Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-11-11
The Timber Crob
F America progresses as her needs re

IF America progresses as her needs re-
quire. the time will come when she
will raise crops of timber as regularly
as she now produces corn or apples or pc
cans. Years instead of months will mark
the interval between seed-time and harvest,
and hundreds or thousands instead of scores
Of acres will constitute the farm; but trees
for timber will be planted and tended with
much of the same care now given to agri-
culture.
This must be done If the manifold mis-
fortunes of continued forest waste and ne
glectC are to be escaped. For long decades
the country has been stripped Of woodland
growth until now its material interests are
threatened and in some instances are al
ready suffering. Every constructive process
in which wood is employed from the build
ing of houses to the publication of books
and newspapers, has increased in cost so
greatly that careful observers are anxiously
bordering what we shall do If the upward
trend continues-as continue it must IL the
source of wood supply is not replen1shed.
Three-ffths of that original supply Is gone,
and the remainder is being reduced at the
rate of twenty-six million cubic feet year,
while only some six million cubic feet are
being grown,
This sad depletion, authorities say, "has
not resulted from the use of the forests but
from their devastation" Further: The ker-
mel of the problem lies in the enormous
areas of forest lands which are not produc-
ing the timber crops that they should. There
are three hundred and twenty-six million
acres of cut-over timber lands bearing no
saw timber Their condition ranges from
complete devastation, through various
stages of partial restocking with trees OF
S,,G1 to al OH Ynt limit
which are producing timber at or near their
full capacity. On eighty-one million acres
there is practically no forest growth-the
result of forest fires and of methods OF cut
ting which destroy prevent new timber
~eowth." To remedy this condition and check
Its ever widening stream of hurtful conse-
quences. it is essential that the Federal and
State Governments cooperate, not only In
preventing further waste through fires and
reckless cutting, but also in the basically
important work of reforestation.
OF all parts of America none has greater
reason to be interested in this conserving
task than Georgia and her neighbor States.
The pine forests of the South have been
reduced from six hundred and fifty billion
to one hundred and thirty-nine billion board
feet. Ten years hence, at the present rate Of
consumption, their output will be insufficient
for this regions own needs, and the rest of
the country will be dependent on the Pa
cific coast Here we have a problem that is
truly critical Ten short years, and after
that the swift exhaustion of one OF our fun
damentaI resources! Suppose it was author
itatively given out that in another decade
the Souths capacity for producing cotton
would be destroyed unless certain restora-
tive steps were promptly taken Would
thoughtful men fail to act forthwith? Would
any State fail to enact needful legislation
or to cooperate full-heartedly with the
Federal Government? Well, the forestry sit
uation today is hardly less imperative in its
demands for vigorous action. The prosper
ity Of all industry and all business is in
volved, and vitality so. Competent students
of the matter prepared with a remedial
program. Let Congress and the Legislatures
lose no time in making possible it's execu-
ton