The Republican journal., 1908-11-26
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 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 Tread
we'll Cleveland, Jr., in circular which
treats on the conservation of the for
ests, 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,
Mr.. Cleveland says:
cat this rate, in less than thirty years
all our remaining virgin timber will be
cut. Meantime, the forests which have
been cut over are generally in bad way
for want of care; they will produce only
inferior second growth. We are clearly
over the verge of timber famine.
''This is not due to necessity, for the
forests are one Of the renewable resour-
ces. Rightly used, they go on producing
crop after crop indefinitely. The coun-
tries of Europe know this, and Japan
knows it; and their forests are becoming
with time not less, but more productive.
We probably still possess sufficient for
est land to grow wood enough at home
to supply our own needs. If we are not
blind, or willfully wasteful, we may yet
preserve our forest independence and,
with it, the fourth of our great indus
tries.
present wastes in lumber propuction
are enormous. Take the case of yellow
pine, which now heads the list in the vol
ume of annual cut. In 1907 it is esti-
mated that only one-half of all the yellow
pine cut during the season was used, and
that the other half, amounting to 8,000,-
900 cords, was wasted. Such waste is
typical. Mr.. R. A. Long, in his address
on Forest Conservation at the Confer
ence of Governors last spring, pointed
out that 20 per cent of the yellow pine
was simply left in the woods-a waste
which represents the timber growing
on 100000 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
believe, that most, if not all, of this ma
terial could be used with profit 1t is
simply question of intelligent investi-
cation, and more than all, of having the
will to economic.
''But there are other ways to conserve
the forests besides cutting 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 pres
ent. This is true of both the virgin
forests and the cut-over lands. Virgin
forests are often fully stocked with first
class timber, but, this stock has been laid
in very slowly, on account of the waste
full competition which is carried on con-
stantly between 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 new stock constant
ly. AS regards the cut-over 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 for
est reproduction at all at present, and
there is but little hope for the future.'