INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT. 9 



must happen : either this timber will have to be procured outside the 

 State or these large and valuable industries, second only in importance 

 to cotton manufacture, will have to shut down. 



As long as both the growing and the manufacture of this timber can 

 be carried on profitably in this State, we cannot afford to give up either 

 part of this twofold industry. North Carolina probably contains as 

 large a proportion of mountain land specially suitable for the growth 

 of hardwoods, which is what most of these industries require, as any 

 other State. We can, therefore, grow the raw material more cheaply, 

 and furnish it to these factories at a lower price. 



This report is intended as an incentive to improvement and as an aid 

 in bringing about better conditions, partly in demonstrating the value 

 of our forests to the people of the State, but chiefly by enlarging the 

 market for the lower grades of wood by letting other parts of the coun- 

 try know what North Carolina can furnish them. 



By protecting the forests from fire so that the annual rate of growth 

 can be continually increasing, and by closer utilization, thus preventing 

 waste in the woods and at the mill, there is no reason why the annual 

 yield of our forests cannot after a comparatively short time be doubled. 



If as much care and foresight were exercised in the growing, protec- 

 tion, harvesting, and marketing of the raw material as is now given to 

 the manufacture of the finished product, there need be no fear of an im- 

 pending timber famine on the part of the wood-using industries of North 

 Carolina. 



