448 
is below this figure. In order to reach this estimate it has been necessary 
to include beech, elm, and sycamore, species which for various reasons are 
not to be classed with white oak, yellow poplar and black walnut. Indeed 
the eager search for beech and elm is a fairly conclusive evidence of the 
paucity of forms of higher quality in the forests of the state. Of course 
there exists here and there throughout the state small tracts showing a 
heavy stumpage of high grade species, but such areas are the exceptions 
that prove the rule. 
A constantly increasing number of wood-working plants are shutting 
down because of inability to secure the needed raw material. The radius 
marking the limit from which this raw material can be drawn is very 
definitely limited by freight charges. I have received a statement, which 
may be considered as official, that fifty per cent. of the veneer plants of 
the state are shut down because they are unable to secure logs suitable for 
their work. What is true of the veneer industry is true in varying degree 
of other wood-working industries. This means, unless checked, loss of 
employment to hundreds or even thousands of men, and either a removal 
of capital to other states or its absolute loss. The reduction in the number 
of wood-working plants in the state within the last decade has been start- 
lingly large and can only be explained by the rapidly waning supply of 
suitable raw material. 
While the data in my hands are not yet complete, I have records of 
over five hundred thousand (500,000) acres of waste land in the state. 
This waste land, located in a very great measure in the southern portion of 
the state, is the result in almost every instance of destructive lumbering. 
Concerning this conclusion there can be no doubt. We have knowledge of 
former forestal conditions, and in many cases the history of the cuttings 
of specific tracts. ‘These waste lands lie open and are absolutely waste ; 
they are not used in agriculture or horticulture and have wasted to such an 
extent that they are completely abandoned. They yield revenue neither 
to the owner nor the state. The indications are that the amount of de- 
forested land abandoned by the owners is constantly increasing. The sur- 
est, indeed the absolutely unmistakable sign of a decadent state from an 
economical standpoint, is a constant increase in the area of abandoned 
lands. 
To counteract the conditions indicated in the preceding paragraphs, 
tree planting has been undertaken in the state on a fairly large scale within 
