The Union daily times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1918-current, 1922-01-31
Clifford Pinchot Addresses
Agricultural Conference

In an address on "A National For
est Policy" before the Agricultural
Conference at Washington, D. c., on
Thursday, January 26, Clifford Pinchot
said:
"No wood on the farm, no food in
the town. 1t takes more than half the
wood-tonsumed in America to supply
the farms that produce our food. The
farm industry is the greatest single
user of wood.
"The. farmer finds it harder and
harder to get building lumber at rea-
sonable cost. The reason is clear.
Five-sixths of our virgin timber is
gone. Two-thirds of all the states,
with 8O000,O00 people and more than
four-fifths of the farm values Of the
country, depend for timber on the few
! remaining states which still cat more
than they consume. Within ten years
the entire country viii have to depend
M two or three states for nsarly aii
its softwood lumber.
Moreover, what we can not supply
at home we can secure abroad. Far
more than half the nations Of the
world are dependent for timber sup
plies upon forests beyond their own
boundaries. Even Mexico is an i'm
porter Of timber, while the Canadians,
if they should give us all they have,
could meet our needs for less than
one generation.
"The demands we make upon our
forests are gigantic. More than half
of all the lumber used in the world
is consumed in the United States.
Meantime, we are replacing by growth
only one-fourth Of what we cut, and
our remaining supplies are dwindling
to an early end. 1t is clear that we
must grow what we need, or 60 with
out.
"The 46O0O0,00O acres of timber
land which, remain, if they produced
fifty cubic feet per acre per year,
could almost meet our present needs.
But they have been so mishandled
that 15 cubic feet is all they grow,
while our population is increasing and
the uses Of wood are multiplying. A
higher standard of living always
means larger use Of wood.
"The public forests, national and
state, are reasonably well handled, but
they furnish less than 8 per cent of
our lumber, and can never supply
more than 20.
"Farm woodlots, scattered in small
tracts outside the lumber regions, will
always help the farmers, but can not
grow the vast quantities of saw tim
ber we must have to live. They are in
little danger of devastation.
"The privately-owned commercial
timber lands which contain most of
what timber we have left are being
devastated more rapidly and COM
pletely than ever before, to the in
calculable injury Of the whole nation.
"When a house is on fire, the first
thing is to stop the fire. Replanting,
fire prevention, andthe saving of what
timber lands still remain on the pub
lie domain and Indian reservations
are each of great Importance, but the
first thing is to put an end to forest
devastation.
"Since the states which do not have
forests must depend on those which
do, this matter must be handled by
the nation itself. A national law
would become effective everywhere at
once, while II saving our commercial
forests were left to the individual
states, it would undoubtedly be years
before those states which have large
supplies Of saw timber would take ac-
tion. BY that time 1t might well be
too late.
'Meanwhile, it Is we'll to remember
that the forest Is crop to be grown
from the soil, not mine to be ex-
housted and abandoned, as the lum-
bermen do, and that the proposal to
take the U. s. Forest Service out Of
the Department Of Agriculture Is In
fact proposal to check the progress
Of forest preservation In America"