Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1920-01-11
DEPLETION 0F J. s. FORESTS IS
 AT RAPID RATE
Danger to Country From the Practice is Serious
 One

Washington, D. C., Jan. 8.-The rate of depletion of the forests of this country is more than twice, probably three times, what is act ually being produced by growth in form serviceable for products oth- CT than firewood. Consequently, high prices for lumber are not wholly due to increased costs of production. An important factor is the erretreating sources of tim Der supply. Already the supplies of all the great eastern centers of pro- duction are approaching exhaustion, with the exception of the South, and even there most of the mills have not over 10 to 15 years supply of virgin timber. Already the south ern pine is being withdrawn from many points as competitive factor and it's place taken by western tim Der. This inevitably results in added freight charges, which the consumer must pay.
 These facts are called to public attention in the annual report of the forester of the U. s. Department of Agriculture, recently published. i Their presentation is accompanied by plea that the nation adopt an enlarged program of public acqui- sition of forests by the government, the states and municipalities, and protection and perpetuatien of for est groWths on all privately owned lands which may not better be used for agriculture and settlement.
 In the early years of the present century it looked as though the management of forests as perma
 nent, productive properties might be voluntarily undertaken by pri- vate owners on a large scale, but since then the situation has ma terially changed. The need for the adoption of an enlarged program of acquisition, the U. s. Department of Agriculture points out, has become increasingly urgent. More than 20 years ago the Division of Forestry as it was then called, offered to give advice and assistance to pri- vate timber owners who might wish to consider applying forest manage ment to their properties. By the middle of 1905 requests had been received for the examination of pri- vate holdings, large and small, com prising in all 10,900,000 acres of land Many of these requests were from large timber companies and other owners of extensive timber tracts. On the strengts of the showing made by the preliminary examination, a number of these large owners entered into co-apera- tive agreements for the preparation of working plans.
 But private forest interests failed to follow up the beginning, and the government and the states, in the opinion of the Department of Agri- culture, must join hands to work out program that will correlate public and private efforts looking to the protection and proper admin istration of forests. The function of the federal government, in addi- tion to handling the national fors ests, it is suggested, would be to stimulate, guide and coordinate state action and conduct necessary investigations regarding the best methods of forestry. to assist the states in the classification of land, and to harmonize action between the different states. The states would also handle public property owned by them and they would have fur nection with the protection and per petuation of private forest lands.
 With regard to the federal atti- tude to private forestry, it is sug gested that the government would work primarily through state agen- cies. To initiate the proposed pol icy, a federal law would be neces- sary authorizing the government to cooperate with the states in bring
 inp abOut the urOtectiOn and right handling of forest lands within their borders and providing means for such cooperation.