The Florida star. (Titusville, Fla.) 1880-1917, 1908-11-13
OUR timber OUTLOOK
On Verge Of Wood Famine, Says
Forestry Expert.
SECOND GEOWTH IN BAD WAY

WithIn Thirty Years Our Remaining
Virgin Timber win All Re Cut. De-
elarss TrsadssII Cleveland. j..
Claims Forests Rightly ussd Should
CO ON Producing Forever.
Eve are now cutting timber from
the forests Of the United States at the
rate Of 500 feet board measure a year
for every nan. woman and child. In
Europe they use only sixty board feet"
Few statements could be made which
would better convince the average man
that the United States leads the world
IN the demand for timber. II Is made
By Treadwell Cleveland, Jr.. In a cir
cular which treats Of the conservation
OF the forests. son, water and all the
other great natural resources which
was recently published by the United
States forest service. In speaking fur
Their Of the consumption OF timber In
the United States Mr.. Cleveland says:
Eat this rate In less than thirty
years all our remaining virgin timber
viii be cut Meantime the forests
which have been cut over are general
~ IN q bad way for want Of care.
They win produce only inferior second
growth. We are clearly over the verge
Of q timber famine.
This n not due to necessity. for the
forests are one OF the renewable re-
sources Rightly used they go on pro-
ducing crop after crop indefinitely.
The countries Of Europe know this,
and Japan knows II. and their forests
are becoming with time not less but
more productive. We probably still
possess suficient forest land to grow
wood enough at home to supply our
own needs. IL we are not blind or
wfIlfuIly wasteful we may yet pre-
serve our forest independence and with
Il the fourth OF our great industries.
present wastes In lumber prOduc-
ton are enormous. Take the case Of
yellow pine, which now heads the list
I'm the volume Of annual cut. In 1907
it An estimated that only one-half Of
all the yellow pine cut during the sea-
son was used and that the other half,
amounting to 100000 cords, was
wasted Such waste Ii typical. r. A.
Long In his address on Forest Con-
servation' at the conference Of gov
erners last spring pointed out that 20
per cent Of the yellow pine was sim
ply left In the woods, a waste which
represents the timber growing on 3OO,-
600 acres.
The rest Of the waste takes place at
the mill. OF course IL 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 I'm many cases we know and In
reason to believe that most. II not all.
OF this material could be used with
profit It is simply a question Of in
telligent investigation and, more than
all, OF having the will to economic.
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 to pro-
duce three or four times as rapidly as
they do at present 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 wasteful COM
petition which is carried on constantly
between the rival trees. Then, too. in
the virgin forests there are very many
trees which have reached maturity and
stopped growing, aud these occupy
space which II held by younger trees
would be laying In a new stock con-
stantly. 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 forest reproduction at
all at present, and there is but little
hnna FOR IA f,nfura