The Washington herald., 1921-04-03
NEED OF FOREST
CROWTHN NATION
URGED BY EXPERTS
Wooded Areas Need Care
To Foster Steady.
Supply.

urged again upon the public 'yester-
6zy by Col. w. b. Greeley, chief OF
the forest service Of the Depart
ment Of Agriculture, who declared
recently that timber depletion has
reached a point in this country
where three-nfths Of the primevat
forests are gone and only 80 per
cent of the timber remaining s
east OF the Great Plains.
The country's growth has been
greatly aided by the liberal use OF
timber. said Col. Greeley, but re-
forestation should be practiceo
earnestly. There Is an abundanee
of forest area to support all in
dustries. he declared, adding:
Demand Grews-
1T was thought that we, like
European countries. would use less
timber as we progressed, bat the
older our communities grow the
more timber they seem to require.
Substitutes do not lessen the de-
mand. More wood is used In con
struction today than before the dis
covery OF concrete and more wood
is used in building railway cars
than before the steel OF part steel
CAT was OtNtlOpto- AhAS - -
parently true in nearly every in
dustry.
Abundant and widely-distributed
forests have meant to the United
States homes for the masses Of the
people beyond the standards Of any
other nation. They have placed
newspapers and magazines on the
average family table. They have
n NaL NJ
industrial conditions which promote
democracy and constructive energy
rather than discomfort and dcstruc-
tive social forces bred by hard and
comfortIess conditions of life.
Cause Of shortage.
The idIeness OF $1,000. .OoO acres
OF forest land. an area increased by
s. 900. 900 to lo.OO0.o 900 acres an
nually, destructive logging, and
still more destructive forest fires.
are the factors at work to increase
timber shortage.
The exhaustion OF American tim
ber has not come about because the
forests have been used SO freely,
but because Of the failure to use
! forest growing land. In a nutshell.
the problem is that the United
States is cutting wood out OF It's
forests three or four times as fast
as it is being grown. Much Of the
land on which timber stands or has
been cut on will always be forest
land. Il il ample TO grow all the
wood needed for the use OF the peo-
| pie OF this country and for export
trade in lumber, and products manu-
! facturcd from lumber. if the land
can be kept at worn growing trees.
| Timber for the future H. simply a
matter Of putting idle land to worg.
Encouragement Urged.
Every reasonable encouragement
should be given to the landowner to
grow timber on his own account in
the ways best suited TO his own pur-
poses. but by some means or other
the public must sec to II that forest
lands not needed for agriculture do
not lie idle. The regulations i'm
posed must be reasona bic and cquit-
able. obviously the owner Of the
land can not do IL all The publ ic
must aid him in overcoming the haz-
ard Of forest fires and must rccog-
nize that the present methods Of
taxing forests in many regions are
equivalent to taxing a farm crop
twice a week during the growing
season.
To grow timber on tho average
tract Of land. doing il a. 4 public
utility. three things must he done.
The owner must he given the bencht
Of moderate tax while his crop OF
timber Is being grown. II must be
protected from forest fires due TO
the negligence OF his nciEhhor or
the negligence OF the community.
and he must be required TO employ
sufficient safeguards in the way his
| timber is cut. his slaShinEs disposed
Of and frc danger avoided to actu-
ally rCferost the land