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the virgin timber. In the South it is being cut over at the rate of 1% 

 milhon acres a year. It will all be cut over in 20 or 25 years, as pre- 

 dicted in the Capper Report. 



Precisely this same process is occurring in other eastern forest 

 regions, with a result that the present second growth of merchantable 

 size will not be of any substantial service in continuing the period of 

 large lumber production in the East. This means that the East and 

 Middle West, that consumes the larger part of all the lumber of the 

 country, must from now on secure increasing amounts of raw material 

 from the forests of the far West or of other countries. 



The forests of the far West still contain a large reserve supply of 

 softwood timber, but no substantial stands of hardwoods. It has been 

 with considerable complacency that the lumber industry has pointed 

 to the Pacific and northern Rocky regions as a source of raw material 

 to meet our country's needs and the solution of our forestry prob- 

 lems. To be sure, our nation is fortunate to have this large supply of 

 timber and especially to have a large area of lands owned and con- 

 trolled by the public. But it by no means constitutes a solution of our 

 forest problem and will not prevent the hardships to the consumers of 

 the East whose nearby resources are being swept away so rapidly. 



The Capper Report informs us that the forests of the Pacific States 

 and Rocky Mountain region carry about 1,364 billion feet of timber. 

 This is an impressive quantity when considered without reference to 

 quality, location, cost of production, and transportation. The timber 

 is there and a large part of it will ultimately be used, but at what a 

 cost to the consumer of lumber three thousand miles away. The 

 economic availability to the nation as a whole of these supplies takes 

 on a new significance when one appreciates the rapidity with which 

 the more accessible tracts are being lumbered and are likely to be 

 lumbered in the immediate future, and also the increase of local 

 requirements that will follow the certain development of agriculture 

 and industry in far western regions. A western authority is quoted 

 in the Capper Report as predicting that, without any allowance for the 

 expected increased rapidity of cutting, the virgin timber on the private 

 lands of western Washington will be cut in 35 years and in eastern 

 Washington in 20 years ; and that considering the increased drain of 

 the coming years the private virgin timber of the State as a whole will 

 be gone in 20 years unless there is a change in forest policies. 



