The Tupelo journal. (Tupelo, Miss.) 1876-1924, 1908-11-06
Timber Supply Of the United
States.

We are now cutting timber
from the forests of the United
States at the rate of 500 feet
board measure a year for every
man, woman and child. In Eu-
rope they use only 60 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 Tread
we'll Cleveland, Jr.. in a circular
which treats of the conservation
Of the forests, soil, water, and
all the other great natural re-
sources, which has just been pub
lished by the United States For
est Service. In speaking further
OF the consumption Of timber in
this country, Mr.. Cleveland says:
AT this rate in thirty years
all our remaining virgin timber
will be cut. Meantime, the for
ests which have been cut over
are generally in a bad way for
want of care; they will produce
only inferior second growth, We
are clearly oyer the verge of a
timber famine.
This is not due to necessity,
for the forests are one of the re.
Movable resources. Rightly u.s.
ed, they go on producing crop af-
ter crop indefinitely. The scoun-
tries of Europe know this, and
Japan knows it; and their for
ests 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 20 are blind or WiIfully was
teful, we may yet preserve our
forest independence and with it
the fourth Of our great industries.
Present wastes in lumber pro-
duction is enormous. Take the
case of yellow pine, which now
/ heads the list in the volume Of
annual cut. In 1907 it is estima-
ted that only one-half Of all the
yellow pine cut during the seas
on was used, and that the other
half amounting to 5000, 900 cords
was wasted. Such waste is typ
al. Mr.. R. A. Long, in his ad-
dress on Forest Conservation"
at the Conference of Governors
last spring, pointed out that 20
per cent of the yellow pine was
simply left il the woods-a waste
which represents the timber
growing on 100000 acres.
THE rest Of the waste taxes
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 util-
ization. But in many cases we
know, and in many other cases
we have excellent reason to be-
lieve, that most, if not all Of this
material could be used with prof
it. 1t is simply question of in
telligent investigation and more
than all of having the will to
economic.
But there are other ways to
conserve the forests besides cut
ting in half the present waste of
forest products. The forests
can be made to produce three or
four times as rapidly as they do
at the present. This is true Of
both the virgin forests and the
cnt ove,, lands. Virgin forests
often fully stocked with first class
timber, but this stock has been
laid in very slowly on account Of
the wasteful competition which
is carried on constantly between
the rival trees. Then, too, in
the virgin there are very many
trees which have reached matur-
/ ity and stopped growing, and
these occupy space, which if held
by younger trees, would be lay
ing in new stock constantly
AS regards the cut-oyer land, Sc
we're 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 pres