The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1909-02-26
TIMBER SUPPLY OF UNITED
STATES.

Ol n
eve are now cutting timber
from the forests of the United States
at the rate of 500 feet board meas
ure year for every man, woman,
and child. In Europe they only
use 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 Treadwell Cleveland,
Jr., in circular which treats of the
conservation of the forests, soil,
water, and all the other great nat
ural resources, which has just been
published 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 less than thirty
years all our remaining virgin tim
Der will be cut. Meantime, the
forests which have been cut over
are generally in bad way for want
of care; they will produce only in
ferior second growth. We are clear
ly over the verge of timber famine.
"This is not due to necessity, for
the forests are one Of the renewable
resources. Rightly used, they go
on producing crop after crop in
definitely. 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 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 pro-
duction 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
of all the yellow pine cut
during the season was used, and
that the other half, amounting to
8 100000 cords, was wasted. Such
waste is typical. Mr.. R. A. Long,
in his address on Forest Conser-
walton at the Conference of Gov
ernors last spring, pointed out that
20 per cent of the yellow pine was
simply left in the woods a3waste
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 other cases we have excel
lent reason to believe, that most,
if not all, of this material could be
used with profit. 1t is simply
question of intelligent investigation
and, more than all, of having the
will to economiZe.
"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
produce three or four times as rap
idly 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
aid in very slowly, on account of
.he wasteful competition which is
carried on constantly between the
'ival trees. Then too, in the vir-
rim forests there are very many
,rees which have reached maturity
md stopped growing, and these oc-
,upy space which, if held by young
II trees, would be laying in new
took constantly. AS regards the
ut over land, severe cutting, fol-
owed by fire, has checked growth
o seriously that in most cases re-
is both poor and slow,
While in many other cases there Is
10 true forest reproduction at all
It present, and there is but little
lope for the future.