STATISTICS AND CONCLUSIONS. 25 



more likely will fall far below 200,000,000,000 feet, while the figure for present and lowest future 

 annual consumption may be approximated at near 7,000,000,000 feet, board measure. 1 



There is nobody who knows or can know the actual condition of supplies, and whoever has an 

 opinion on the subject will have to bring at least as good a basis or a better one for such opinion 

 than the data furnished in the following monographs. 



There is no attempt to predict from the foregoing figures the absolute exhaustion of the pine 

 supplies of the South within forty or fifty years, although such a result would appear not unlikely. 

 Competition of other timbers, and substitutes for the use of wood (which, to be sure, never in the 

 history of the world have reduced wood consumption), and especially changes in present methods 

 of exploitation, may lengthen out supplies for a short time; or, if we begin rational forestry now, 

 these forests may be kept a source of continuous supplies, even though reduced. 



Those who rely upon the spontaneous natural reproduction of these pines to fill the gaps made 

 in the virgin timber will do well to read the chapters on natural reproduction and the incidental 

 remarks regarding the conditions for renewal and the appearance of the aftergrowth; or, better, 

 tramp through the vast region of culled pine woods and observe what the basis of their reliance 

 is, as the writer of these monographs has done through forty years of his life. If, in addition, 

 they study the chapters on conditions of development, they will realize that the Longleaf Pine is 

 bound to disappear largely even in the, regions where it reigned supreme; that the Cuban Pine, no 

 despicable substitute, will take its place in the lower pine belt, if allowed to propagate at all; but 

 on large burnt areas the growth of scrubby oaks and brush will forever exclude this species which 

 eminently needs light. Loblolly and Shortleaf, better fitted for warfare with other species, will do 

 much in their respective habitats to recuperate, except in the mixed forest, where they are culled 

 and the hard woods are left to shade out the aftergrowth; or where the continuous conflagrations 

 have destroyed the mold and aftergrowth and given over the soil to scrubby brnshgrowth, which 

 for ages will either prevent the gradual return of the pines or impede their renewal and growth. 

 Considering that the timber on which we now rely and on which we base our standards comes from 

 trees usually from one hundred and fifty to two hundred years or more old, and that none of these 

 pines makes respectable timber in less than from sixty to one hundred and twenty-five years, the 

 necessity of timely attention to their renewal is further emphasized. 



The owuers of timber land and the operators of mills are the only people who can improve 

 these conditions, and this by a more rational treatment of their property. If they can be made to 

 realize now that what they own and hold as a temporary speculation will, in a short time, when 

 supplies have visibly decreased, become a first-class investment, and, by its revenues, become a 

 greater source of wealth under competent management with a view to reproduction than that which 

 they have derived from it by the mere robbing of the old timber, they might take steps at least 

 against the unnecessary damage done to it by fire and cattle. Permanency and continuity of 

 ownership appear to be the first condition to insure such results, and therefore corporations which 

 are not of an ephemeral character and men of large wealth are most desirable forest owners. 



The monographs here presented will, it is hoped, aid in this realization, and the information 

 regarding the conditions of development of the different species will furnish suggestions as to the 

 forest management which, modified according to local conditions and economic considerations, may 

 be employed to secure the perpetuity of the Southern pineries. 



B. E. FERNOW. 

 WASHINGTON, D. C.. June 5, 1896. 



1 The entire region within which these pines occur in merchantable condition comprises about 230,000 square miles 

 or, in round numbers, 147,000,000 acres; for land in farms, etc., 10,000,000 acres must be deducted, and allowing as much 

 as two-thirds of the remainder as representing pine lands (the other to hardwoods), we would have about 90,000,000 

 acres on which pine may occur. An average growth of 3,000 feet per acre, an extravagant figure when referred to 

 snch an area, would make the possible stand 270,000,000,000 feet, provided it was in virgin condition and not mostly 

 culled or cut. 



