FOREST SERVICE. 243 



With the increasing volume of valuable information from research 

 particular attention was directed during the year to its more effective 

 dissemination and application. The short instructional courses in 

 kiln drying, boxing, and crating ^iven to industrial representatives 

 were expanded. In order to place kiln drying results more effectively 

 before western lumber manufacturers several members of the stan 

 devoted over five months to kiln courses in the West. The success 

 which marked this work indicates the desirability of further expan- 

 sion of extension activities along these lines. 



The publication of results is the most important means of dis- 

 semination and one which is being expanded. Never during any 

 month of the past year did articles on the laboratory work appear in 

 less, and in some months many more, than 100 technical, trade, and 

 popular magazmes. Each of a number of brief articles summarizing 

 the most widely usable facts obtained from research received a wide 

 circulation through the press at large. 



FOREST ECONOMICS. 



The pressure of population on natural resources is perennial. As 

 never before the world is taking stock of what it has and what it needs. 

 Not the least indispensable of these things is wood, and to take stock 

 of how much wood we have and what we shall need is an important 

 step in determining our future attitude toward our forests. 



As a background to this broad inquiry, Forest Service investi- 

 gators have recently completed a unique and exhaustive compila- 

 tion of the forest resources of the world. Not the least startling of 

 its revelations is that so far as our great structural and all-purpose 

 woods — the softwoods — are concerned, we must become self-suffi- 

 cient or go without. There is an immense reservoir of hardwoods 

 in the Tropics, hardwoods which can be used for limited and special 

 purposes and secured at mahogany prices. But the struggle for the 

 world's supply of softwoods will become more and more intense, 

 and those nations will fare best that prudently use their suitable 

 waste lands for growing coniferous woods. This study rudely 

 shatters the dream of those who rely on importing the timber we 

 need when our own is gone. 



Nor is the situation hopeful when we turn to our own forests. 

 There has been a marked and fairly steady decline in our national 

 output of lumber from about 46,000,000,000 board feet in 1906 

 to less than 34,000,000,000 board feet in 1920. This downward 

 trend, which seems unlikely to turn permanently upward again at 

 any time that can now be foreseen has taken place in spite of a large 

 increase in population, with its increasing demand for housing, 

 furniture, and wood in many other forms. The decline in the pro- 

 duction of lumber and the increase in population have resulted in a 

 striking drop in the per capita consumption of lumber — ^from over 

 500 board feet per person in 1906 to about 320 board feet in 1920. 



Unquestionably among a people who have largely depended on 

 wood for so many of the essentials of industry and daily living, as 

 well as for the comforts and luxuries of an expanding civilization, 

 this decline in the consumption of wood means a decline in the 

 standards of living. Of this declining standard the shortage of 

 housing is an impressive example. 



