58 WOOD-USING INDUSTBIES OF MARYLAND 



RELATION OF PRESENT STAND OF TIMBEK TO THE DEMAND. 



A comparison of the annual cut of all classes of material with the 

 present volume of standing timber shows emphatically that we are 

 using up our forest capital rapidly. The present average growth on 

 the woodlands of the State is probably not over 15 cubic feet of mer- 

 chantable wood per acre per annum. This is a very low production, 

 due to present condition, where destructive methods of cutting are 

 the rule, and repeated forest fires prevent a valuable second growth. 

 Comparing the annual consumption and the annual growth, it is 

 apparent that we are using our forests nearly two and one-half times 

 as fast as they are growing, and this excess of consumption over growth 

 increment has to be taken each year out of our forest capital. At the 

 present rate our forests will be stripped of all merchantable material 

 in about sixteen years. The actual exhaustion of our forests will not 

 likely occur, because as timber becomes more scarce the values will 

 advance to such an extent that practically every woodland owner will 

 take better care of his property, thereby increasing production and 

 stopping unnecessary waste. It can not be too strongly emphasized, 

 however, that improved methods of forest management must be prac- 

 ticed now if a serious timber shortage with exorbitant prices is to be 

 avoided in the future. Trees can not be grown in a year or in ten 

 or twenty years. The crop that is started now, will require nearly a 

 generation in which to reach maturity, hence the importance of look- 

 ing ahead. Fortunately, most of our woodland is already stocked 

 with young growth which requires but a comparatively few years of 

 good care to produce a merchantable crop, and the owner may be as- 

 sured that when the growing crop is ready for harvest the price of 

 timber will have advanced to such an extent as to make it a valuable 

 crop, much more valuable than the same quality of timber is rated 

 to-day. 



