322 Forestry Quarterly. 



The task and the expenditure would by no means be enormous 

 as the following supposititious calculations may show. 



We may assume that some plantations now made for the 

 purpose of lumber supply will at best mature when sixty years 

 old, although for most eighty years will be needed. By that 

 time, say 1970, we may fairly assume that not only the total supply 

 of virgin lumber will be consumed, but also the second growth 

 of the cut-over lands, and the population, if we assume an 

 average of fifteen per cent, increase per decade — it has been 

 nearer twenty-five per cent, during the last three decades — will 

 be 225,000,000. We may also assume that by that time — indeed 

 long before, for otherwise supplies would not last so long — our 

 consumption of log wood material will have come down to at 

 least the present minimum of Great Britain's consumption, namely, 

 twelve cubic feet or 100 lumber feet per capita. 



This would require the cut of first-class forest growing at the 

 rate of about four hundred feet B. M. for sixty years close to 

 1,000,000 acres per year, hence to secure a continuous supply 60,- 

 000,000 acres must be in that producing condition. The proba- 

 bility is that not less than 100,000,000 acres in part under natural 

 regeneration would have to be maintained to satisfy all needs 

 for wood materials. 



We have seen that less than $20 per acre would be required 

 for planting cost and interest account, and hence an annual loan 

 of $20,000,000 for sixty years — two dreadnoughts a year — would 

 be a most ample provision. 



Summarizing, then, the elements of my plan are: 



(i) Each State to ascertain its quota of planting area, classi- 

 fied for systematic procedure in its recovery. 



(2) A co-operative financial arrangement, by which munici- 

 palities may secure the credit of the State, and States the credit 

 of the Federal Government for the purpose of acquiring and re- 

 covering their quota. 



(3) State planting to be done on a large scale. 



If I have not developed a very definite and adequate plan to 

 meet our need for wood and timber in the future, I hope I have 

 at least opened up a line of thought which may lead to its 

 formulation. 



