178 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The panic of 1907 radically changed the situation. The lumber 

 industry entered a period of j^rotracted depression. From that time 

 on private forestry made relatively little progress in the United 

 States, except on farm woodlands. While public forestry has made 

 vast strides, the forests of the country that are in private hands are 

 being depleted with very great rapidity, and almost everywhere 

 without effort to renew them. A grave situation is becoming man- 

 ifest in various ways. This is why the Forest Service is now putting 

 forth a new and energetic effort to call public attention to the facts 

 and to propose a program that will afford relief. 



The problem presented is one that can be solved only by public 

 action. The general practice of forestry on privately owned lands 

 in the United States will not take place through unstimulated private 

 initiative. 



The magnitude of the National Forest enterprise and the prom- 

 inence given to its accomplishments have given the impression to 

 some that the problem of forestry is under way of solution. In 

 point of fact, this is by no means the case, for the National Forests 

 represent in area only about a quarter of the forest area of the country 

 and less than that proportion of the actual standing timber. Private 

 owners therefore hold more than three-fourths of the present timber 

 supplies of the United States. The amount of materia which is 

 actually placed on the market from the National Forests amounts 

 to only about 3 per cent of the entire consumption of the country. 

 The rest comes from private lands. While the proportion v/ill be 

 altered, the country must still look to private lands for a large part 

 of its forest supplies. 



The rate of depletion of our forest resources is more than twice, 

 probably three times, what is actually being produced by growth in 

 a form which will be servicable for products other than firewood. 

 High prices of lumber are not wholly due to the increased cost of 

 labor and materials. A part is due to the ever-retreating sources of 

 timber supply. Already the supplies of all our eastern great centers 

 of production are approaching exhaustion with the exception of the 

 South, and even there most of the mills have not over 10 to 15 years' 

 supply left of virgin timber. Already the southern pine is being 

 withdrawn from many points as a competitive factor and its j^lace 

 taken by western timbers, with consequent freight charges which 

 the consumer must pay. Conununities needing to build roads and 

 other public works which involve increased taxation are often hav- 

 ing brought sharply to their attention the economic consequences of 

 stripping off the forests and leaving in their stead unproductive 

 wastes of low taxable value now or in the future. These facts are 

 recalling public attention to the effects of uneconomic and wasteful 

 exploitation of our forests in the past and to the need of steps which 

 will put a stop to the destructive processes and replace them with 

 methods which will build up rather than injure the country. 



The situation necessitates a broad policy of forestry for the whole 

 Nation which wall include both an enlarged program of pubUc acqui- 

 sition of forests by the Government, the States, and municipalities 

 and protection and perpetuation of forest gi'owths on all privately 

 owned lands which may not better be used for agriculture and 

 settlement. 



