AMERICAN FORESTRY 



117 



capacity. On 81 million acres there is prac- 

 tically no forest growth." 



This is the larger picture of depletion, 

 non-production, and dislocation of indus- 

 tries, of which the story of timber in 

 Michigan is merely a fairly typical part. 

 When these facts make themselves at 

 home in the consciousness of Mr. Average 

 Citizen, he will be convinced at last that 

 timber depletion and attendant evils are 

 realities not creaitions of the imaginations 

 of foresters. If there remains any linger- 

 ing doubt in his mind it will be dispelled 

 when he proceeds to build that home he 

 has been planning for and saving for 

 through so many years. He will find that 

 if both the average value of all commodi- 

 ties and the average price of softwood 

 lumber in the year i860 are taken as the 

 index figure 100, then the present average 

 value of all commodities would be repre- 

 sented in the year 1920 by the index figures 

 294 ; but the average price of softwood 

 lumber in 1920 is represented by the in- 

 dex figure 540. The increase of softwood 

 values since 1915 has been over twice as 

 great as the average increase of all com- 

 modity prices. This proportion of increase 

 in the price of lumber is not entirely due to 

 timber depletion, but when Mr. Average 

 Citizen finds that the sum he has pain- 

 fully accumulated for his new home is 

 not sufficient to build the house in 1920. he 

 and Mrs. Average Citizen will do some 

 pointed thinking as they again postpone 

 the construction of the house they had set 

 their, hearts upon. They will no .longer 

 harbor any doubt that timber depletion 

 means something to them personally 

 means a blow at their personal happiness 

 and comfort. 



Again, we have before us the tragedy 

 that the aroused public opinion which Mr. 

 Average Citizen generates will be too late 

 -too late, that is, to save that 81 million 

 acres on which there is practically no tree 

 trrowth. A region larger than the great 

 States of Iowa and Missouri has been cut- 

 over and is now idle because public opinion 

 remained passive too long. By demanding 

 a slightly different treatment of this land. 

 public opinion could have kept the 81 mil- 

 lion acres continuously productive. To 

 bring it back to productiveness will be a 

 far more difficult and more expensive 

 matter. 



But it is not too late to stop the re- 

 mainder of our 326 million acres of cut- 

 over land from reverting to a condition of 

 idleness. The area of idle or largely idle 

 land is being increased by from 3 to 4 

 mfllion acres annually as the cutting and 

 burning of forests continue. The area of 

 forest land not required for any other 

 ecqnomic use is estimated at 463 million 

 acres, and this would provide an ample 

 supply of wood for all our needs if kept 

 productive. Depletion of our timber sup- 

 ply, has resulted not from using our timber 

 resources but from failure to use our tim- 

 ber growing land, and by far the greater 



part of our forest land may still be kept 

 continuously producing timber if Mr. Av- 

 erage Citizen definitely decides that we 

 have left the period of plenty of timber 

 and crossed over into the period of insuf- 

 ficient timber. 



ECONOMY IN LUMBER PRODUCTION 



""THE Committee on Conservation and 

 Standardization recently appointed by 

 the newly organized Association of Wood 

 Using Industries has already begun to 

 function, as might have been expected from 

 the fact that W. A. Babbitt, Secretary of 

 the National Association of Wood Tur- 

 ner's, is its chairman. It is difficult to 

 estimate the importance of this worlc, not 

 only to a great variety of manufacturers, 

 but to the country as a whole, because of 

 the economies which it will make possible 

 in wood utilization. Under a practice which 

 grew up when stumpage prices were In- 

 significant, says Austin F. Hawes, Field 

 Scretary and Forester of the National 

 Association of Wood Turners, we are still 

 wasting the greater portion of every tree 

 which grows in the forest. By a proper 

 co-ordination of the needs of the different 

 industries it will be possible to saw the 

 tree when it is felled into more economical 

 lengths ; and to saw each log into the 

 dimensions for which it is best adapted. 



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