APPENDIX. 41 



No estimate has been made of the timber lands upon farms, which 

 by replanting, proper care and thinning could be made a source of 

 income to the owners and augment to some extent the lumber suppl}' 

 of the State. 



According to our estimate the annual growth is 240 million feet, 

 and the annual cut 500 million feet. This would require 260 million 

 feet each year from the marketable timber now ready to cut. To 

 reduce the resources of our forests to ihat of annual growth would 

 require ninetj'-two 3'ears, without taking into account growing trees 

 too 3'oung for market which would extend the time. 



Different observers may differ in their estimates of the marketable 

 lumber and the rate of growth, but the most extravagant estimates 

 •will not help us escape the conclusion, that our forests are waning, 

 and it is onl}' a matter of longer or shorter time when our lumber 

 industry will decline, unless by the adoption of a wise forestry 

 policy we avert the evil and so restore our forests to their original 

 productiveness and maintain then a source of perpetual or augmented 

 ■wealth. 



