which look ahead for a supply of raw material which 

 will justify their investments in manufacturing plants 

 and who realize that virgin timber is not much long- 

 er to be had. I have recently visited a large corpor- 

 ation in the South which has definitely embarked 

 upon the reforestation of some 300,000 acres of south- 

 ern pine lands, as they are cut, to afford a permanent 

 supply of pulpwood for large paper plants after the 

 virgin timber has been used up. 



As a matter of fact, iwe are already using large 

 quantities of second growth timber. There are con- 

 siderable areas in the South Atlantic States which 

 are now yielding their third cutting of pine lumber. 

 In our northern coniferous forests, holdings are not 

 infrequent from which logs or pulpwood ha.ve been 

 partially cut during three generation and which are 

 still well stocked timberlands. But the critical point in 

 the whole situation is that, notwithstanding such in- 

 stances as I have cited, the United States is taking 

 timber from its forests three or four times as fast as 

 timber is being grown. Those few words put the 

 problem in a nutshell. As against a steady shrink- 

 age in the stocks of virgin timber, there are enormous 

 areas of idle logged-off land which are increasing by 

 the millions of acres every year. Instead of haphazard 

 second growth or no second growth at all, the nation 

 must find a way to bring about plan-wise reforestation 

 on all cut-over lands suited to timber growth, if its 

 economic necessities are to be supplied adequately. 



How shall this end be accomplished? Shall it be 

 left entirely to economic forces, as many suggest, to 

 the law of supply and demand, to the enlightened 



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