THE IMPORTANT TIMBER TREES 

 OF THE UNITED STATES 



INTRODUCTORY 



No one can truthfully deny that we have reached a 

 critical period in our country's industrial progress. We 

 have, in the past, been loath to believe that we were even 

 approaching such a period, for we have indulged in the 

 belief and many still hold to that faith that our natural 

 resources are inexhaustible. Observing men, however, know 

 that such a conclusion is very far from fact, and realize 

 that in our rapid advance in material progress we shall 

 soon be face to face with the practical exhaustion of our 

 important natural resources ; and they further realize that 

 we must do something to conserve and, as far as possible, 

 restore such resources or we shall, erelong, be overwhelmed 

 with irreparable disaster. 



Fortunately many of our people are now beginning to 

 see the absolute necessity for conservation and they are 

 fast coming to a knowledge of the fact that, of all the re- 

 sources which we now enjoy, and of which we have here- 

 tofore thoughtlessly boasted, only such as arise, in some 

 form, from the cultivation or use of the soil can be renewed 

 when once exhausted. It is now becoming well understood 

 that the time will come, and in the not far distant future, 

 when our coal, oil, gas, and other valuable minerals will be 

 either completely exhausted or so near that condition as to 

 make their acquisition difficult and expensive. It is being 

 further comprehended that, like other products of the soil, 

 the forests which we still possess can, with proper manage- 



