IMPENDING CATASTROPHE 97 



Cutting at a rate commensurate only with annual 

 growth is all very well, you say, but here in America 

 wood products are so implicated in our daily affairs 

 and play so large a part in maintaining our stand- 

 ards of living, that any restriction upon the rate of 

 consumption would mean nothing less than a catas- 

 trophe. There is just one alternative, and that is to 

 increase the size and productivity of our forests; in 

 other words, grow more trees. That we have plenty 

 of idle land near our great wood-consuming centers, 

 land suitable only for forest growing, is evident to 

 the casual traveler, and the fact is being better em- 

 phasized every year through the reports prepared 

 by the Federal Forest Service and the newly con- 

 stituted forest commissions of our states. Remem- 

 ber that 81 million acres is the present estimate of 

 denuded and idle areas alone, and that there are 

 also 245 million acres of very sparsely timbered 

 land which is nevertheless capable of intensive tree 

 cultivation. With the necessity of meeting high 

 freight rates the immediate adoption of scientific 

 forestry methods in the far west would very likely 

 prove unprofitable, but in our northeastern states 

 the problem is quite different. The sum now paid 

 for transcontinental haulage might far better be ex- 

 pended on forest protection and cultivation right at 

 home. 



