52 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY. 



possibilities and probabilities — would make the 

 stock on hand about as follows : — 



Billion feet, 

 B.M. 



Northern States 5CX3 



Southern States 700 



Western States 800 



It is apparent that we are bound to exhaust these 

 stores in less time than they can be replaced, that 

 we are not living on interest, but are rapidly at- 

 tacking our wood capital, — a process fully in keep- 

 ing with the development of any new country, but 

 also one against which reaction must set in in time, 

 if serious consequences are to be avoided. 



Such reaction may be secured first through a 

 more economical use of the timber resources, for 

 our per capita consumption falls hardly short of 

 350 cubic feet, nearly nine times that of Germany 

 and twenty-five times that of England, and hence 

 a large margin is left for such economies. 



Finally, however, forest management, as prac- 

 tised in other countries, will become an unavoid- 

 able necessity to secure the continued production 

 of needed wood supplies. 



There is one factor of national importance re- 

 sulting from the industries concerned in the con- 

 version of our virgin forests, which does not at all, 

 or not to the same extent, attach to them in other 

 countries, and which, in the end, is of more 

 moment than estimates of stumpage or land values 

 or values of products can express. 



