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AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Two-thirds of our virgin forests are west of the great 

 Plains and with this goes the alarming fact that nearly 

 78 per cent of our merchantable softwoods, or about 

 half of all our lumber, is out there and will cost $15.00 

 per M ft. b. m. just to 'laul to Chicago. It is more than 

 mere rumor that says that a good deal of this timber 

 comes to Pennsylvania and goes clear to Massachusetts 

 in spite of the freight, and that much of our lumber costs 

 the retailer today as much for freight as it does for lum- 

 ber. But $15.00 per M ft. is a big sum; for this price 

 foresters in the old world can raise it ; and we in Mich- 

 igan could do the same and make our 10 million acres 

 of waste land bring in some 30 to 40 million dollars per 

 year besides making our North Country one of the finest 

 recreation districts in the world. Fifteen dollars used 

 to be fair pay for a thousand feet and now, and from row 

 on it goes in merely for extra haul. 



The Capper Report tells us that we still use some 25 

 billion cubic feet of timber per year; that we burn up 

 about one billion cubic feet and incidentally cut and use 

 more lumber than the rest of the world all put together. 

 Colbert said: "France will perish for lack of timber;" 

 we always said : "The United States prospers because 

 it has all the good timber it can use." What we want is 

 to have our children also prosper, and not turn over to 

 them a devastated forest waste, an empty mine, plenty 

 of taxes and a foolish appetite for luxury. 



The Capper Report says that we use and waste about 

 26 billion cubic feet and that we grow about six billion 

 feet. Our growth in volume, then is less than one-fourth 

 our use, and in value or dollars it is not one-eighth. How 

 long can we keep up this losing business ? Not long. The 

 standing supplies are estimated at 745 billion cubic feet. 

 If high prices keep cutting down our homebuilding, so 

 that we use less in the future in spite of a growing popula- 

 tion and even if we reduce from 25 billion of use to 20 

 billion, we shall use 400 billions every 20 years and by 

 1960 we shall be down to 15 years' consumption and in a 

 truly serious condition as regards the timber business, 

 the housing problem and particularly agriculture. 



What shall we do about it? Why not turn to the Old 

 World where the different people have worked on this 

 problem for centuries and have solved it quite to their 

 satisfaction ? 



We naturally turn to France as the cradle of forestry 

 and forest legislation. There, after centuries of forestry 

 (and some of it most excellent), the famous minister 

 Colbert said in 1660: "France will perish for lack of 

 timber;" and Raux today (1919) condemns undue liberty 

 in cutting timber and advocates that all cutting be marked 

 by properly prepared foresters. 



In France King Philippe de Valois in 1346, or nearly 

 six centuries ago, passed a law demanding the sustained 

 yield; a law which required every forest owner to keep 



THIS FOREST HAS BEEN CUT BY FORESTRY METHODS 



An indication of proper cutting of a forest is this illustration of a timber sale cutting in the Big Horn National Forest, Wy- 

 oming, where the trees which are to be felled are marked by the foresters and the brush collected 

 and piled to minimize danger of a fire. 



