NEWS AND NOTES 



245 



annual cut. In 1907 it is estimated that 

 only one-half of all the yellow pine cut dur- 

 ing the season was used, and that the other 

 half, amounting to 8,000,000 cords, was wasted. 

 Such waste is typical. Mr. R. A. Long, in his 

 address on 'Forest Conservation' at the con- 

 ference of governors last spring, pointed out 

 that twenty per cent, of the yellow pine was 

 simply left in the woods — a waste which 

 represents the timber growing on 300,000 

 acres. 



' ' The rest of the waste takes place at the 

 mill. Of course, it would never do to speak 

 of the material rejected at the mill as waste 

 unless this material could be turned to use 

 by some better and more thorough form of 

 utilization. But in many cases we know, and 

 in many other cases we have excellent reason 

 to believe, that most, if not all, of this ma- 

 terial could be used with profit. It is simply 

 a question of intelligent investigation and, 

 more than all, of having the will to econo- 

 mize. 



"But there are other ways to conserve 

 the forests besides cutting in half the present 

 waste of forest products. The forests can be 

 made to produce three or four times as rap- 

 idly as they do at present. This is true of 

 both the virgin forests and the cut-over lands. 

 Virgin forests are often fully stocked with 

 first-class timber, but this stock has been 

 laid in very slowly, on account of the waste- 

 ful competition which is carried on con- 

 stantly between the rival trees. Then, too, 

 in the virgin forests there are very many 

 trees which have reached maturity and 

 stopped growing, and these occupy space 

 which, if held by younger trees, would be 

 laying in a new stock constantly. As regards 

 the cut-over land, severe cutting, followed by 

 fire, has checked growth so seriously that in 

 most cases reproduction is both poor and 

 slow, while in many other cases there is 

 no true forest reproduction at all at present, 

 and there is but little hope for the future." 



^ iH iH 



Effect of Deforestation 



"What has been the effect of the tremen 

 dous consumption of timber upon our for- 

 ests?" This question is often asked by peo- 

 ple in various sections of the country, and 

 often the information of the average man 

 on the subject is not definite enough to en- 

 able him to make a clear and satisfactory 

 answer. R. S. Kellogg, assistant forester, 

 engaged upon statistics in the United States 

 Forest Service, in giving a concise answer to 

 the important question, says : 



"Now our annual requirements exceed 

 40,000,000,000 feet of timber, 100,000,000 

 cross-ties, 4,000,000 cords of pulp-wood, be- 

 sides great quantities of other forms of forest 

 products, such as firewood, posts, poles, mine 

 timbers, etc. The per capita consumption of 

 lumber in the United States was 215 board- 

 feet in 1850; now it is 470 board-feet. 



"One forest region after another has been 

 attacked. With the exception of Maine, the 



New England states are cutting mostly sec- 

 ond or third-growth timber. The box fac- 

 tories there take white-pine saplings down to 

 six inches in diameter. The so-called 'inex- 

 haustible' white-pine forests of Michigan are 

 gone, and millions of acres of cut-over and 

 burned-over land have gone upon the delin 

 quent-tax list. Michigan supplied twenty- 

 three per cent, of the lumber-production of 

 the United States in 1880, and less thnn five 

 per cent, of it in 1907. 



"The value of the lumber-production in 

 Michigan since 1849 has been fifty per cent, 

 greater than the output of gold in Cali- 

 fornia, and it has all taken place without a 

 thought for the future. The cream of our 

 hardwoods is gone, and it is becoming more 

 and more difficult to get in sufficient quantity 

 the high grades of oak, yellow poplar, ash, 

 and hickory that our great manufacturing in- 

 dustries require. The South 's once great 

 supply of yellow pine is rapidly giving way 

 before ax and saw, fire and tornado. Half 

 a generation more will, in most places, see 

 little but remnants left of the Southern 

 forests, and in that time the Pacific coast 

 supplies will be heavily drawn upon. 



"Ours is primarily a wood-using civiliza- 

 tion. Despite the introduction of substitutes 

 for wood in the form of stone, cement, con- 

 crete, and steel, our consumption of timber 

 has constantly increased from the earliest 

 days up to the present time. The prices 

 of forest products have risen more rapidly 

 than those of other commodities. Accord- 

 ing to the reports of the Bureau of Labor, 

 the quoted prices, of the leading kinds of 

 lumber on the New York market have risen 

 twice as much in the last ten years as the 

 average increase in all commodities. This 

 indicates that the supply of timber is not 

 keeping pace with the demand." 



«^ «? «? 



Improved Methods of Turpentining Bring 

 Favorable Results 



Through the improvement in the systems 

 of turpentining the South has taken a long 

 step forward in the movement for the pro- 

 tection and development of one of the coun- 

 try's most important natural resources, the 

 rich yellow-pine forests, which make the 

 United States the leading nation in the pro- 

 duction of rosin, turpentine, and the other 

 products known as naval stores. 



Improved methods of turpentining were 

 first established to an appreciable extent dur- 

 ing the producing season of 1904, when the 

 cup-and-gutter system was installed by a 

 number of the most enterprising manufac- 

 turers of naval stores in Georgia and Flor- 

 ida. Since that time there has been a 

 steady and satisfactory increase in the per- 

 centage of turpentine and rosin produced by 

 those conservative methods. The work in 

 conserving these vast turpentine orchards of 

 the South has perhaps come in time to stay 

 the early destruction of yellow-pine forests 

 threatened by years of careless management. 



