456 



south, where the timber is better as to size and cheaper as to price tlian 

 our own timber. In my judgment we do not furnish over 40% of the lum- 

 ber consumed in the state, the balance comes from the south. As is a 

 well known fact, Indiana oak is the finest grade of oak that was ever 

 grown in this continent. It is beyond the power of any living man to pro- 

 duce the wonderful forests of oak. poplar, ash. and walnut that once cov- 

 ered this state of ours. We gather our supply from all over the state. 

 Fifteen to twenty-five years ago we were able to buy bunches of oak tim- 

 ber in from 75,000 to 100,000 feet lots, but now we pick up a tree here and 

 there where possible. The condition has been reached that the state is 

 swept practically clean of all its native oak." 



Mr. Howard I. Young, Secretary of the National Yeneer Association, 

 estimates that there is in the neighborhood of ninety million feet of oak 

 veneer manufactured in Indiana annually. This output is classified broad- 

 ly into two parts, quartered oak veneer amounting to about sixty-eight 

 million feet, and rotary cut oak veneer, amounting to twenty-two million 

 feet. While much of the oak material is secured from Indiana, Ohio, and 

 Illinois, a very material quantity of oak logs are shipped from the south- 

 ern states to fill the demand for this class of material. 



These extracts indicate that for many years selective cutting has been 

 practised and in fact has been increasing as the years have passed. Tim- 

 ber area after timber area has been swept clean of its black walnut, its 

 yellow poplar, its white oak, its cherry, and other trees of high grade and 

 large size. As a result the forests that are left are composed of less de- 

 sirable forms, and. it is these less desirable forms that are furnishing the 

 forest of the future in so far as any such future is to be hoped for. It is 

 very evident from this statement of facts that if the high reputation of 

 Indiana timbers is to be maintained and that if Indiana continues to be 

 able to provide material for its own wood manufacturing industries, some 

 close attention is demanded along the lines of the regeneration of existing 

 wood tracts with desirable species. This may mean planting in certain 

 open places, but even in spite of the considerable expense involved in such 

 a process, the results reached would far exceed in value the cost incurred. 

 While the experimental period at the State Forest Reserve has as yet 

 been too brief to furnish data for authoritative conclusions, the indica- 

 tions all point to the fact that high grade trees such as yellow poplar, 

 black walnut, and ash will grow as rapidly as the catalpa and black locust. 



