36 USES OF COMMERCIAL WOODS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, 

 New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode 

 Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Vir- 

 ginia, and Wisconsin. 



The cut has probably exceeded that of any other species. Several 

 timber trees have a wider commercial range, and at the present time 

 two yield more lumber yearly Douglas fir and longleaf pine but 

 white pine was the leader in the markets for 250 years. Though 

 to-day the original forests of this species are mere fragments of what 

 they once were, the second growth in some regions is meeting heavy 

 demand. In Massachusetts, for example, the cut in 1908 was 238 

 million feet, and practically all of it was second growth. It is not 

 improbable that a similar cut can be made every year in the future 

 from the natural growth of white pine in that State. It might be 

 shown by a simple calculation that if one-tenth of the original white 

 pine region were kept in well-protected second growth, like that in 

 Massachusetts, it would yield annual crops, successively for all time, 

 as large as the white pine cut in the United States in 1908. To do 

 this would require the growth of only 25 cubic feet of wood per acre 

 each year, and good white pine growth will easily double that 

 amount. The supply of white pine lumber need never fail in this 

 country, provided a moderate area is kept producing as a result of 

 proper care. 



During the past 30 years the largest cut of white pine has come 

 from the Lake States Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. At an 

 earlier period it was from Pennsylvania and New York, and still 

 earlier the center of supply was New England. The output from 

 the Lake States in 1908 was about 30 per cent of that in 1892. This 

 decrease in output was due to depletion of the forests. The original 

 pineries have largely been cut out, and though for some time there 

 will be old-growth pine in the market, the bulk of the future supply 

 must come from new growth. No large region of virgin timber 

 remains. It is not to be expected that this country will ever again 

 see the quality of this lumber it has seen in the past. The large, 

 clear timber, such as once came from the northern pine regions, will 

 never come from there again, because it was sawed or hewed from 

 trees centuries old. It is too much to expect that forests of second 

 growth will be permitted to attain that age or that the owners of 

 trees will wait for them to attain a height of 150 and a diameter of 4 

 feet. 



Estimates of the total quantity of this pine in the original forests 

 of the United States should be regarded as approximations only. 

 The area, excluding Canadian territory, was approximately 350,000 

 square miles. If it is assumed that the stand averaged 2,000 feet 

 per acre, the total was 450 billion feet. That estimate would appear 



