Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1908-11-12

1--WE are now cutting timber fromnthe
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 90 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
Treadwell Cleveland, Jr., i'll a circular
which treats of the conservation OF the
forests, soil water, and all the other
great natural resources, which has just
been published 10y the United States
Forest Service. In speaking further of
consumption of timber in this country,
Mr.. Cleveland says
AT 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 i'll a 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, tor 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 it; and their forests are
becoming with time not less but. 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 preserve our
forest Independence and, with it, 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. In 1907 it is
estimated that only one-half of all the
yellow pine cut during the season was
used, and that the other half, amounting
TO S,000,0 cords, was wasted. Such
waste is typical. Mr.. K. A. Long, Ill
his address ON Forest Conservation at
the Conference of Governors last spring,
pointed out that 20 per. cent of the
yellow pine was simply left in the woods
IA waste which represents the timber
growing on 300, 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 10 use by some better and
more thorough form of utilization. But
in many cases we know, and i'll many
other cases we have excellent reasons to
believe, that most, if not all, of this
material could be used with profit 1t is
simply a question of intelligent inves-
tigation and more than all, of having
the will to economize
"But there are other ways to conserve
the forests besides cutting in half the
waste of forest products. The forests
can be made to produce 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
competition which is carried OH con-
staDtly 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 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 hope for
the future"