SUSTAINED ANNUAL YIELD 823 



and is not concerned with the growth of population of the United 

 States nor with national needs for timber. Its ideals are of the forest, 

 not of people and industries. When the needs of the State conflict with 

 the desires of the silviculturist, then the silviculturist must give way. 

 Silviculture must be subservient to the needs of the State; not the 

 State to silviculture. 



We have come to such a place in the misuse of our forests that much 

 as we may wish it otherwise, our first need is timber continuously and 

 whether that timber is for example excellent Douglas fir or the poorer 

 hemlock is of consequence to be sure but not of fundamental consid- 

 eration. If the forest must be destroyed to get Douglas fir reproduc- 

 tion, as is advocated by some of the foresters who have made investiga- 

 tions in the region, although hemlock, true firs, and cedar can be ob- 

 tained through a system of selection cuttings, by which a growing 

 forest is left, then without question the latter must prevail. 



ADEQUATE FIRE PROTECTION NOT SUFFICIENT 



Nor can fire protection alone insure for us timber for the period 

 between exhaustion of our virgin supplies and the incoming new 

 growth. To spend all of our forestry energies on fire protection is 

 akin in plan to laying water pipes to protect a house already burned and 

 leaving unattended the house alongside of it that is burning. In this 

 case all attention is being given to land which cannot supply much 

 timber for many years, while allowing forests which can continuously 

 produce, go by the board. It is a case of spending much money for 

 rebuilding forests, but attempting in no way to prevent the destruction 

 of those forests already built which are being torn down. 



Adequate fire protection certainly is of prime importance in the 

 country if we are ever to have forests ; without fire protection there 

 will be few forests. But yet, if the very best fire protection were now 

 established on all forests, the young growth which would result would 

 not be of right size nor quality to be cut in place of the virgin supplies 

 exhausted. This is evident from Professor Roth's table of age classes. 



GOOD FIRE PROTECTION WILL BE OBTAINED ONLY WITH A CONTINUOUS 

 FOREST BUSINESS 



In the white pine region of the Lake States, in the southern yellow 

 pine region, in the western yellow pine region, in the western white 

 pine region, sugar pine of California, and in Douglas fir of the North- 



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