 900, 900
acres.
The rest of the waste takes place at
the mill. OF course, it would never do
to speak of the material rejected at
the mill as waste unless this material
could be turned to use by some better
and more thorough form of utilization.
But in many cases we know, and in
many other cases we have excellent
reason to believe, that most, If not all,
of this material could be used with
profit 1t is simply a question of in
telligent investigation and. more than
ALL of having the will to economize.
GREATER SUPPLY POSSIBLE
But there are other ways to con-
serve the forests besides cutting in
half the present waste of forest prod
ucts. The forests can be made td
produce three or four times as rapidly
as they do at present. This is true of
both the virgin forests and the cutover
lands. Virgin forests are often fully
stocked with first class timber, but this
stock has BEEN laid In very slowly
on account of the wasteful competi-
tion which is carried on constantly be-
tween the rival trees. Then, too, in
the virgin forests there are very many
trees which have reached maturity and
stopped growing, and these occupy
space which, if held by younger trees,
would be laying in a new stock con
stantly. As regards the cutover land
severe cutting followed by fire has
checked growth so seriously that in
most cases reproduction is both poor
and slow, while in many other cases
there is no true forest reproduction at
all at present, and there is but little
hope for the future"