AMERICAN LUMBER 359 



streams of later years were hardly yet mentioned. It was 

 after the war, when the development of the railroad system 

 opened up virgin forest areas of vast extent and wealth, that 

 the enormous expansion of the lumber trade with its modern 

 machinery and modern methods began. Railroads have not 

 only brought distant lumber centers within easy reach of 

 markets but they have even penetrated the woods them- 

 selves, connecting the mill directly with the sources of supply, 

 reducing although not superseding the river drive. Under 

 the enormous competition thus stimulated and with ever new 

 virgin woods coming to development, most wasteful treat- 

 ment of the seemingly boundless and inexhaustible forest 

 wealth was the consequence, and now we are only just learn- 

 ing that there is no such thing as inexhaustible supplies. We 

 are not only becoming aware of the fact that our forest area 

 is comparatively small, considering the vast extent of our 

 country and our rapidly growing population, but the really 

 good timber in it is not so plentiful as the acreage might lead 

 one to think, and it is confined to certain localities. 



There are large areas of woodlands encumbering the soil, 

 but economically speaking they are not of any value, being 

 covered with scrubby growth of tree weeds which prevent 

 the recuperation of the valuable kinds that have been culled 

 out by the lumbermen, and thus the ground is left to their 

 undesirable competitors. Hence, while there are about 500,- 

 000,000 acres of land covered with some kind of forest 

 growth, thousands, nay millions of these acres do not contain 

 any merchantable material or even promising young growth. 



Our annual cut has reached such dimensions that if we 

 had our forest area in as good condition and as well managed 

 as the German state forests are, we would have to have 600,- 

 000,000 acres in first-class order to furnish annually our re- 

 quirements. We would then cut every year say six million 

 acres, allowing 100 years in the average for the trees to grow 

 that are to be cut — at present most of the trees from which 

 we derive our lumber are over 150 or 200 years, and the giants 

 on the Pacific coast have taken 500 to 1,000 years and more to 

 reach their dimensions. Under present conditions, when we 

 only exploit our virgin forests to secure the five and one half 



