122 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



It is difficult for ns to comprehend our present yearly consump- 

 tion of wood in all its varied iises. Conservative and accepted authorities 

 place the present yearly hmiber cut in this country at 40,000,000,000 

 feet (B. M.), while this is estimated to be but one-seventh of the 

 total wood consumption. If it were possible to cut the entire amount 

 yearly consumed into boards an inch thick, they would cover a walk 

 six feet wide that would extend more than 354 times around the earth 

 at its greatest diameter. 



Although the amount of wood produced each year by the growth 

 of the forests of the entire country is very great, it is a long way from 

 what it might be both in quantity and quality were our forests ade- 



TlMBEE GROWS BUT TO BE UTILIZED. LUMBEKING ON PkIVATE HoLDIN(iS WITHIN THE 



Boundaries of the San Jacinto Reservation, California. 



quately protected and managed. It will certainly not be sufficient 

 to supply our requirements, after the virgin timber is exhausted, with- 

 out the organization of a system of management which will keep the 

 lands assigned to forest growth properly protected and in a desirable 

 condition as to reproduction and growth. 



This is well illustrated in the present unsatisfactory condition of 

 much of the woodland in tlio Eastern States that has been cut over 

 at various times without consideration for a future crop and left 

 without protection and to chance reproduction. In the oldest part 

 of the Union, viz.: the original tliirteen States, the latest report, based 

 upon trustworthy figures, places the wooded area at a little over 

 fifty-five per cent., yet without systematic forest management, how 



