APPALACHIAN AND "WHITE -MOUNTAIN WATERSHEDS. 11 



How intensely the whole country would feel the loss of a great 

 resource like hardwood timber was merely indicated by the injurious 

 effects of the anthracite coal strike a few years ago. Many of our 

 great industries, such as furniture, vehicle, and cooperage manu- 

 facture, depend absolutely upon hardwood. These industries will 

 fail with the hardwood supply. Not only will they fail, the whole 

 country will suffer for want ot their products. Our present national 

 forests furnish no hardwood timber because hardwoods grow only in 

 the East. 



There have been in the United States four great hardwood centers — 

 the Ohio Valley, the Lake States, the lower Mississippi Valley, and 

 the Appalachian States. The Ohio Valley in the past has been the 

 main center of production. Even as late as 1899, the States of Ohio, 

 Illinois, and Indiana produced 25 per cent of the hardwood. In 

 1906, they produced only 14 per cent; both the States of Ohio and 

 Indiana fell off over 50 per cent. They have reached a sudden end 

 as great hardwood producers. Their many hardwood-using estab- 

 lishments which are now pressed for supplies will largely exhaust 

 their remaining remnants within a few years. The lands from which 

 the timber was cut have been cleared and turned into farming, for 

 which in large part they are well adapted. 



The three Lake States furnished less hardwood lumber in 1906 than 

 they did in 1899. Unquestionably their maximum production has 

 been reached, and their decline is likely to be almost as rapid as that 

 of Ohio and Indiana, because of the nearness of many wood-using 

 industries which will make heavy demands upon their suppHes. The 

 hardwood lands of the Lake States are for the most part agricultural 

 lands, and they are rapidly being cleared for the production of grain, 

 grasses, and potatoes. 



The same is true of the lower Mississippi Valley. The hardwoods 

 occupy the richest agricultural land which, almost as fast as the 

 timber is cut, is being turned into farms. Present indications are 

 that the swamp land, notable for the production of hardwoods, will 

 within a few years be drained and cleared for agriculture. 



This leaves but one other hardwood region — the Appalachian 

 Mountains. The Appalachians differ fundamentally from the other 

 regions because they are not of agricultural value; their main useful- 

 ness is for timber production. In 1906 they produced 48 per cent 

 of the hardwoods of the country. It is clear that they must be 

 counted upon for even a much larger proportion in the future. 

 Although they bear hemlock, pine, and spruce in quantity, it is in 

 the production of hardwoods that the Appalachians have their chief 

 .value. It is to them that the hardwood-using industries must look 

 for future supplies, and even with the Appalachians the country has 

 only a sixteen years' supply now available for the ax. 



The Southern Appalachian region contains a timbered area of over 

 58 million acres. Including the mountains of Pennsylvania, New 

 York, and New England, it is safe to estimate the Appalachian area 

 as covering 75 million acres primarily adapted to hardwood timber. 

 Only a small part of this — 12 to 15 per cent — is covered by virgin 

 growth. The remainder has been cut over, and some of it has been 

 cleared. 



Throughout the Appalachian region the forest has suffered incal- 

 culable damage by fire, which over most of the region still bums 



