STUMPAGE PRICES 213 



also applies to southern California, and eastern Oregon and 

 Washington. So it sums up to this: the supplies of virgin 

 timber are virtually exhausted except for a limited area on the 

 Pacific Coast making up less than 5 per cent of the total area 

 of the United States. Nor does the fact that some of the biggest 

 trees and the heaviest stands in the world are located here offset 

 the fact that the end of the original supply of timber is in sight. 



What rehef can be expected from other parts of the world? 

 England has long since given up producing her own wood supplies 

 but depends upon importing them. Why cannot we do likewise? 

 This seems all the more plausible because the ordinary description 

 of any new country, and of many that have a long history, makes 

 much of " the inexhaustible forest resources." It will come then 

 as something of a shock to most people to know that only 25 per 

 cent of the earth's surface is capable of producing trees of saw- 

 timber size. The rest is either too cold or too dry. Further- 

 more the area of good softwood timber is still further restricted. 

 Practically speaking, there is no good softwood out of the northern 

 hemisphere. Siberia, Prussia, Scandinavia, Canada, and the 

 United States are the only countries that even had large bodies 

 of pine, spruce or fir. Tropical forests are primarily hardwood 

 forests. The dipterocarps will only be used for the local softwood 

 demand and they will have to make slow headway against the 

 northern softwoods which now preempt the tropical markets. 

 Consequently no help may be expected from Europe, Asia, 

 Australia, Africa or South America. All these continents have, 

 in fact, been drawing upon our supplies in the past and would 

 Uke to continue to do so. In other words, we know that the 

 original world supply of wood will not last indefinitely. We must 

 either use substitutes or grow more. Entire replacement is 

 neither desirable nor necessary so that the cost of growing it will 

 soon determine throughout the world the value of the standing 

 timber. 



WTiat the cost of production will be is dependent upon a num- 

 ber of factors. Most important of all is the length of time re- 

 quired to produce material of any given size. Minimum and 

 average figures are the only ones worth considering because they 



