Pollard: Conservation, the National Issue 133 



lumber for interior trim and finish. Failure of the turpentine 

 supply would cause an enormous increase in the cost of paint, 

 varnish, and allied commodities. But the most serious result of 

 the exhaustion of our timber would be the scarcity of fuel. The 

 coal supply is steadily waning, and there are vast sections of the 

 country in which the price of coal is practically prohibitive, so 

 that wood is still the only fuel for domestic and even manufac- 

 turing purposes. While it is possible that some utilization of peat 

 deposits may yet be made, as in various European countries, wood 

 will continue to be burned so long as there is any of it left; and 

 it must be remembered, moreover, that mere brushwood is of 

 little utility for this purpose, and that while dead or fallen trees 

 may be cut for firewood, by far the largest portion of the amount 

 annually consumed, under present conditions, consists of other- 

 wise marketable hardwood lumber. 



We cannot depend upon other countries for relief. The hard- 

 wood forests in Canada are of limited extent, and the softwoods 

 are being rapidly depleted to yield food to the pulp mills, about 

 eight million cords being imported annually by the United States, 

 in addition to the quantity consumed at home. Tropical hard- 

 woods must always remain high priced, owing to the difficulty and 

 expense of lumbering, hauling the logs to a seaport, and freight- 

 ing them to this country. A review of these considerations 

 proves, therefore, that if we are to avert the total destruction of 

 our merchantable timber within the next century, we must devise 

 a means of reducing waste from all causes to a minimum, and of 

 so managing the forests as to insure a total annual growth or 

 renewal in excess of, or at least equal to, the annual consumption. 



I wish to emphasize here my belief that apart from sentimental 

 considerations, the prospective failure of the wood supply is the 

 only practical and logical basis for the conservation movement as 

 applied to forestry. ]\Iuch has been written and said as to the 

 relation of forests to climate and water supply, as also of the 

 danger from floods in deforested regions. I think the importance 

 of the first theory is very generally overestimated. 



