LUMBER CUT OF UNITED STATES, 1870-1920. 21 



Measures of economy, though helpful, will be found insufficient 

 where such an enormous demand is involved. We must utilize 

 them to the utmost, but economize as we will, the introduction of 

 inferior species, the use of lumber substitutes, the general application 

 of timber preservatives, all of them together can not account for 

 more than a fraction of the 35,000,000,000 feet of lumber a year 

 which we must have unless our present standards of living and 

 industrial facilities are to be greatly reduced. 



TIMBER GROWING THE ONLY REMEDY. 



It is already too late to avoid the results of the past century of 

 exploitation. The pinch for lumber will be upon us before new forests 

 can be grown. It will be felt not only in the scarcity or increased 

 cost of wooden articles. Directly or indirectly every commodity of 

 life will cost more because of the depleted supply of forest products. 

 Every American wdll pay an unnecessarily large part of his income for 

 shelter and food and clothing, fuel, transportation and amusements, 

 necessities and luxuries alike, because wood will be no longer plentiful 

 and near at hand. This economic punishment will increase in severity 

 as time goes on. There is only one way by which its pressure can be 

 relieved and removed, and that is by growing enough timber for the 

 national needs. 



There seems to be among the American people a sort of naive 

 confidence that each form of national resource will last indefinitely, 

 no matter how great the inroads upon it. There was mild surprise 

 when the buffalo vanished. The practical exhaustion of free Govern- 

 ment farm lands aroused a half resentful disappointment. The 

 peak of lumber prices caused widespread indignation, and was attri- 

 buted to every sort of cause except the fundamental reason that 

 depletion had so localized the remaining timber supplies as to make 

 them unavailable. The fact that we are beginning in earnest to cut 

 our last reserve of virgin timber, with no suitable cycles of young 

 forest to take its place, may not cause a ripple of public sentiment, 

 for the public has heard a great deal of these things and as yet no 

 cataclysm has occurred. There will be no cataclysm — no sudden 

 deprivation of all timber products. There will always be lumber in 

 our markets, but if the price is beyond the reach of the average 

 American, it might as well not be there, as far as he is concerned. 

 More idle lands, more idle men, less home ownership, and the slow 

 throttling of demand for lumber by the rising tide of prices will be 

 the evidence of our failure to restore the forests. 



Timber is essential to national life of the standard which Americans 

 demand. In peace or war it is a form of wealth the possession of 

 which is partial assurance of success; the lack of which will be found 

 a heavy handicap. Therefore as a measure of self-preservation such 

 steps must be taken as will assure the national supply. 



Forest culture in the United States is inevitable. Price pressure 

 will attend to that. Once our house is put in order, timber will no 

 longer be the volunteer product of the public domain, but a crop, 

 planted, tended, and cut as regularly as those of the farms. It may 

 never again be as plentiful or as cheap as in the past, but after awhile 

 there will be enough, and perhaps some to spare for less fortunate 



