146 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



approximate cubic contents of wood drawn from the 

 forest to produce the products are enumerated. Several 

 important products of the forest were omitted from the 

 list, since they are incidental industries not directly 

 representing a consumption of timber or wood. These 

 additional products include turpentine and rosin or 

 naval stores, as they are sometimes called hemlock and 

 chestnut oak bark used in tanning, and the sap of the 

 maole trees utilized in making maple sugar and syrup. 

 The value of these crops runs well into the millions of 

 dollars each year. 



The tabulation indicates the annual use of the equiva- 

 lent of 91 billion board feet of timber for all purposes 

 in the United States. A substantial basis exists in nearly 

 every instance for the figures given, and they may be 

 regarded as conservative rather than overdrawn. Where 

 statistics for a series of years were available, an average 

 figure was used in place of the data for any one specified 

 year in order to eliminate possible abnormalities. To 

 produce these 91 billion board feet every year requires 

 a yield of 23^ billion cubic feet of timber a stupendous 

 crop and worthy of the most prodigal nation. 



Assuming a population in 1919 of 108,000,000 in the 

 United States, the per capita drain on the forests is 

 219 cubic feet. The term drain is used in place of con- 

 sumption, since no consideration is given nor deduction 

 made in this article for material exported; such deduc- 

 tion, however, would not materially change the figures 

 because of the tendency of imports to counter-balance 

 exports. A per capita drain of 219 cubic feet is a 



heavy tax on the producing ability of our forests, and a 

 heavier levy than is made by any other nation on its 

 timber resources. 



The timber situation in the United States may be 

 likened to that of a man who years ago fell heir to a large 

 fortune in cash and who has continued to check against 

 the account most liberally without concerning himself 

 about his balance. In all probability he has drawn more 

 than the interest earned each year, but he is not certain 

 even of this fact because he knows not what part of his 

 principal remains. And so it is with our forest resources 

 we have gone on drawing heavily upon them each year 

 without knowing what remains or what the annual in- 

 crement or volume of new growth may be. The fact 

 is substantiated by the data given in Table 1, that cer- 

 tain producing regions have been pretty well cut out. 

 This in itself should be sufficient to convince the most 

 skeptical that our raids on the standing timber of the 

 country have been very successful in reducing the avail- 

 able supply. 



How vital our forests are to the commerce and industry 

 of the country can be better appreciated by quoting a 

 few figures. Fifty-two thousand, or 19 per cent, of the 

 276,000 manufacturing establishments in this country 

 use wood solely or in part as raw material. These 

 52,000 establishments furnish employment to 1,130,000 

 wage-earners, or 16 per cent of the 7,000,000 wage- 

 earners in the United States. Whatever goes toward 

 curtailing the supplies of i,?w forest products to these 

 establishments tends to rupture the continuous employ- 



Table 2 Annual Consumption of Timber in the United States. 



Form Used Quantity Produced 



or Consumed 



Total 



Fuelwood 110,000,000 cords 



Lumber 37,300,000,000 ft. B. M. 



Fence Posts 900,000,000 posts 



Hewed cross-ties 87,500,000 ties 



Pulpwood 4,550,000 cords 



Round mine timbers 250,000,000 cu. ft. 



Shingles 8,850,000,000 shingles 



Wood Distillation 1,550,000 cords 



Tanning extract wood 1,250,000 cords 



Veneers 650,000,000 ft. logs 



Tight staves 286,000,000 staves 



Vehicle stock 300,000,000 ft. B. M. 



Slack staves 1,010,000,000 staves 



Woodenware 350,000,000 ft. B. M. 



Poles 4,250,000 poles 



Handles 200,000,000 ft. B. M. 



Slack heading \ 61,000,000 sets 



Hewn and rough export 200,000,000 ft. B. M. 



Lath 2,375,000,000 lath 



Tight heading 21,000,000 sets 



Excelsior 200,000 cords 



Hoops 333,000,000 hoops 



Piling 1,500,000 pieces 



Ship building 10,000,000 ft. B. M. 



Furniture 10,000,000 ft. B. M. 



Equivalent in Feet 

 Board Measure 



91,308,000,000 



Cubic feet of 



Timber Required 



to Produce 



23,611,556,000 



36,663,000,000 



37,300,000,000 



4,500,000,000 



2,625,000,000 



2,548,000,000 



1,500,000,000 

 885,000,000 

 868,000,000 

 700,000,000 

 780,000,000 



10,450,000,000 



8,168,700,000 



1,800.000,000 



1,050,000,000 



532,350,000 



325,000,000 

 194,700.000 

 181,350,000 



146.250,000 

 119.600,000 



