TIMBER DEPLETION, PRICES, EXPORTS, AND OWNERSHIP. 5 



to the level of European countries where lumber is an imported luxury. We must produce the great bulk of the timber which we need 

 ourselves and we have the resources for doing so. 



The solution of the problem presented by forest depletion in the United States is a national policy of reforestation. Increased 

 and widely distributed production of wood is the most effective attack upon excessive prices and monopolistic tendencies. Depletion 

 has not resulted from the use of forests but from their devastation, from our failure, while drawing upon our reservoirs of virgin timber 

 to also use our timber-growing land. If our enormous areas of forest growing land, now idle or largely idle, which are not required for any 

 other economic use, can be restored to timber growth, a future supply of forest products adequate in the main to the needs of the country 

 will be assured. 



I therefore most earnestly request your consideration of the practical measures proposed in the accompanying report for putting a stop 

 to forest devastation and restoring our idle land to timber production. I would emphasize especially the immediate urgency of legislation 

 (1) which will permit effective cooperation between the Federal Government and the several States in preventing forest fires and growing 

 timber on cut-over lands, and (2) which will greatly extend the National Forests. Enlargement of the National Forests offers immediate 

 relief. On these publicly administered areas high quality timber can be grown and utilized to the maximum advantage; regrowth will 

 follow cutting; and, under the regulations of the Forest Service, the disposal of timber will foster competitive conditions in the lumber 

 industry. These steps are the foundation of an effective national policy for insuring a permanent and adequate supply of timber. 



Concurrently with these measures, a comprehensive survey of the forest resources of the United States should be made. 

 Respectfully yours, 



E. T. MEREDITH, Secretary, 



JUNE 1, 1920. 

 The honorable the SECRETARY OP AGRICULTURE. 



SIR: I transmit herewith a report on forest depletion and related questions which has been prepared by the Forest Service in response 

 to Senate resolution 311. The existing quantities and current growth of a resource so great in extent and so widely distributed as wood 

 can not be stated in exact terms. To obtain strictly accurate and final data on these subjects would require an exhaustive field study 

 covering at least two years. In order, however, to present the situation as clearly and concretely as possible, I have felt it desirable to use 

 the best quantitative data available, recognizing that much of it is but tentative or approximate in character. 



A large number of men in the Forest Service have participated in assembling and compilation; but the report is principally the work 

 of Assistant Forester Earle H. Clapp, in charge of the Branch of Research. 



Respectfully, W. B. GREELEY, Forester. 



