TIMBER DEPLETIOIir, PRICES, EXPORTS, AND OWNERSHIP. 



27 



products from this region are being used to supply the factories 

 of the Carolinas, the Ohio Valley, and the Lake States, which 

 were formerly independent of Imported material. 



The last of the great hardwood regions is thus well on its way 

 toward complete exploitation. Already the exhaustion of the 

 original supplies in the northern part of the region centering 

 around Memphis has reached the point where it is profitable 

 to return to cut-over areas for trees that were formerly re- 

 garded as too small to log and for less valuable species, such as 

 tupelo and water gum, which at the time of the first cutting were 

 unmerchantable but which now command a ready sale. The 

 present practice in this part of the region is to remove all species. 

 Wood distillation plants have been installed for using cord- 

 wood and there Is a steadily increasing Interest in the utiliza- 

 tion of smaller sizes. Inferior trees and logs, and species 

 formerly rejected. The day of the smaU mill and wood-prod- 

 ucts plant has arrived. More and more the large mills are 

 finding themselves forced either to buy logs in order to con- 

 tinue operation or to move down river Into southern Mississippi 

 and Louisiana where new plants can be erected with reasonable 

 prospect of a 20 to 25 years' supply of material. 



In the southern part of the territory, in southern Mississippi, 

 Louisiana, and eastern Texas a much larger proportion of the 

 original forest is left. Here large mills are still the rule and 

 are Increasing In number and in rate of exploitation. It is 

 therefore likely that increased production in this part of the 

 region will lead to an increase of the present annual cut of ap- 

 proximately a billion and a half board feet of hardwoods for 

 the region as a whole. How long It will last can not, however, 

 be definitely predicted. The one thing certain is that eventually 

 the southern part of the region will repeat the history of the 

 northern part and that the virgin stands and large mills of 

 to-day will be replaced to a large extent by portable mills 

 operating culled and second-growth stands; 



GROWTH AND DEPLETION. 



Since the reglon^ls largely agricultural in its future possi- 

 bilities, comparatively little in the way of timber growth can 

 be looked for. The extent to which it is drawing on its forest 

 capital is of great Importance, because it is the source of our 

 largest remaining hardwood supply. A net growth is taking 

 place on only some 6.5 million acres carrying hardwoods of saw- 

 timber size. The annual growth on this area is estimated at 

 approximately 395 million board feet, or but little more than 

 one-fourth of the normal annual lumber cut of 1,500 million 

 board feet. In addition there is an annual growth of 301 

 million cubic feet (about 602 million board feet) on the 15 

 million acres with stands below saw-timber size, making a 

 total growth for the region of 387 million cubic feet (about 

 997 million board feet) . 



In addition to the depletion in quantity of material there is 

 a depreciation in the quality of the remaining stand. Of the 

 36 million acres of hardwood lands in the region, approxi- 

 mately 22 million acres are contained in the alluvial bottom 

 lands of the Mississippi Delta. It is on these alluvial soils 

 that the heaviest and finest stands of hardwoods remain, par- 

 ticularly oak, red gum, ash, and cottonwood, which in 1918 

 made up more than 50 per cent of the reported cut of hard- 

 woods for the entire country. Oak and red gum are now being 

 logged most heavily and in 1918 made up more than two-thirds 

 of the total hardwood cut in the region. These species, because 

 of the demand for them in the veneer Industry, are two of 

 the most highly prized hardwoods of the South, but they are 

 valuable for veneer only when cut from virgin stands and in 

 large sizes. With the rapid depletion of the present virgin 

 stands there will therefore be a corresponding quality short- 

 age, which will result in a relatively larger proportion of the 

 future cut being made up of such secondary species as syca- 



more and tupelo and of poorer specimens of the more valuable 

 species, such as oak and gum. 



THE FUTURE OP THE REGION. 



This steady depletion of the hardwoods In the lower Missis- 

 sippi Valley is accentuated by the fact that the bulk of the 

 bottom-land stands are on some of the most fertile farm soils 

 in the country. With the removal of the timber they will, for 

 the most part, be devoted to agriculture. Drainage and clearing 

 of the cut-over lands has been going on for more than a decade 

 at a rate which indicates that not over 10 per cent, and probably 

 less, of the area once under hardwoods will be allowed to come 

 up to second growth. This change in the use of the land, which 

 is of course in accordance with its highest utilization, means 

 that the cut in the bo.ttom-land region of the lower Mississippi 

 Valley can not be maintained from second growth to the same 

 extent as has been the case in the Northeastern and Central 

 States. Once the present stand of timber on these bottom lands 

 is gone, the hardwood supply of the country will be permanently 

 reduced, and the future cut of hardwoods must come from sec- 

 ond-growth stands of relatively inferior quality in other parts 

 of the country. 



NEWSPRINT SUPPLIES. 



THE FACTS AS TO DEPLETION. 



Newsprint paper is one of the leading products of the pulp 

 and paper industry, which in its modern development depends 

 upon the forest for its raw material. The present newsprint 

 shortage goes back fundamentally to our dependence for news- 

 print production upon the forests of the Northeast and the Lake 

 States, where timber supplies have already been seriously de- 

 pleted, and where, considering the remaining stands, the pulp 

 and paper industry is already seriously overdeveloped. 



Until the abnormal demands, short supplies, and resulting 

 prices of the past few months led to increased newsprint pro- 

 duction through the utilization of plants designed for and for- 

 merly used in making other kinds of paper, there had been no 

 expansion in -the newsprint Industry in the United States since 

 1909. The demands for newsprint paper had, however, been 

 increasing by leaps and bounds. In 1899 our consumption 

 amounted to 569,000 tons. In 1918 it had reached 1,760,000 tons, 

 an increase of approximately 200 per cent. Per capita consump- 

 tion of 3 pounds per person in the United States in 1880 had 

 increased to 33 pounds per person in 1919. With an increase 

 of 11 times in 40 years, rapidly increasing requirements between 

 1909 and 1919, and very little increase in production, imports 

 were obviously necessary. 



Before taking up the extent to which the United States is 

 supplying its domestic requirements, the importance of the coim- 

 try's being on an Independent basis so far as newsprint pro- 

 duction and the necessary raw materials are concerned should 

 be briefly considered. Dependence upon foreign sources far 

 pulp wood or pulp newsprint exposes the American consumer to 

 the danger of price control. He must also reckon with the pos- 

 sibility of embargo, which even new is far from being a theo- 

 retical menace. All exports of pulp wood are prohibited from 

 the colony of Newfoundland. The Canadian Provinces haVe pro- 

 hibited the export of pulp wood from crown lands, which form 

 a very considerable extent of the timberlands both in eastern 

 and western Canada. For a year or more American manufac- 

 turers have been apprehensive concerning the possibilil^ of em- 

 bargo on all pulp-wood exports from Canada. It would unques- 

 tionably be desirable to make the United States as nearly self- 

 supporting as possible. 



In lumber the United States is still an exporting country, 

 but in pulp wood, pulp, and newsprint we have become large 

 importers. From being self-supporting in newsprint production 

 as late as 1909 the United States had, in 1919, 10 years later. 



