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most favorable density for development, not only more individual trees but these 

 of more servicable shape are growing, so that at the harvest the percentage of 

 waste and useless material is reduced, and it is for these reasons that the yield, 

 not only in quantity but also in quality, is increased. 



While in our virgin forests the percentage of useful saw material is estimated 

 to rarely exceed 20 or 25 per cent, the percentage in the French Government 

 forests is over 50, which in pine and spruce of 130 years of age in Germany may 

 reach the high figure of 60 to even 70 per cent ; that is to say, the management 

 of the crop is such that the firewood, branches, and waste material are kept down 

 to from 30 to at most 50 per cent, of the total crop of wood. 



Most of the timber cut and sawed in the United States is from trees more 

 than 200 years of age, while the rotation, i.e., the time during which the crop is 

 allowed to grow in Germany, for most timber is not more than 100 years. 

 Comparisons of absolute yield are therefore impossible to make. 



But if we allow the high estimate of 10,000 feet board measure per acre to 

 be an average for the United States, we learn from the large statistical material 

 on hand for the German forest administrations that the yield of the German 

 forests is at least three times as large and that produced in a shorter time. We 

 leave out of consideration, of course, the yield of the Pacific Slope forests, which 

 is beyond any average computation. 



That it is judicious for the government to keep in view the question of 

 timber supplies and to give, at least as far as it own holdings are concerned, 

 timely attention to the future, if for nothing else than an example and object 

 lesson, may be inferred from the following statement in regard to the outlook of 

 available supplies and demand, which, while not claiming to present actual 

 conditions, for which statistics are lacking, discusses possibilities or probabilities. 



The chief of the forestry division, in an address before the real estate 

 congress at Nashville, Tenn., in 1892, says : 



The area of timber land in the United States, although changing daily by clearing of new farms 

 and by relapsing of old ones into woodlands, may roughly be placed at 500,000,000 acres. Even if 

 we were to class as timber land all the land not occupied by farms or known to be without tree 

 growth, this figure can not be increased more than 60 per cent. ; that is, the utmost possibility 

 of the area of natural woodlands in the United States must be within 800,000,000 acres. The 

 former figure, however, conies probably much nearer the truth. How much of this area con- 

 tains available merchantable timber it is impossible to tell, or even to guess at. We only know 

 that supplies of certain kinds are wanting. For instance, the white pine of the North shows 

 signs of exhaustion, the white ash has become scarce in many localities, the tulip poplar will not 

 last long, and the black walnut has ceased to be abundant. All we can do is to estimate the 

 range of possibilities. 



With the utmost stretch of imagination as to the capacity of wood crops per acre, if we allow 

 even the entire area of half a billion acres to be fully timbered, and keep in mind the enormous 

 yield of the Pacific Coast forests, 1,250 or 1,500 billion cubic feet of wood is all that could be 

 crowded upon that area. This figure would far exceed the most highly-colored advertisement 

 of a dealer in timber land, except on the Pacific Coast ; in fact he would be afraid to assert one- 

 half as much, for it would make the average cut of timber per acre through the whole country 

 10,00(J feet board measure. 



The above figure in cubic feet represents wood of every description, allowing as high as 33^ 

 per cent, for saw timber. 



Since we consume between 20,000,000,000 and 25,000,000,000 cubic feet of wood of every 

 description annually, fifty to sixty years would exhaust our supplies, even if they were as large 

 as here assumed and if there were no additional growth to replace that cut and no additional 

 increase of consumption. Regarding the latter it may be of interest to state that according to as 

 careful an estimate as I have been able to make upon the basis of census figures and other means 

 of information the increase in the rate of consumption of all kinds of forest products during three 

 census years, expressed in money values, was from round $500,000,000 worth in 1860 to $700,- 

 000,000 worth in 1870 and $900,000,000 in 1880, while for 1890 it may probably reach $1,200,- 

 000,000, an increase of about 30 per cent, for every decade, or somewhat more than the increase 

 of population, which may in part be explained by higher prices. 



