REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE. 65 



young timber is wholly inadequate to supply our needs when the 

 grown timber is gone. The forest products obtainable from our 

 entire area of 470,000,000 acres of actual or potential forest land, 

 were it all producing timber at maximum capacity, would only bring 

 production into an approximate balance with present use. At best 

 there will be a long and acute delay before new timber crops equal 

 to our requirements can be matured. And while there is much room 

 for economy in the use of wood and considerable room for use of 

 substitutes, these two palliatives taken together will probably no 

 more than offset the increased consumption which growth in popula- 

 tion will demand. We should therefore press forward with all pos- 

 sible speed to bring about the full use of all suitable timber-growing 

 land. 



This is a matter of particular importance to agriculture. Farmers 

 are our leading class of wood consumers. Because of the present 

 high cost of lumber the construction, repair, and replacement of farm 

 buildings is seriously in arrears, handicapping production and lower- 

 ing standards of living. In addition to their consumption of lumber, 

 farmers require very large quantities of wood for fencing, fuel, and 

 the like. Furthermore, the migration of forest industries from many 

 former locations, leading to decreased assessable property values, 

 decadence of rural economic and social life, and reduced opportu- 

 nities for profitable employment, are consequences of forest destruc- 

 tion that weigh heavily on many farmers. 



It is not merely farmers, however, who are adversely affected by 

 accumulating idle lands and rising prices of forest products. Out- 

 side of portions of the South and West, the whole country is suffer- 

 ing from the effects of timber depletion. Unfortunately, the average 

 citizen does not see clearly these effects, because he pays for most ot 

 his share of the country's consumption of wood indirectly; it is 

 hidden in the price of nearly everything that he eats, wears, and 

 buys. Except when he undertakes to build a home, he does not real- 

 ize how much he is paying because of national improvidence in the 

 use of our forests. No simple remedy that will cure the idleness of 

 land and shortage of timber can be prescribed. The problem must 

 be attacked concertedlv from all sides. 



