Timber and Recreation 



^^^^ 



The tree speaks: "Ye who pass and would raise your hand against me, hearken ere you 

 harm me! I am the heat of your hearth on cold winter nights; the friendly shade screen- 

 ing you from the summer sun; my fruits are refreshing draughts, quenching your thirst 

 as you journey on. 



"I am the beam that holds your house, the board of your table, the bed on which you lie, 

 and the timber that builds your boat. I am the handle of your hoe, the door of your home- 

 stead, the wood of your cradle, and the shell of your coffin. I am the bread of kindness, 

 and the flower of beauty." From a sign in the park of a European city. 



OUR COUNTRY NEEDS TIMBER, even in this age of steel. We need 

 timber not only for the most obvious uses for houses, barns, railroad ties, 

 furniture, boxes, fence posts, firewood; but also for a developing variety 

 of chemical woods products, thoroughly modern. For plastics, films, lac- 

 quers, cellophane, newspapers, wrapping paper; for the finest grades of 

 writing paper, and ammunition; for naval stores, distillates, dyestuffs, 

 rayons, and for thousands of other products that modern chemistry is 

 developing from tree cellulose as a base, we are going to need and to use 

 forests more and more. 



When Jamestown was founded, we had about 820 million acres of 

 forests in the continental United States. We have about 630 million acres 

 classified as forest land today; of the 176 million acres in national forests, 

 134 million acres are forest land. Vast as they are, our national forests com- 

 prise less than one-fourth of the remaining forest land. 



The total area classified as forest land, private and public, is bigger than 



'37 



