Beverly banner. [volume] (Beverly, N.J.) 1877-1964, 1925-11-06


are signs that the people are con-
WINGED that the distress signal is cry of wolfFs
And there are further signs of nationwide
response to the stern warning of President Cool
idge who said in his American Forest Week proc
lamation
1T is not enough that the federal, state and
local governments take the lead There must be
change in our national attitude. Our industries,
our landowners, our farmers all our citizens must
learn to treat our forests as crops, to be used
but also to be renewed"
The giant tree pictured herewith stands near
Bloomfield Ind. 1t is Al feet inches in circum-
ference and 125 feet high. Estimates of it's age
guesses. 1t commands the admiration and even
affection of the whole countryside Picnic parties
are held In it's enormous hollow. 1t is freak tree.
Nobody would want forest of such trees. Yet it
Is a symbol Of large significance. For one thing,
1t stands close to the population center of the
United States. Right there has it stood for three
centuries while the American people have marched
across the continent destroying the forests with
ak and saw and fire they marched. And its
sheltering hollow suggests what the tree and the
forest and timber mean to American life and home
and industry If we do not act promptly the end
of our forests is in sight. Fire leads "The -Four
Horsemen." He is already In and burning right
and left. Without forests, Flood and Drought will
have their will of us. And Famine follows hard on
Flood and Drought.
Here in brief are some features of the present
stuation-it would take a volume to set forth
all it's phases:
Of the original forest land Of 822,O00O00 acres
there remain 13S,000O00 acres of virgin
forest; 250OOOOOO acres of second growth third
growth forest of poor quality and little merchant
able value, and 81 100000 acres of burnt and
loggedover land idle, unproductive and mostly
unfit for farming. Timber still standing amounts
to 745,000,000,000 cubic feet; the annual cut is
25O00000000 cubic feet the annual growth Is
a no
there is left in one-sxth and in bulk of timber
less than one-third. In the states comprising the
Rocky Mountain and Pacific Coast regions are con-
centrated rs per cent of the virgin growth and
60 per cent of all the disable woods
The East and Middle West are supplied by the
South and West, with a respective average rail-
road haul of 1900 and 2750 miles. The freight
bill is between $250OOOOOO and $3OO0O0OOO yearly
Excessive profits have forced prices all out Of pro-
portion. A decrease in per capita consumption has
been offset by increase in population. The total
of building operations increases yearly.
We annually cut 25,OO0O00,OO0 cubic feet. Our
present average annual growth Is 1913 cubic feet
So to make cut and growth equal would
require more than the total land area of the
United States To grow this twenty-five billion
cubic feet annually our present area Of forest
land would require growth OF 52.8 cubic feet
acre. France grows 3S4 cubic feet an and
Germany so cubic feet
The papermakerS sell US paper IN excess or
100000 tons year-more than all the rest Of
the world uses. They are now cutting about 6OO-
100000 cubic feet of wood here and importing
the equivalent of as much more in materials. They
talk gliby OF 100000 to 18OO0,000 tons Of paper
to be used in 1850 and hope to be able to use
several kinds of hardwood.
Our annual forest losses by fire are appalling.
The American Tree association estimates them at
100000 acres In 1a24-an area about as big as
the state of Pennsylvania Guess the money loss
for yourself then add the ncalculable Intangible
lossesi
In the national forests in 1923 fires burned $780,
PA acres, with a loss In timber and property of
$494.965.OOO The year 1924 was worse There
were, according to the United States forester.
e247 fires. which burned sfour-tenths Of one per
rent Of the total acreage Since there are 157 00O-