Forestry 269 



384. Systematic Forestry teaches us to remove only 

 the matured products, leaving the young timber to 

 grow. France and many European countries have had 

 to restore, though at great expense, the forest condi- 

 tions to large areas that had been thoughtlessly destroyed. 

 In many of the Old World countries no man is allowed 

 to destroy a mature forest tree without permission of a 

 forest official, and this is often given only when another 

 is started to take its place. Such restrictions seem 

 needlessly severe to us, but is it improbable that, some 

 day, we may find some such restriction necessary for 

 the public good? 



385. The Exhaustion of Our Forest Resources is now 

 going on at a rapid rate. Our forested areas are being 

 rapidly reduced. Fig. 172 illustrates the present differ- 

 ence between the use of for- 

 est products and the rate of 



increase by growth. The east- 

 ern states have long since 

 all but exhausted their na- 

 tural forests. They once 

 secured the needed supplies 

 of lumber from the virgin 

 forests of the north central 

 states, but today those areas 

 are almost exhausted and Fig. 172. Excess oTannuai cut 

 the large lumber supplies over annual forest growth - 

 are now furnished by the northwestern and southern 

 states. The citizens of many states have heretofore 

 referred with pride to the great value of their annual crop 

 of forest products; but the time has come in many states 

 where the crop removed is greater than the crop that 

 grows. Scientific forestry does not mean that the use of 



