638 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



changes yearly and its future can be the states and private owners to safe- 



only a matter of judgment. We know 

 that before a large part of our forests 

 can be cut it will pay to use smaller 

 and less desirable trees than can be 

 used profitably now, but no one knows 

 how much smaller and less desirable 

 they can be used at the exact time they 

 are reached by the logger of the fu- 

 ture. 



The most recent estimates 

 of western timber are those 

 of the Department of Com- 

 merce and Labor, which 

 place the entire supply in 

 Montana, Idaho, Washing- 

 ton, Oregon and California 

 at 1,512,900,000,000 feet, 

 board measure, or nearly 54 

 per cent of all the timber in 

 the United States. Of this, 

 1,013,000,000,000 feet is in 

 private ownership, 440,800,- 

 000,000 in National Forests, 

 and 59,100,000,000 in state 

 ownership, military and In- 

 dian reservations, unreserv- 

 ed public lands, etc. Less is 

 known of the other western 

 states, but the National For- 

 ests alone in Arizona, Colo- 

 rado, Nevada, New Mexico, 

 Utah and Wyoming are said 

 to contain ninety billion feet. 

 Certainly the entire west has 

 well over one and a half 

 trillion, a figure hard to grasp 

 by the layman unless by re- 

 flecting that the present cut 

 of lumber in the entire Uni- 

 ted States is only about forty 

 billion a year. This means 

 that the five great forest 

 states first mentioned could, 

 without assistance and with- 

 out any new growth, equal 

 the entire nation's present lumber pro- 

 duction for nearly forty years. 



Fully one-third of this stand of tim- 

 ber is owned and controlled by the Fed- 

 eral Government and the states west 

 of the Rocky Mountains, and in this, 

 the World's Greatest Wood Lot, there 

 is an united, harmonious and effective 



guard and protect this timber from its 

 greatest enemy forest fire. 



Here also is a public sentiment alert, 

 advanced and willing to put in prac- 

 tice all intelligent conservation de- 

 mands, that is possible under present 

 economic conditions. 



Aside from the hardwoods, the tim- 



RED FIR AND WESTERN HEMLOCK. 



THIS IS A TYPICAL MIXTURE OF THESE FINE TREES IN THE BLACK HILLS, 



WASHINGTON. 



ber suitable for lumber in the Pacific 

 Northwest, is unsurpassed in variety, 

 quality and adaptability for the ordi- 

 nary uses to which wood products are 

 used. The predominating wood Fir 

 being undoubtedly without a rival for 

 structural purposes, and boldly chal- 

 lenging all other soft woods for the 



effort on the part of the Federal For- beauty of its higher grades in finish, 

 est Service, the Forestry Department of Supplementing the Fir, are the Cedar 



