Canadian Forestry Journal, November, ipi6 



813 



i 



The timber wealth of the United 

 States has led in the past to extrava- 

 gant use of wood to a per capita con- 

 sumption which at one time exceeded 

 350 cubic feet, or eight times that of the 

 German people and twenty times that 

 of Great Britain, which latter country 

 has to import practically all her wood 

 materials and may therefore represent 

 the minimum which modern civiliza- 

 tion requires. This great timber 

 wealth has been reduced to more than 

 half its original greatness. The time 

 for curtailing our lavish wood con- 

 sumption has arrived. 



lvalue of Substitutes. 



But a few years ago we have begun 

 passing through our second period as 

 regards wood consumption ; the "inex- 

 haustible" supplies of natural woods 

 having been in some cases and places 

 nearly exhausted, prices having risen, 

 and the substitution of other materials 

 where possible having begun in ear- 

 nest. Just now the Federal Trade 

 Commission is trving to find Dut whv 

 news print paper has so advanced in 

 price, indeed trebled in the last six 

 years. The answer is easy. Raw sup- 

 plies of spruce wood, the main staple 

 for such paper, have been, within rea- 

 sonable distance of transportation to 

 the mills, reduced to such an extent 

 that the end of the operation of many 

 mills is in sight, and either the extent 

 of the paper industry will have to be 

 curtailed or substitutes be used. Rail- 

 road cars are being built of steel — an 

 improvement over the less safe wooden 

 car. Railroad ties are being at least 

 impregnated with rot-resisting sub- 

 stances to make them last longer ; 

 while the superior steel tie is still 

 awaiting adoption by American rail- 

 ways. 



The development of the use of con- 

 crete seems almost providentially de- 

 signed to fill the gap, as structural tim- 

 ber is getting scarcer. Brick and 

 stone and steel or iron replace the 

 wooden building materials, and in some 

 respects, notably fire danger, we are 

 thereby the gainers. Basketware, 

 which in Europe is widely developed, 

 will more and more become substitute 

 for more solid packages- And so in 

 many directions we see an adjustment 



to new conditions, a reduction in the 

 use of wood setting in as our supplies 

 are waning and wood prices are rising. 



Presently we will pass into the 

 third stage of development, when the 

 mature virgin woods are practically 

 cut out and the age of the forester — 

 the timber farmer — has arrived, when 

 human skill will be applied to secure 

 wood crops, just as it is applied for se- 

 curing food crops, when wood prices 

 will soar and wood consumption will 

 be reduced to the absolute necessity, 

 as it is nearly so in England — when 

 timberlands are managed and not any 

 rnore exploited. 



Then, also, another economic prob- 

 lem will call for simultaneous solution, 

 the problem of the poor acres. For 

 forestry is the art of utilizing non-agri- 

 cultural lands, or those which by their 

 topography, their physical condition or 

 their lack of fertility withdraw them- 

 selves from farm use as plowland or 

 pasture. More than half the natural 

 forest area of the United States is now 

 waste land, producing nothing of 

 value, not even useful timber crops. 

 The restoration of these lands to useful 

 production will be the task of the for- 

 esters ; and within less than a genera- 

 tion this reconstruction work will be 

 quite generally undertaken in all parts 

 of the country. That such recovery 

 is not private, but communal work, and 

 principally belongs to the State and 

 preferably Federal Government agen- 

 cies, is self-evident, largely on account 

 of the long time which must elapse be- 

 tween expenditures and returns. 



Future Problems. 

 With the increase of population 

 more intensive use of all resources be- 

 comes necessary, and especially of 

 those which through more intensive 

 application of labor, knowledge and 

 skill can be made to produce more 

 fully. Intensive farming on farm 

 lands will take the place of agricultu- 

 ral rapine, which is still extensively 

 practised, and intensive forestry on 

 forest lands will take the place of the 

 present forest exploitation; from the 

 same acreage the forester will produce 

 five to ten times as much of useful ma- 

 terial as Nature unaided could produce. 

 A proper classification of lands and 



