NATIONAL COUNCIL OF HORTICULTURE 79 



hardwoods in the central states, and yellow pine in the South. It needs 

 not to be repeated how these forests have been cut and destroyed. These 

 states are estimated to contain now only about 900 billion feet of 

 lumber, which, according to our present rate of use, means only twelve 

 to fifteen years' supply. 



The Federal Government has no forests anywhere east of the 

 Mississippi. The states have reserved about two and one-half million 

 acres. All the rest is under private ownership, which system has re- 

 sulted in the reduction of the commercial forest from the original to 

 the present condition. Private ownership shows little evidence of 

 changing from the original methods of exploitation. Lumbering still 

 means the exhaustion of the forest. Over most of the region fires still 

 burn without hindrance. The forest is being used faster than ever 

 before. The increase in the use of wood equals if indeed it does not 

 exceed the increase in population. As an index of the changed situa- 

 tion in the timber supply in the eastern states in ten years, one has 

 but to note that the prices of our leading woods have advanced from 

 25 to 75 per cent. 



From whatever side the timber situation in the eastern states is 

 viewed, one is forced irresistibly to the conclusion that remedial meas- 

 ures must be taken, and that quickly, or we shall be in the midst of a 

 timber famine. 



The only remedy yet proposed which meets the situation is for the 

 Federal Government to undertake the establishment of national forests 

 in the eastern states similar in purpose to those in the West. There 

 is but one region in the East where such a system could properly be 

 established the Appalachian Mountains. This is the only region in 

 the East more valuable for timber than for other crops and at the 

 same time the source of important interstate streams. 



EASTERN NATIONAL FORESTS WOULD HELP TIMBER SUPPLY. 



The importance of national forests to help the eastern timber sup- 

 ply, especially the hardwood supply, needs strong emphasis. Although 

 the Appalachians bear pine, spruce and hemlock, they are essentially a 

 hardwood region. They probably contain more than half the nation's 

 available supply of hardwoods, and in 1906 they furnished 46 per cent 

 of the country's hardwood lumber. The Appalachians are the only 

 hardwood region we shall have in the future. In other regions hard- 

 woods stand upon agricultural soil, where the forest must rapidly 

 give way to farming. The Appalachians are fundamentally a forest 

 region. They are profitable for no other use. Farming fails, fruit- 

 growing fails, and likewise grazing, because in the principal moun- 

 tains a cover of grass is insufficient to hold the soil in place. 



Through poor methods of cutting and lack of protection, the en- 

 tire region is producing but little wood compared with what it might 

 produce. The great value of the government forests, so far as timber 

 is concerned, would be that they would allow the mountains to produce 

 the timber which they are capable of producing and of which the coun- 



