WE FAIL TO USE FOREST-GROWING LAND 



"OEFORESTATION has not been taken seriously by the 

 '* average business man in the United States," said Col. 

 \V. B. Greeley, chief of the Forest Service, United States 

 Department of Agriculture, before the National Asso- 

 ciation of Wood Turners recently. "Reforestation has 

 been looked ujxjn as a fad quite removed from the prac- 

 tical interests of the manufacturer, as something more 

 concerned with parks or shade trees or rose bushes. 



"Chicago is the greatest lumber market in the world. 

 Since 1890 an average of over 2,000,000,000 feet of lum- 

 ber has come into Chicago every year. In 1920 the figure 

 ^vas nearly 2,500,000,000 feet, 60 per cent of which went 

 into local construction and manufacturing industries. 

 In 1900 the average freight paid on lumber coming into 

 Chicago was less than $3 per M feet. Since that time 

 the local sources of supply for this territory have been 

 exhausted one after another. Lumber shipments have 

 traversed greater and greater distances, and the average 

 freight bill paid by the Chicago distributor has steadily 

 risen to more than $12 per M feet. 



"In other words, the increased transportation charge 

 on lumber shipments into Chicago, as a result of the 

 exhaustion of the forest regions surrounding it, repre- 

 sents a toll of $22,500,000 annually. And while this has 

 happened there have accun^ulated in the Central and 

 Lake States nearly 23,000,000 acres of logged-off forest 

 land which is producing neither farm crops nor timber; 

 $22,500,000 is the yearly tax which the wood-using indus- 

 tries and home builders, supplied through Chicago, pay 

 for the idleness of a large part of the soil in the sur- 

 rounding States which should furnish the natural sup- 

 ply for this district. This sum would plant every year 

 1,500,000 acres of land with forest trees. 



"This illustration may be extended to cover the four 

 States of Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan. 

 These States consume annually between 4.000,000.000 

 and 5,000,000,000 feet of timber in furniture factories, 

 sash and door mills, factories manufacturing agricul- 

 tural implements, wood-turning establishments and 

 other wood-using industries. Sawmills are excluded 

 from this estimate, also the requirements for general 

 construction and housing, and the consumption of lum- 

 ber on farms. The manufacturers referred to represent 

 an invested capital of $760,000,000 and enroll 260,000 

 skilled employees. This great manufacturing industry 

 was built up on the softwood forest of the Lake States 

 and the hardwood forests of the Ohio and upper Mississ- 

 ippi valleys, whose products were available at a low 

 transportation cost. In these four States enough forest 

 land to supply in full the needs of these industries now 

 stands idle. 



'We are cutting our timber probably four times as fast 

 as timber is being grown. It is useless to decry the gen- 

 erous use which American industry has made of our for- 

 ests. It has contributed powerfully to the industrial 

 development and commercial supremacy of the T.Jnited 

 States. The forestry problem does not result from the 

 liberal use of our forests, but from our failure to use 

 our forest-growing land. There is an ample area of 

 land in this country, which is not tillable, to support all 

 iof our timber requirements, all of our wood manufactures, 

 all of. our home building and agricidtural use of lumber, 

 indeed an even larger export trade than at present, if 

 that land can be kept at work growing timber. Refor- 

 estation has become a commercial necessity of the United 

 States." 



STATES AIDED IN FOREST PROTECTION 



Twenty-four States, or more, will receive $400,000 of 

 Federal funds for the protection of their forest lands 

 from fires during the fiscal year beginning July 1, ac- 

 cording to statements by the Forest Service of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture. This co-operation 

 was first authorized by the Act of March 1, 1911, com- 

 monly known as the "Weeks Law," and has continued 

 ever since. Last year $125,000 was appropriated for the 

 work, but Congress this year, realizing the importance 

 of fire prevention in our forests, substantially increased 

 the amount to be expended. At least three more States 

 are expected to join the ranks of co-operators shortly. 



Allotments of money for forest protection are made 

 by the Forest Service to individual States on the basis 

 of 7 per cent of the estimated cost of adequate fire pro- 

 tection in that particular State, with the limitation that 

 the maxinnun allotment cannot exceed $25,000. Both 

 figures depend upon, and vary with, the size of the Fed- 

 eral appropriation for this work received from year to 

 year. Forestry experts believe that the ideal apportion- 



ment of protection expense would be: Federal Govern- 

 ment 25 per cent ; States 25 per cent ; private owners 50 

 per cent, but this is not possible at jiresent. 



The four important limitations governing Federal co- 

 operation in fire protection under the Weeks Law are: 



(1) It is extended only to States that have provide! 

 by law for a comprehensive system of fire protection. 



(2) It is limited to the watersheds of navigable 

 streams. 



(3) The State must expend an amount at least equal 

 to the Federal appropriations for that State. 



(4) Fire protection must include not only merchant- 

 able timber, but also young growth and cut-over lands ; 

 in other words, it nnist cover all classes of forest land. 



The basis of this I'ederal co-operation is the recog- 

 nition by the Government of the Nation's interest in keep- 

 ing the forest lands of our country continuously pro- 

 ductive, especially on the watersheds of navigable 

 streams and the further recognition of the fact that the 

 Nation should bear a part of cost of the work. 





