936 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



THE MAXIMUM POSSIBLE GROWTH UPON THE AREA NOW AVAILABLE CAN BARELY 



SUFFICE 



If the 500 million acres of our present forest area were reasonably 

 productive, the annual growth of timber in the United States would 

 be 150 billion feet. But the 500 million acres are not reasonably 

 productive, for 100 million acres lie devastated and idle, while 150 

 mJllion acres are in timber which is merely holding its own against 

 decay. Only 250 million acres are producing additional forest growth. 

 These forest lands have escaped complete devastation only by acci- 

 dent. They have been cut over and more or less burned, but are still 

 covered with growing forest, of a kind. It is upon these 250 million 

 acres or more that our annual growth of 35 billion feet of timber is 

 taking place. Since these forest areas escaped devastation only by 

 chance, and since their growth is scattered, untended, and small, the 

 timber which they will yield must be of very poor quality compared 

 with that to which we are accustomed. 



Our present timber supplies are coming mainly from virgin timber 

 which will average not less than 200 years in age. At the present 

 rate the old forests will be exhausted within 50 years. We must then 

 fall back upon whatever "second growth" may have reached mer- 

 chantable size. And there will be less than half enough of it to meet 

 our needs. 



To grow a tree of fair log size will require an average of from 60 

 to 100 years. No matter what we may do, it is evident that a period 

 of acute timber shortage is coming between the exhaustion of the 

 old growth and the ripening of the new, and that it can end only when 

 enormous areas of new forests grow old enough to cut. 



New forests can be developed from three sources : 



1. By reforesting the devastated lands upon which there is now 

 no forest growth. 



This must be done, and upon a very large scale. But the process 

 will be slow and comparatively expensive, and since such forests will 

 have to be started from the very beginning, the harvest of mature 

 timber must be long deferred. 



2. By protecting and helping the accidental growth upon the par- 

 tially productive lands now cut-over but still retaining some manner 

 of growing forests. 



This is obviously practicable and necessary, but no amount of pro- 

 tection and help (as by the removal of profitless material, thinning of 

 too crowded stands, or planting in vacant places) can provide enough 



