December 9, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



563 



denuded, they are now idle, and with no im- 

 mediate prospects of regrowth. This vast 

 area scattered through many states is of no 

 more immediate value to the nation or to the 

 owners than it would be were it in the heart 

 of the Sahara Desert. 



The destruction of our timber through 

 lumbering and fires without providing for re- 

 growth and the destruction of the timber- 

 producing power of vast areas -of land valu- 

 able for no other purpMJse would not be so 

 important from tlie standpoint of our future 

 industrial development were it possible to ob- 

 tain needed wood from beyond our own 

 borders. Can we look to other countries for 

 the enormous amount of wood needed if we 

 permit our forests to fail us through our 

 neglect to obtain regrowth? We can not. 

 Mexico has no more lumber than she needs 

 for her own use. Canada has already made 

 it plain that we can not look to her for 

 lumber supplies in large quantity. The old 

 world requires all the available wood in her 

 forests and tropical America, although with 

 vast resources of hardwoods, has compara- 

 tively little that is suited to the needs of the 

 American people. In short, as time goes on 

 we must grew our own wood or go without. 

 Furthermore, we must increase the growing 

 of timber on a vast scale during the next 

 fifty years while we still have virgin forests 

 that remain uncut. 



A program for the growing of timber on 

 an adequate scale for our future needs must 

 include : 



First, organized fire protection and preven- 

 tion that win eliminate present losses to young 

 and old stands from forest fires. 



Second, the prevention of owners of com- 

 mercial forests now uncut from destroying, 

 through destructive lumbering, the power of 

 their lands to keep on growing trees. 



Third, the reforestation of those parts of 

 our forest area of 463 million acres that have 

 become more or less completely denuded and 

 are now without regrowth or are inadequately 

 stocked. 



Fourth, the improvement of existing re- 



growth and that to be attained in the future 

 by systematic silvicultural operations. 



Please remember all of these must be put 

 into operation and continued until all our 

 forest property is subject to them. Even if 

 we begin now, a hundred years, at least, will 

 be required, and the expenditure of vast sums 

 of money, if we finally reach our goal and in- 

 crease our annual growth from 6 billion cubic 

 feet of wood to 28 billion cubic feet, which 

 measured by present consumption appears es- 

 sential for our future needs. 



Bringing this important question of inade- 

 quate forest growth and denuded and imper- 

 fectly stocked forest land nearer home, let us 

 look at the state of Connecticut. Any one 

 of a dozen eastern and southern states might 

 be taken as well. Connecticut was originally 

 completely covered with hardwood and soft- 

 wood forests. From the time of settlement 

 until toward the middle of the last century 

 the state produced more lumber than she 

 used and some was shipped abroad or ex- 

 ported to other states. Since then she has 

 been unable to supply wood for her own es- 

 sential needs. Constantly increasing quanti- 

 ties are yearly imported from other states 

 and from other countries. 



Connecticut was early settled and the land 

 was gradually cleared for agricultural use. 

 Farmers settled on areas of primeval woods 

 and started to carve farms out of the wilder- 

 ness. The land embraced in the entire state 

 of Connecticut early passed to the ownership 

 of private citizens. The farms were the 

 year-long homes of the people who owned 

 them. Roughly they were composed of agri- 

 cultural land and forest land. Early in the 

 last century the forest had been cleared from 

 approximately three fourths of the state and 

 the land taken for agriculture and grazing, 

 also a considerable part of the remaining one 

 fourth still bearing forest had been culled of 

 its best timber, or more or less completely cut 

 over. The last remnant of the virgin forest 

 disappeared early in the present century. 



Throughout Connecticut, as in most other 

 eastern states, acceptable farm land is inter- 

 spersed with forest land, that is, with land 



