38 



TIMBER DEPLETION, PRICES, EXPORTS, AND OWNERSHIP. 

 TABLE 9. Timber removed each year from the forests of the United States. 



NOTE. -Figures on amounts used are in most cases the most recent data available. For lumber the average total cut for the period 1909-1918 was taken (5 prewar and 

 5 war years). For export logs 1913 figures were used. Fire loss is in estimated average including bad years, such as 1010 and 1919. 



TABU: 10. Annual growth of saw timber and cordwood in the 

 United States, by regions. 



With softwoods the depletion of saw timber is more striking, 

 although the cut of small timber is also considerably in excess 

 of its growth. Nearly three-fourths, or 40 billion board feet of 

 the saw timber used and destroyed, comes from softwood for- 

 ests, and about 32 billion feet of it from virgin stands. The 

 total depletion of softwood saw timber is more than 6J times 

 its annual growth of 6 billion feet. 



The enormous excess of depletion over growth of timber is 

 not because of unduly large consumption of timber products. 

 It is due in part to needlessly large losses from fires and other 

 causes, which to a great extent can be controlled. But it is 

 due most of all to the wasteful methods . of cutting and to 

 neglect of cut and burned over forest lauds. There are now in 

 the United States about 81,000,000 acres of waste forest land, 

 devastated by cutting and by fires, on which nothing of value 

 is growing or likely to grow without, a huge expenditure for 

 reforestation. This area is equal to the combined areas of the 

 forest lands of France, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, 

 Switzerland, Spain, and Portugal. Besides the waste land 

 there are in the United States approximately 245,000,000 acres 

 bearing second-growth forest. In a large part of this forest, 

 wasteful cutting or excessive- grazing have reduced production 



to a mere fraction of what it might be with proper handling. 

 To convert such stands into valuable producing forests will in 

 many cases involve expenditures as great as though the lauds 

 were devastated. 



The area of- devastated and partially devastated land is 

 rapidly increasing. Timberlands are cut over much more 

 closely now than formerly, with the result that after fires 

 have killed out most of the young growth on logged-off lands 

 there is little or no chance for reproduction to start. At least 

 5,500,000 acres of merchantable timber are cut over every year. 

 Part of it restocks and part does not. During the period from 

 1915 to 1918 an average of 9,400,000 acres of forest land was 

 burned over each year, and in years like 1910 and 1919 the 

 acreage was considerably larger. Some of this land restocks 

 and some becomes waste, while the productivity of practically 

 all is reduced. 



POSSIBLE GROWTH. 



If all of this land had been cut over in the first place, with 

 due regard to securing a future stand, and had been protected 

 from fires or excessive grazing after cutting, it would now be 

 producing timber at least three times as fast as at present. 

 Judging from the experience of other countries and from re- 

 sults obtained where forests have been carefully treated in our 

 own country, it is believed entirely conservative to assume that 

 the 326 million acres could produce at an average rate of CO 

 cubic feet of wood per acre per annum, or, in terms of saw 

 timber, 150 board feet per annum. This would mean a total 

 annual growth on the present area of cut-over forest land, in- 

 cluding that now devastated, of 19J billion cubic feet of wood, 

 including 49 billion board feet of saw timber. At the same rate 

 of production for the remaining 137 million acres of virgin 

 forest in which there is now no net increment, our total com- 

 mercial forest area is capable of producing annually, after the 

 virgin timber has been cut off, at least 27| billion cubic feet of 

 wood, including 70 billion board feet of saw timber. This ex-' 

 ceeds our present rate of use and destruction. With a rea- 

 sonable per capita consumption, it would be able to meet in- 

 definitely the needs of our growing population for wood and 

 other forest products. 



