PAPERS OX BIOLOGY AND AGRICULTURE 233 



WOOD CONSUMPTION AND WOOD PRODUCTION 



IN ILLINOIS AND THEIR RELATION TO THE 



FUTURE PROSPERITY OF THE STATE 



R. B. Miller. State Forester, Ukbana 



In order to form an economic back ground for forestry 

 in Illinois the Natural History Survey has been making a 

 study, largely by the questionnaire method, of the amount 

 of wood consumed in the state. The amount of wood 

 produced by growth and the extent to which this total 

 can be increased by better methods of handling existing 

 stands of timber or replacing them with more rapidly 

 growing species form the other side of the problem. 



This economic aspect of the question strikes us as the 

 one lying at the root of the whole forestry question in 

 this state. No matter how much we may expand our 

 forest areas by an appeal to the sentimentalist and to 

 the recreationist, we all realize that wood will be grown 

 as a crop only when we can convince people that it is a 

 basic substance, essential to industry, lacking which we 

 shall be forced to lower our present standard of living to 

 that which prevails today in some of the European coun- 

 tries. 



This paper deals with some preliminary points which 

 have been found out in following up various sources of 

 information about our present consumption of wood to 

 be elaborated more fully later in a bulletin of the Natural 

 History Survey. 



CONSUMPTION OF WOOD BV RAILROADS 



Franklin B. Hough, who may be styled the first L nited 

 States forester, sounded in 18S2 a first note of warning 

 about a scarcity of timber for railway ties when he said 

 that at the existing rate of increase in railroad mileage 

 there would come a time in 1893 when a total of 10 million 

 ties would be needed annually by American railroads. 

 What if Mr. Hough should return now? He would find 

 that the American railroads use 125,000,000 ties annually 

 and that the electric and trolley lines use 10,000,000 more, 

 just the amount of his original estimate. 



