26 Conditions Affecting New York Lumber Supply 
management, one-half of the money now paid out to the South 
and West for raw material could be kept within the State to 
enrich local communities. It is certain that the proper hand- 
ling of the farm woodlots is one obvious step to be taken to 
bridge the gap between the present deficiency of the timber 
supply and a production from the State more adequate to its 
total annual needs. Later, from the force of example and 
aroused public sentiment, the larger forest areas could be 
placed under intensive management. 
In some counties in days gone by the farmers depended to 
a considerable extent upon hemlock bark, cut in the winter, 
for their annual profits. Now much of that industry has gone, 
but there is a better substitute to take its place. Properly 
handled, the woodlot will provide the farmer with profitable 
winter work on his own property, will provide a steadily 
increasing income for his immediate family needs, and will 
permanently build up the general prosperity of many a com- 
munity now disintegrating for the lack of a proper balance of 
industrial pursuits. 
Tuer Nrep ror AcTION 
New York, once the leader in the production of timber, and 
still the leader in those manufactures using wood as a raw 
material, is drawing rapidly to the end of her accumulated 
forest wealth. In support of this statement one need but glance 
at the production curves shown in the frontispiece, with their 
ominously steep downward trend. Three or four hundred 
billion feet —nobody knows how much — of the best virgin 
timber formed the original forest. We must add to this at 
least a hundred billion feet of growth during the century in 
which the mills had their way. Perhaps a half of it all was 
utilized. The remainder went up mainly in smoke, though age, 
windfalls, disease, and insects also took their toll. Twenty-six 
billion feet of sawtimber are still in sight. 
The per capita production, which in 1869 was 300 
feet per person, in 1918 had shrunk to 30 feet per person. 
