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AMERICAN FORESTRY 



a narrowing field of competition between regional groups 

 of sawmills. The distance between the average sawmill 

 and the average home builder is steadily increasing ; and 

 we shall soon be dependent for the bulk of our construc- 

 tion lumber upon the forests of the Pacific Coast. These 

 conditions have had a vital bearing upon the high cost 

 of lumber, which, during the year, reached a prohibitive 

 figure for many uses and checked the building of homes 

 which is so urgently needed. 



"We have used up our forests without growing new 

 ones. At the bottom of the whole problem is idle forest 

 land. The United States contains 326,000,000 acres of 

 cut-over or denuded forests containing no saw timber; 

 81,000,000 acres of this amount have been completely 

 devastated by forest fires and methods of cutting which 



destroy or prevent new timber growth. The area of idle 

 or largely idle land is being increased by from 3,000,000 

 to 4,000,000 acres annually as the cutting and burning 

 of forests continue. We are short of growing forests. 

 "To stop the devastation of our remaining forests and 

 put our idle forest lands at work the first step must be 

 the enactment of a Federal law whose two chief pro- 

 visions are (1) a comprehensive plan of Federal co-oper- 

 ation with the States in fire prevention and the develop- 

 ment of forestry practice, and (2) extension of the 

 National Forests through purchases along the line 

 initiated by the Weeks Act, through the inclusion of 

 other timberlands now in Federal ownership, and through 

 exchange. 



FORESTRY IN CONNECTICUT 



COME startling facts regarding the present forest 

 ^ situation in Connecticut were brought out at a special 

 meeting of the Connecticut Forestry Association at Hart- 

 ford on November 27. This was the largest forestry 

 meeting ever held in the State and was attended by many 

 prominent lumbermen, landowners, and foresters. The 

 Committee on Connecticut Timber Supply reported that 

 the State now consumes annually 305 board feet of saw 

 timber per capita as against a production of 51 board 

 feet. The production of lumber has decreased "by 50 

 percent from 1910 to 1918, and now amounts to less than 

 17 per cent of the lumber consumption, in spite of a fall- 

 ing off of 35 per cent in this consumption during the last 

 eight years. 



At the present rate of cutting the Committee estimates 

 that the existing hardwood supplies will last but fifteen 

 years and the white pine but twelve years. So far as 

 the hardwoods are concerned, the crisis naturally arising 

 from their destruction by cutting is aggravated by the 

 ravages of the chestnut blight. This has destroyed the 

 most valuable and rapidly growing hardwood species in 

 the State, which has been the mainstay of the farmers 

 who own the vast bulk of the forest lands. With the 

 disappearance of the chestnut many of these can no 

 longer afford to hold their lands for timber growth. 



This situation means that Connecticut is facing in the 

 comparatively near future a timber famine which will 

 result in the elimination of the bulk of its sawmills and 

 in the disappearance of many local wood-using industries. 

 The resulting high prices for lumber will delay or pre- 

 vent many needed improvements. Immense sums will 

 have to be paid for freight on lumber brought from the 

 Pacific Coast. State and local revenues will be reduced 

 because of the low taxable value of nonproducing forest 

 lands and the closing of industries dependent on the for- 

 est for their raw material. 



This gloomy outlook exists in spite of the fact that the 

 forest area has increased from 29 per cent of the total 

 area of the State in 1903 to 46 per cent, or nearly 

 1,500,000 acres, at present. The State already pays 

 $3,000,000 annually in freight bills for the transportation 



of lumber from other forested regions, an amount suf- 

 ficient to replant each year one-eighth of the entire area 

 of forest land in the State. That this expenditure con- 

 stitutes an unnecessary drain upon the resources of the 

 State is shown by the fact that under proper management 

 Connecticut could produce an amount of saw timber 

 equal to her present consumption of 375,000,000 board 

 feet a year on 86 per cent of the present forest area. It 

 is up to the people of the State to say whether or not 

 they wish to adopt measures which will make this possi- 

 ble, or to follow the present course of forest destruction 

 and general impoverishment. 



The Connecticut Forestry Association in the resolu- 

 tions adopted at its recent meeting pointed out that it 

 is of the utmost importance that these facts be brought 

 to the attention of the public at large and that a pro- 

 gressive program of forestry be undertaken by the State. 

 Among the specific activities advocated by the Association 

 was the giving by the farm bureaus in the several counties 

 to the farmers in the State, such information and advice 

 as to growth, managment, and marketing of forest crops 

 as they now give with respect to annual crops. This 

 would undoubtedly be a most important and effective step 

 in the attempt to increase the production of timber on 

 Connecticut's forest lands, most of which are in the 

 hands of farmers. 



The Association also approved of the purchase by 

 the State during the next ten years of at least 100, ooo 

 acres of forest land to be organized and administered as 

 State Forests for the continuous production of the timber 

 essential to the State's industries, and urged an appro- 

 priation of $50,000 for this purpose by the General 

 Assembly of 1921. The Committee on State Forests 

 further suggested that this expenditure should be in the 

 bands of the State Park Board and that this Board 

 should appoint the State Forester. The need for a gen- 

 eral reform in the present method by which an annual 

 tax is imposed on growing timber was recognized by the 

 Association, which proposed that standing timber should 

 be exempted from annual taxation but should pay a 

 products tax at the time it is cut. This products tax, 



