128 



Canadian forcstrv Journal, March, i(j20 



versed by a steam-roller. All of this 

 timber ,the result of more than 20) 

 years' accretion, was destroyed in an 

 hour. I cannot help thinking of an 

 experience of my own in my earlier 

 days, in this connection. I had been 

 planting TO,ooo trees per year for two 

 or three years, when a fire came in 

 on an adjoining lot and burned up 

 more trees in two hours than I had 

 planted in the three years, which dis- 

 couraged any more planting by me at 

 that time. 



But the final and most convincing 

 figures of all are contained in the 

 valuable report by the committee of 

 the Society of American Foresters, 

 which was recently published, which 

 says : 



"That of all the total forest area in 

 the United States of 500.000,000 

 acres : 



"One hundred million acres and 

 more are so devastated as to be al- 

 most wholy non-productive: 



"Over 210,000,000 acres have been 

 cut over and more or less damaged by 

 fire, but are producing new timber, 

 usually in small amounts ; 



"One hundred and fifty million 

 acres are in standing timber where 

 growth merely balances decay, with 

 no net increase in wood production 

 from year to year. On a large part 

 of this area the virgin timber is of 

 poor quality and very inaccessible." 



Half Timber Lost by Fire. 



In Canada, the Canadian Forestry 

 Association states, one-half of the 

 forested area has been burned over 

 within the past 100 years. That this 

 enormous wastage by fire is still with 

 us is in evidence by the loss of 1,000,- 

 000,000 feet of timber in Montana and 

 the 540,000 acres destroyed in Al- 

 berta, which are only two of the larg- 

 er burns of last summer. The bugs 

 are also still with us ; and the wind, 

 as one of my own countrymen says, 

 "She blow all de time." 



Now, with all this wastage above 

 enumerated, it does not take a for- 

 ester or a woodsman, but any man of 

 ordinary intelligence to figure out 

 that there is not only no annual 



growth to be counted on in the coun- 

 try or a state as a whole, but that 

 there must be quite a net annual loss 

 in addition. We have been simply 

 fooling ourselves with regard to this 

 question of annual accretion. I was 

 myself a victim to this delusion up to 

 three years ago, when T found a very 

 large area which we h;id made pre- 

 parations to log had all Ijeen logged 

 for us by the wind over night. This 

 so impressed me that I began figuring 

 up this forest wastage, and the deeper 

 I go into it the bigger it grows. 



The vast amount of money that 

 has been made and will be made in 

 timberlands is not because of the 

 growth of timber, but because of the 

 great enhancement in values conse- 

 quent upon the rapidly diminishing 

 supplies. 



Now, when you come to the des- 

 truction caused by the axe ,and take 

 figures compiled from the United 

 States forest service statistics, which 

 amount to 244,000,000 cords of wood 

 of all kinds, including fuel wood, 

 harvested in the United States per 

 annum, if this were piled in a solid 

 pile four feet high and four feet wide 

 it would reach a distance of 369,000 

 miles, or 123 times across this conti- 

 nent .or more than 15 times around 

 the globe. 



In considering these appalling 

 figures it would seem to me that it is 

 now time to cease imitating the 

 ostrich, and to begin to look this 

 question of a rapidly vanishing tim- 

 ber supply on both sides of the line 

 squarely in the face, and see where 

 we are heading before it is too late ; 

 for a treeless continent is unthink- 

 able. 



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