The Coconino sun., 1924-01-25

In making a service talk on the
United States forest service, or on
forestry in general, a person might
take up any one of a dozen different
subdivisions for discussion. Since
there has been more or less discus
sion during the last year or two re-
garding a national forest policy Tor
the United States, / shall confine my
remarks for the most part to brief
discussion of this subject.
When we realize that three-fourths
of the timber of the continental Unit
ed States has already been used up,
and when we realize that the nation
is using some 25,000,000,000 cubic
feet of wood annually, whereas we are
growing, or replacing, only 6,0OO,O ,OO0,-
900 cubic feet, we begin to stop and
wonder how soon the end of lumber
ing in America will come. There are
men among US today who can remem-
ber when the bulk of the lumber used
in the middle states came from the
north, or the lake states. We have
seen the supply of timber in the lake
states region practically exhausted,
and the southern states become the
seat of the great milling industry.
Now the big mills are moving to the
Pacific northwest.
Charles S. Mather, president of the
Central Coal and Coke company OF
Kansas City, and recognized author
ity on lumber market conditions, is
quoted in recent issue of the Lum-
Der World Review to the effect that
a thorough canvass of the southern
pine producing territory by the South
ern Pine association in 1919 indicat
ed at that time producing capacity
of 16,000,000,000 feet b. m. annually
for the 5401 plants canvassed. The
investigation showed that, according
to the rate of depletion indicated by
the canvass, there has been falling
off during the four years from 1919
to 1923, of Ga billion feet in annual
production in the south, and further,
that the reduction in producing ca
pacity in the next five years will be
almost 5,00O,000,000 feet more. Con-
seuuently, five years hence the south
will be able to produce only one-third
as much lumber as it did five years
ago. Five years hence, if these pre-
dictions are fairly accurate, it is very
likely that all of the lumber produc-
ed in the south will be consumed In
the territory south of the Ohio, Mis-
souri, and Potomac rivers. Then all OF
the territory north of these rivers, and
east of the Rockies, will be dependent
upon the western coast.
Already we see the Pacific coast
coming to the front as a great lum-
Il p1-nh
fourth of the merchantable timber in
the Pacific coast states has already
been cut. Within ten years it is safe
to say that the Pacific coast states
will be producing big per cent OF
the lumber used in the United States.
If the country is to be permanently
prosperous it must be independent so
far as the great natural resources are
concerned. This includes farming,
mining (both minerals and coaD and
timber supply. Once ton of coal is
taken out of the ground it cannot be
replaced. But timber growing and
agriculture can be carried on indefin-
itely, provided proper steps are taken
to conserve the soil and to protect the
growing crops. Today 80,000,O00 acres
of land which at one time was con-
sidered the finest forest land in the
country lies idle. Lumbering opera
tions add some 100000 acres an
naully to the cut-over area. Some
times we assume that as lands are
cut over the soil is cultivated and
improved as farms. However, a sur
vey indicates that the area which
goes into farms each year is practical
" offset by the areas of cultivated
lands which are abandoned. Take
Louisiana, one of the great numbering
states of the south, for example. Ac-
cording to a report by the department
of conservation of Louisiana, virgin
timber covers 4,715,000 acres. Cut