Forestry 



267 



384. Systematic Forestry teaches us to remove only 

 the matured products, leaving the young timber to 

 grow. France and many European countries have had 

 to restore, though at great expense, the forest condi- 

 tions to large areas that had been thoughtlessly destroyed. 

 In many of the Old World countries no man is allowed 

 to destroy a mature forest tree without permission of a 

 forest official, and this is often given only when another 

 is started to take its place. Such restrictions seem 

 needlessly severe to us, but is it improbable that, some 

 day, we may find some such restriction necessary for 

 the public good? 



385. The Exhaustion of Our Forest Resources is now 

 going on at a rapid rate. Our forested areas are being 

 rapidly reduced. Fig. 172 illustrates the present differ- 

 ence between the use of for- 

 est products and the rate of 



increase by growth. The east- 

 ern states have long since 

 all but exhausted their na- 

 tural forests. They once 

 secured the needed supplies 

 of lumber from the virgin 

 forests of the north central 

 states, but today those areas 

 are almost exhausted and 

 the large lumber supplies 

 are now furnished by the northwestern and southern 

 states. 



386. Conserving Our Forest Resources is a national 

 need. In former times the lumberman cut everything. 

 The young timber was needlessly destroyed. Now, 

 however, they have realized the value of the small 



Fig. 172. Excess of annual cut 

 over annual forest growth. 



