TIMBER SUPPLY GREELEY 545 



Underlying this whole question is one of the outstanding facts 

 of the economic geography of the United States — namely, that one- 

 fourth of her soil remains to-day, after three centuries of settle- 

 ment and expanding agriculture, forest land. There is small pros- 

 pect that the area available for growing trees will be reduced ma- 

 terially, if at all, for many years to come. While the inroads of the 

 farm are continuing here and there, the great tide of forest clear- 

 ing for cultivation seems largely to have spent itself. For many 

 years indeed, the abandonment of farm land in forest-growing 

 regions of the older States has practically offset new clearing on the 

 agricultural frontier. Farm economists prophesy that still larger 

 acreages will be available for timber culture in the future than at 

 present. 



Wholly aside from the need for timber, the problem of keeping 

 one-fourth of the soil of the United States productively employed 

 is one of no small urgency in the national economy. The idleness 

 of cut-over land, following the migration of the sawmills, has 

 alreadj'^ been a widespread cause of depopulation, decline in taxable 

 values, and general rural bankruptcy. In the busiest timber manu- 

 facturing regions of a few decades ago, there remains to-day over 

 80,000,000 acres of unproductive and unused land. No country can 

 afford such wastage. 



Forestry not only is the only way to reestablish an adequate source 

 of timber in the United States. It is the only way to utilize a large 

 part of her land, to maintain a vigorous rural population with in- 

 dustries, communities, and good roads. On both counts, forestry 

 should become part and parcel of our program of land use. 



