MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SC^IENCE. 20?) 



possibilities, and with forest, as with farm, it is in fairness necessary to re(iiure 

 that it pay its way in money or otherwise.-" 



If a timber forest is expected to pay its way in money it can do so, and 

 on conditions quite comparable with the farm. Tlie high-priced intensively 

 farmed lands of the corn belt pay their owners a return of but 3.5% on their 

 investment, plus reasonable wages." 



Well managed forests pay wages, plus interest on the investment, varying, in 

 general, between 2 and 4%.-* 



It is not a question whether more or less artificial forests can be grown 

 profitably in America. The question is only whether there is occasion to grow 

 forests, or rather, how much forest should be grown. 



At the current rate of timber consumption the standing (wild) timber 

 forests of the United States are good for less than 55 years.''' 



The timber of the United States is being destroyed two and a half times 

 faster than it is being produced.^" 



The cost of lumber has more than doubled since 1915, and costs are ex- 

 pected to increase indefinitely." 



The forests of the Northeastern, Eastern and Lake States are practically 

 gone and their timber cut is today almost negligible.'*^ 



The Secretary of the Southern Pine xVssociation (members of which own 

 about 10,000,000 acres of cut-over lands) reports that within five years some 

 3,000 sawmills in the southern pine district will be cut out and gone and that 

 the district's lumber production will decrease 50%.'' 



The President of the National Lumber Manufacturers' Association states 

 that within five years the Pacific coast lumbermen will have substantially no 

 competition save locally among themselves, and that the Pacific coast forests 

 must then supply practically all the United States and a good part of the 

 rest of the world.=* 



Save for the Pacific coast stands, there are no great virgin forest areas 

 in the world except those of Siberia and the Amazon.^' The.^e are of a char- 

 acter ill suited to American needs, even if available. 



The increasing cost of forest products, largely due to decreasing supplies, 

 is already operating, together with other factors, to limit materially the 

 domestic timber consumption of the nation.'" 



The amount of timber necessary to the economic prosperity of a modern 

 agricultural and industrial nation is well known.'' 



"U. S. D. A. Bull. 41, 1914, p. 42. 



28Roth, Forestry Quarterly, June 1916, p. 257. 



^Bureau <>i rorporations, "Lumber Industry," 191.3, Part I, p. xix. 



'"Rept. Nat. Conservation Commission, 1909, Vol. 2, p. 223. 



*iReport No. 2S, Price Fixing,' Committee War Industries Board, Nov., 1918. 



52U. S. D. A. Bull. (JT.i, 1918, p. 9. 



33Rhodes, Luinlier Trade .Journal, .Ian. 15, 1919, p. 19. 



'^Kirby, Lumlx'r Trade .Journal, Aujj;ust 15, 191S, p. 23. 



35U. S. F. S. Bull. 83, 1910. 



'"U. S. D. A. Report 117, office of the Secretary, 1917. 



'^Fernow, "Economics," p. 38. 



