Evening star., 1924-11-19
PRESIDENT WARNS u. S. MUST ACT
TO STAY DEPLETION OF FORESTS
Continued from First Page.o


bulk of timber less than one-third
From overcutting and fire we have
left on our hands omething like
eighty million acres of denuded forest
land. most of 1t unfit for farming
Then we have about two hundred and
fifty million acres of second growth
forest, much Of it poor in quality an6
amount. Three-fourths of our cut Ii
still from virgin forests. difficult and
distant of access, so that their prod.
ucts must pay for long freight hauls
to reach the chief markets.
Warns Of Timber Exhaustion.
Expressed roughly, we have lef,
about seven hundred and forty-fivt
billion cubic feet of timber. From
this the annual drain is, twenty-five
billion cubic feet. This total drair
is most significant when we reflect
that. toward offsetting it. we have ar
annual timber growth of only six bill.
lion cubic feet. and even in our youne
forests, where this growth Is taking
place, cutting has already outstrip'
ped growth. We must face the stu.
alton that at this rate We are moi
far from timber exhaustion.
ITO bridge this fatal gap between
cut and growth we have never taken
sufficient action. In fact. our wealth o1
old-growth timber has made us prone
to ignore the gap and to leave our less
fortunate descendants to struggle with
it,. But we cannot escape the penalties
of our national neglect. They are al.
ready beginning to be felt. Since 1876
lumber prices have risen much more
| rapidly than the prices Of other com.
modities. Per capita annual consump'
tion Of sawed lumber. which in 1906
had reached 525 board feet, has dropped
to 2S5. and in some of the. Eastern
States to 160 board feet. We are pay
ing a yearly freight bill of $3.50. 900
which could better be used for growing
timber than for transporting it.
There is no easy road out of this
unprOfitable situation. The end of free
timber is in sight. World competition
for the world supply will leave no large
dependable source of imports open to
us. The use of substitutes hardly keeps
pace with new uses for wood. there Is
no likelihood that We can become a
woodlesS Nation even il we wanted to
When the free timber is gone we must
grow our wood from the soil, like any
other crop
Problem Of First Magnitude.
Strange as it may seem, the Ameri-
can people, bred for many generations
to forest life, drawing no small meas
ure of their wealth from the forest
have not yet acquired the sense of tim
ber as crop. These immense stretches
of cut-over land, mostly too rough OF
too sterile for tilling. have not awakened
us to their vast potential worth as
growers of wood. Fully one-fourth OF
our land area ought to he kept in forest
not poor. dwindling thickets Of scrub
but forests Of trees fit for bridges and
houses and ships. Handled by the best
timber-cropping methods. our. present
forest lands could be made to grow even
more timber each year than we now
use. But much of our cut-over land
lying idle or half productive, is now an
immeasurable loss. 1t pays little or no
taxes, 1t keeps few hands busy, 1t turns
few wheels, it builds no roads. Idle
forest land has scrapped schools. fac
tories. railroads and towns it has dot
ted the land with abandoned farms II
has created migratory population.
Our forest problem is land problem
of the hrst magnitude.
ut is likewise an Industrial prob
lem of great Importance. These great
Industries that depend on the forest
for their raw material - industries
that, taken together. rank about third
~ VI ootPut Jul Shic
industrials groups-must be pre-
served. They employ very large
number of wage earners; they rep
resent an immense investment OF
capital; around them are built whole
cities: they feed the railroads with
"a vast flow of traffic. In the long
run they depend for their existence
on making our forest soils grow tim
ber and on using that timber without
waste.
.'This brief sketch of the forest
problem would be incomplete IL II
did not mention the hopeful progress
already made toward better forest
policy. OF our total forest area OF
70,000,000 acres, about one-fifth is
in public ownership. Most of these
public forests are safeguarded from
fire and dedicated to timber growing
OF private forest lands-in extent
much the most important part of our
forests-a little more than half have
more or less adequate protection
against fire. On the rest fire is free
to ravage the young growth and sub
ject the forest to a steady deteriora-
ton: but the Clarke McNary law
passed by the last session of Con-
gress, will. I hope, speedily change
the outlook for these neglected for
estS. 1t authorizes Congress-, in co.
operation with the States, to estab-
lish systems of protection agains,
fire, and it authorizes, among other
things, cooperation in tree planting
ana study to develop stable and
equitable forest taxation. Very con-
siderable progress has been made
under previous legislation in join,
fire protection.
New Centers of Guidance.
"Under the Weeks law the Federal
Government has purchased about two
million acres of forest land in the
Eastern States as nucleus of ma
tional forest system for the East
Congress has wisely provided for for
est experiment stations in of our
10 or IL principal forest regions, sta
tions that are destined to become
centers of knowledge and guidance
toward better forest practice. Much
valuable work has been done by va
'rious Government agencies in COM
batting forest insects and diseases
and in research in many phases OF
better utilization of timber.
Among private agencies also there
has been promising activity. AssG
Citations of timber owners in many
regions have established fire protec-
ton. Here and there private owners
have embarked on timber-growing as
a profitable investment, and the in
dustries dependent on our forests are
taking a keener interest in working
out a forest policy. Forestry asso-
Citations, State forestry departments
and forest schools are lending in
valuable aid to the forestry move
ment.
"These are hopeful signs. Yet we
have started too late and are moving
too slowly to bridge the gap between
cut and growth. We must adjus,
ourselves to an era of reduced per
capita consumption. We must hus-