History of the Forest 285 



are definitely limited. Yet the idea of an inexhaustible 

 timber supply, ground into the people for over a century, 

 persists. Washington shingles are sold in Boston, and 

 Louisiana pine is common on the Chicago market, but the 

 status of our timber supply is not heeded. 



Some twenty-five or thirty years ago, a few far-sighted 

 men who knew the history of European countries began to 

 realize that measures were necessary to prevent a real 

 timber famine in the United States. Unfortunately very 

 little was known of the amount of timber still standing. 

 That there was danger of a timber famine was true enough, 

 but it was very hard to make the people believe this, and 

 some wild predictions that later proved to be very wide of 

 the mark hurt the cause. 



Moreover, these first enthusiasts adopted the wrong 

 methods. The abundance and consequent cheapness of 

 timber forced wasteful methods. The quality of timber 

 cut in the early days led them to demand the higher grades 

 and refuse any lumber inferior to what they had been 

 using. The culling out of these higher grades caused 

 tremendous waste. Only the largest trees could be cut 

 and only a small part of those utilized. There was no 

 market for the poorer stuff. The apparent worthlessness 

 of this culled forest and the cheapness of timber generally 

 led to the ignoring of forest fires and it became the regular 

 thing for culled land to burn over, destroying the small 

 growth and doing irreparable damage to the adjoining 

 virgin forest. The fires destroyed far more than was uti- 

 lized. No attempt was made to save young timber or to 

 utilize more completely the large trees. 



The promoters of forestry placed the blame for this 



