The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-08-08
USING UP TIMBER MUCH FASTER THAN
 1T GAN BE GROWN
Forestry Service Says It Is Essential to Stop Deple- ton of Nations Timber
 Supply
By HUGH W. ROBERTS
 washington Bureau The Age Herald

WH'Hlhsloh buredu The Age Herald
 Washington, August 7.~Cspeciai 'ay 2@An
 swering inquiries of the Senate, the for
 est serVlce, department of agriculture, re
 ports:
 l. Three-ffths of the original tirnber q
 the United States is gone, and we are us
 ing timber four times as fast as we arr
 growing it.
 2 The depletion of timber is not the sol,
 cause of the recent high prices of fores
 products.
 3. The fundamental problem is to. in
 crease production by stoHpng forest dev astation.
 The statement continues: "The virgir forests of the United States covered S22, :. oOoOO0 acres. They are now shrunk tc one-slxth of that area All classes ot fcrest lands, culled, burned and cut-over aggregate 463,000,000 acres. Of the lands remaining and not utilized for farming approximately S1,000,000 aores have been so severely cut and burned as to be- come an unproductive waste. This area IS equivalent to the combined forests Of Germany, Denmark, Holland Belgium, France, Switzerland, Spain and Portugal.
 The merchantable new timber remain ing in the United States is estimated, roughly, at 2,215 billion board feet less than three-fourths of which is virgin stumpage. The rest is second growth O. lSldtINely nierlOr quality.
 There is now consumed oP destroyed annually in the United States 56, 6,oO0, 0oo, ,O0o board feet. Our depleted forests are grow ing less than one-fourth this amount
 The depeltion of forest resources is not confined to saw timber. Since 1909 the country has ceased being self-supporting Ill newsprint paper, and now imports two thirds of the pulp, pulp wood or news print which we require Tn 1919 the pro- f11.cfion of fJ1~,, len off 50 per cent. Within ten years the United States will lose it's commanding position in the world market for these products, and may in time be unable to supply it's domestic requirements"
 Treating the timber situation in the south particularly, the report says, in part:
 At the end of the nineties, southern yellow pine was leading the country in the cut of soft woods. In 1909 it's produc- ton reached the peak, with nearly half ol the entire countrys cut, and from then on began to decline.
 Southern yellow pine is still the most important single factor in the lumber production of the United States, furnish ifg Al per cent of the cut of soft wood and 35 per cent of the entire lumber cut It will remain an important factor for at least another ten or fifteen years. Within the next eight years, however, it IS certain to undergo profound changes.
 The original pine forests of the South Atlantic and gulf states covered 130, GOO, ,OO0 acres, and had stand of timber close to $50 billion feet. Today the area of virgin yellow pine is g, 800 900 acres, or less than one-fifth the original The stand of virgin timber is 39,000,0Oo board feet, or a trifle over one-fifth the original" The southern pine region under the heading, Total Net Area Expressed in | Acres" is given as follows: Virginia 100000; North Carolina 10 7O0,- | 900, South Carolina 8.000,oo0, Georgia 15,- | bo0,000, Florida 1S,000,0OO, Alabama 15, ,5O0,- l Ooo, Texas 7424,0Oo, Oklahoma 100000 | Missouri 320.O00-total 114,6S4 900 acres. It is reported that the annual drain in | southern forests amounts to 4500, GOO GOO | cubic feet of wood. The annual growth is estimated at 5000 e,oo0 feet of the mer chantable second-growth. areas.
 The report continues: "A recent survey covering 5,400 mills, owning practically he entire remaining virgin stand in the ;outh, indicates that 4,419 mills, or S2 per :ent of all reporting, will cut out in five years or 'css, and the amount of virgin in1ber will be reduced 50 per cent; that .25i mills will cut out their timber in erl years or ioss with a correspondent re- luction of B per cent; that n twenty Tears all the mills except twelve yill have ut out their timber, and their production will be reduced to 8 per cent of the present. output. This does not mean that he total lumber production will be re- luced at this rate. As the larger saw hills cut out, small mills will take their 'laces, and will work on the second ,rowth and on small scattered tracts which under present conditions cannot be logged
 Regarding conditions in the south, the