Miscellaneous. 377 



Jack, when ye hae naithing else to do. 



Ye may aye be sticking in a tree ; 



It will be growing, Jack, when ye are sleeping. — Scutt. 



THE TIMBER SUPPLY. 



Dr. B. E, Fernow, director New York State College of Forestry, in 

 an address before the American Association for Advancement of Science, 

 Washington, D. C, said: As Cotta pointed out a hundred years ago, 

 forestry is a child of necessity. It is only when the wood supplies grown 

 by unaided nature are exhausted or near exhaustion, and when it becomes 

 apparent that reproduction is not replacing the hai"vested virgin crop as 

 rapidly as required, that forestry — systematic utilization and reproduction 

 of wood supplies — becomes necessary. 



While much has been said and written regarding the influence of 

 forest cover on climate and waterflow as calling for the application of 

 forestry, it should be understood that these considerations apply mainly 

 to specified localities, that some of the claimed beneficial influences are 

 often questionable or at least unproven, and that, moreover, the forest 

 effects may be secured incidentally. The supply question remains up- 

 permost and is the most important. 



It behooves, then, every forester, to find justification for his art and 

 for his own existence in the answer to the inquiry which will bring out the 

 fact that natural supplies are waning and are not being replaced as fast 

 as consumed. Such inquiry involves knowledge, on one hand, of the 

 consumption of wood products in the given country, the possibility and 

 probability of substituting other materials, and the opportunity of sup- 

 plying it wholly or in part by importations, and on the other hand, knowl- 

 edge of the amount of standing timber ready for use, the condition of the 

 forest areas, as far as promise of reproduction is concerned, and the 

 rapidity with which such new growth may become available. 



Ten years ago the chief geographer of the United States Geological 

 Survey came out in print refuting the writer's contention that a more 

 conservative and rational forest policy in the United States was needed ; 

 because, he asserted, the relations of forest growth to climate, soil and 

 water conditions are presumably of not practical significance, and be- 

 cause, in his opinion, the timber growth is certainly renewing itself much 

 faster than it is being consumed. 



This year, by a peculiar irony of fate, the chief geographer, now also 

 in charge of the survey of the Federal forest reserves,, furnishes, as com^ 

 piler of the statistics of the lumber industry in the twelfth census, the 

 most satisfactory data upon which to discuss the supply question and to 



