Dams Now Proposed to Regulate Streamflow Dam Site on Lower Colorado (Page 666) 



We can hardly blame the lumbermen 



j 



more than operatives in other indus- 

 tries for past practise or present con- 

 ditions. Like other people, they are in 

 business for the profit, and too busy 

 with the things of to-day to take 

 thought for the morrow ; and, with no 

 authority to stay the work of destruc- 

 tion, competition has compelled them 

 to adopt such practise as experience has 

 shown to be necessary for success. 



But it is evident that the short- 

 sighted policy of private control can- 

 not be trusted for protection of the 

 common interests, and, if we would stay 

 the work of destruction, we must pro- 

 vide some system of Government guar- 

 dianship and supervision of the remain- 

 ing forests. 



Our authorities estimate the original 

 forested area of the United States at 

 850,000,000 acres, and that clearing, 

 cutting, and burning have reduced the 

 acreage to 550,000,000. 



Of this remaining so-called forest, 

 100,000,000 acres, an area as large as 

 New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 

 Maryland, and Virginia, is said to be 

 so damaged by cutting and burning 



that its growth is of little value, while 

 250,000,000 acres partially cut and 

 burned over are restocking naturally 

 with sufficient young growth to pro- 

 duce a fair crop of timber. This leaves 

 but 200,000,000 acres of unculled for- 

 est, less than one-fourth the original 

 forest area. 



Of this amount there can hardly be 

 over 50,000,000 acres of unculled for- 

 est east of the Mississippi, and a con- 

 siderable part of this has been left be- 

 cause, on account of its inferior quality 

 or quantity, it has not been worth the 

 cutting. 



The 350,000,000 acres of culled and 

 burned-over forest lands have been so 

 persistently stripped of their best pro- 

 ductions, and the least valuable left to 

 grow and propagate their kind, that the 

 natural reproduction is largely of un- 

 desirable and unprofitable growth ; and 

 though the estimates on the amount of 

 standing timber, taking the lower 

 grades into account, may be approxi- 

 mately correct, it is certain that some 

 of our most valuable and indispensable 

 woods for many important industries 

 are already nearly exhausted. 



667 



