54 



large a percentage as possible of home-grown timber, and to take a lively 

 interest in national forestry problems and policies which tend to encourage 

 forest production in other states and in the nation at large. With the 

 utmost effort, it would probably take the state 100 years or more to reach 

 a condition of self-support in wood production even on the present basis 

 of consumption. 



Illinois must therefore continue to depend in large measure upon 

 regions which possess a greater percentage of true forest soils, from 

 which states it is hoped that timber may continue to be exported provided 

 a surplus is produced within them. Favorably situated to draw with 

 equal readiness from the pine and hardwood forests of the Lake states, 

 the hardwoods of the Mississippi Valley and the uplands of Kentucky, 

 Tennessee, and Arkansas, the largest remaining reserve of southern yellow 

 pine in Louisiana and Texas, and the last great store of virgin soft- 

 wood timber on the west coast and in the Inland Empire, the industries 

 of the state are assured of the continuance of their supply of raw- ma- 

 terials until such time as these supplies fail at the source for lack of proper 

 conservation and renewal by forestry measures. That such failure may 

 occur and that the available supplies of virgin timber, especially of the 

 hardwoods which make up approximately 50 per cent of the demands 

 of Illinois manufacturers, will in all probability suffer great depletion 

 within comparatively few decades are facts not open to questionr 



Illinois industry all along the line faces the prospect of higher costs 

 for wood with growing scarcity of supplies. With the inability to secure 

 the raw materials in proper quantities except at prohibitive price, there 

 arises the problem of substitution of other materials whose cost, as meas- 

 ured by price and utility, shows a favorable margin as against wood. 



SUBSTITUTES FOR WOOD 



If for all the uses to which wood is put, the human race could find 

 substitutes which would render just as satisfactory service at lower cost, 

 the question of growing timber might cease to be an issue. But as long 

 as wood in any form for any purpose gives greater and better service 

 at less cost, it will continue to be used. 



When wood was abundant and cheaply obtained the quantities used 

 per capita were excessive and the waste ran to hig'n percentages. Now 

 that the original forests are melting away, a new factor enters the eco- 

 nomic situation, that is, the cost of producing wood as a crop to replace 

 those supplies. Will the value of wood as compared with wood sub- 



