THE WOODLOT 



To grow trees for fuel and farm purposes is just as much 

 in the line of forestry as to grow them for lumber, and in 

 some respects of more vital importance, especially so to the 

 farm-owners of the country. Fuel is an absolute necessity, 

 and while it is abundant at present, it certainly cannot remain 

 so for long. More than two thirds of our people use wood 

 for fuel, and while the remainder have now either natural 

 gas or coal they must not flatter themselves that those who 

 are to come after them will long be blessed with an ample 

 supply of either commodity. In fact, it is well known that 

 coal and gas are being rapidly exhausted, and in many sec- 

 tions will become entirely so during the life of the present 

 generation. Competent authorities put the limit for anthra- 

 cite coal at from seventy-five to one hundred years. Long 

 before that time it will become so high-priced as to be be- 

 yond the reach of all but the wealthy. Even our immense 

 fields of bituminous coal are not expected to last much 

 longer than the middle of the next century. As it has largely 

 been in the past, so must it be in the future, that wood will 

 be the main dependence for fuel. 



The National Conservation Commission made report to 

 President Roosevelt that there were fully one hundred mil- 

 lion cords of wood consumed annually in this country for 

 fuel alone. Supposing that from the average acre of the 

 woodlots of the country there could be cut twenty-five cords, 

 which is probably too high an estimate, that means 

 the equivalent of clearing off the trees from four million 

 acres of land per annum for fuel alone, to say nothing of 

 the amount cut for posts, poles, or other timber about the 

 farms. 



