950 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



attempt to cultivate them, are bound to eventually revert to the use 

 for which they are best suited, the growing of timber. If Dr. Comp- 

 ton will only take the trouble to look into the ownership of cut- 

 over lands which are being withheld from their highest economic use, 

 namely the production of timber, he will find that they are largely 

 owned by lumber companies. 



As far as it applies to the United States, which is probably what 

 Dr. Compton had in mind, the statement has no force whatever. We 

 have no longer a cheap and plentiful supply of standing timber in 

 this country. He admits this himself. As a matter of fact, the re- 

 verse is true. We are suffering from an abundance of unproductive 

 land. If an abundance of forests in a highly developed country may 

 not necessarily be a sign of national wealth, an abundance of unpro- 

 ductive land is certainly a great social and economic menace. 



As for backward, thinly settled and poorly developed countries, 

 abundant forests are certainly an element of national wealth. Where 

 would be the economic strength of Finland and Sweden today, 50 

 per cent of whose areas are covered with forests, were it not for their 

 timber resources? The same is true of many other countries, such 

 as Russia and some of the newly established central European states. 

 It is their timber that will rehabilitate their economic life. Dr. Comp- 

 ton evidently forgets the part played by "cheap and plentiful standing 

 timber" in the early development of our own country. If in making 

 this pronouncement he levels his attack against an imaginary oppo- 

 nent who advocates planting up Pittsburgh or New York City to 

 forests, his indignation is fully justified, but we are afraid he is fight- 

 ing windmills. 



3. "The virtual disappearance of certain species of timber is not 

 necessarily detrimental to the public zvelfare." 



If Dr. Compton really meant what he said we would be willing 

 to subscribe to his statement. We have been contending for years that 

 when our forests are placed under management we may have to con- 

 fine ourselves in each region to the growing of a few species which, 

 because of their adaptability to the climate and soil, quality of timber, 

 rapidity of growth and large yields, prove the most desirable ones 

 to produce. The trouble, however, is that Dr. Compton means by 

 his statement to justify the practical exhaustion of the most valuable 

 species of this continent, the cream of our virgin forests. What he 

 really means to say is, "Why worry about the depletion of the south- 



