August 25, I'JIS 



People are now giving more thought to wood as fuel than they 

 liave been accustomed to give in the jiast. Warning after warning 

 lias gone out that enough eoal cannot be produced to meet the 

 needs next winter. In view of this it seems pertinent to inquire 

 into the ability of forests to furnish fuel permanently, if it should 

 become necessary to do so. Cordwood might be produced in almost 

 unlimited quantities for awhile, but is it possible to exhaust that 

 supply by cutting it faster than it grows? It is not an academic 

 question but is one that should be approached seriously. 



According to Albert H. Pierson's estimate, in Forest Service 

 Circular 181, one cord of wood as fuel is required yearly for each 

 man, woman and child in the United States, aggregating 100,000,- 

 000 cords, based on the population at this time. This represents 

 the demand for wood fuel in normal times and docs not allow for 

 any extra demand due to coal shortage. 



Suppose that it is necessary, as in normal times, to supply one 

 cord of wood fuel a year to every person, how many acres of 

 woodland will be required to meet the demand? How much forest 

 land is needed to grow one cord of wood a year, consequently, to 

 supply fuel for one person perpetually? 



Vigorous hardwood land in the southern Appalachian region is 

 rated with ability to grow fifty cubic feet of wood a year, and 

 there are 128 cubic feet in a cord. But the rate of growth in that 

 region is a little greater than the average for the forests of the 

 whole country. The estimate is probably high enough if three 

 acres are credited with the annual growth of one cord, or an 

 average of about 43 cubic feet a year. Taking that as the rate, 

 three acres to produce one cord of wood a year, it is easy to show 

 what the country's entire forested area is capable of doing. 



In "The Forest Resources of the World," by Eaphael Zon, For- 

 est Service Bulletin 83, the forest area of the United States, ex- 

 clusive of Alaska, is placed at 544,400,000 acres. At the rate of 

 one cord of wood yearly from three acres, the annual wood harvest 

 may be 181,000,000 cords, or 81,000,000 more than is needed for 

 fuel at present. 



But fuel is not the only demand upon the woodlands. They must 

 furnish lumber, fence posts, telejjhone poles, crossties, and other 

 sawed, hewed, or round material, as well as cordwood, and the 

 total of these is not less than the equivalent of 50,000,000,000 feet of 

 lumber a year. That is in addition to 100,000,000 cords of wood 

 for fuel. 



Fifty billion feet of lumber is equivalent to 80,000,000 cords, 

 counting 600 board feet to the cord. It is thus seen that wood 

 equal to 180,000,000 cords must be furnished annually by the 

 country's forests, to meet the present needs of the people. 



That is about what the forests are now furnishing, and it figures 

 out almost exactly the yearly growth, provided the growth is 43 

 cubic feet of wood per acre per year. It is doubtful if the growth 

 is really that much; but, at best, the forests are now supplying to 

 thfir utmost, without going beyond the yearly growth. To go 

 beyond that rate, and take more from the forests than is replaced 

 by new wood, will be drawing upon the capital and will result in 

 permanent scarcity. 



Americans have never accustomed themselves to consider the 

 rate at which wood is growing. There has always been plenty; 

 but the time is in sight when surplus supplies will no longer exist. 

 A shortage in coal, leading to increased demand for wood, will 

 bring home to the people in certain parts of the country the unwel- 

 come fact that even cordwwod may run short. 



There are states whose forest areas have been so reduced that 

 they are no longer able to grow enough cordwood to supply one 

 cord a year to their own people, even if the whole growth goes into 

 fuel, and none into lumber, posts, poles and other articles. The 

 following states are in that class (see Zon's bulletin, page 68, for 

 the exact figures) ; 

 —20— 



Delawa 



Rhode 



Iowa, Nebraska, 



Kansas, New Jersey, 



Illinois, Maryland, New York, 



Indiana, Massachusetts, North Dakota, 



Fifteen states, as here listed, have not enough woodland to fur- 

 nish, from yearly growth, one cord a year to each one of their 

 people. By sacrificing their remaining forests and woodlots, they 

 might furnish the annual cord to each person for some years yet, 

 but that would mean the destruction of resources on which perma- 

 nent supplies must depend. 



Chestnut Timber for Shingles 



Blight is destroying chestnut timber in a large portion of this 

 tree 's range, and in many localities it is important to convert the 

 wood into salable commodities before it is damaged by decay. It 

 is useful for a large number of purposes, but the demand is not up 

 to the supply on account of so much blighted timber being offered. 



More of it might be worked into shingles. The annual output 

 was running close to 100,000,000 million shingles at the time the 

 last census was taken, and was increasing at that time. Chest- 

 nut is not one of the most important shingle woods of the coun- 

 try, nor is it among the least important. It occupies a midway 

 position, as the following list shows: 



Though chestnut lack a great deal of coming up to some of the 

 other shingle woods in quantity of output, the product heads the 

 list in value per thousand. That ought to be a fact worthy of 

 consideration, for it shows possibilities of increasing production. 

 The wood is durable, which is one of the most essential qualities 

 in a shingle. For the sake of comparison, the following average 

 millyard values of different kinds of shingles are shown. Though 

 the figures are the latest 'available, they are not very recent, but 

 perhaps the same ratio still holds: 



Average Value Average Value 



Wood. 



Wood. Per M 



Redwood $1.30 



Cedar 1.92 



Western pine 2.08 



Spruce 2.19 



White pine 2.26 



PcrM. 



Hemlock $2.45 



Yellow pine 2.46 



Cypress 2.56 



Oak 2.95 



Chestnut 3.24 



Chestnut shingles can be made from timber too small for econo- 

 mical conversion into lumber, and for that reason, shingle mills 

 might find profitable work in young stands of second-growth chest- 

 nut that is threatened with destruction by blight. 



Chestnut is a valuable forest tree in a dozen states, and moderate 

 quantities are made into lumber in nearly as many more. Based 

 on the production of chestnut lumber in the several states, those 

 with most of this timber are, in the order named. West Virginia, 

 Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina- 

 Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey. 



Two species of chinquapins, or little chestnuts, occur in the 

 United States, one in the eastern states, the other on the Pacific 

 coast. The latter is known as the golden chinquapin from the 

 yellow fuzz on the underside of the leaf. The nut is about the 

 size of a large bean and bears eat them greedily, picking them 

 from the low bushes where they grow. The eastern chinquapin's 

 nut is slightly larger. Both kinds grow in burrs like chestnuts, but 

 less than half as large. Trees are usually too small for lumber, 

 but when any lias been cut it passes as chestnut. The trunks of 

 chinquapins are said to be immune to attack by borers which so 

 frequently riddle chestnut trees. 



