CHAPTER XIV. 

 FOREST ECONOMICS. 



Alarm About Destruction of Forests! For many years 

 the attention of the people of this country has been drawn 

 to the possibility of a depletion of our forests and a timber 

 famine in the near future. But increased transporta- 

 tion facilities have made new sources of timber easily 

 accessible to us, which fact, together with the use of in- 

 ferior kinds of trees for lumber, has kept the predicted 

 timber famine from materializing, until now our people 

 have become skeptical on this point, and look upon these 

 predictions as very premature. To any otic who care- 

 fully studies the subject, however, it will be very evident 

 that our supply of White Pine, that most generally use- 

 ful of all our timber trees, is fast decreasing, and that it 

 cannot be very many years before this will bo apparent 

 by the advance of prices for this kind of timber. Most 

 of the land of good quality seems destined to be eventu- 

 ally used for farming purposes, but there will always 

 remain a large area of stony or very sandy or mountain- 

 ous land that will be unfit for profitable agriculture, and 

 which will produce more revenue when used for the pro- 

 duction of timber than when used for any other crop. 

 There is also a large amount of land that will not be needed 

 for fanning purposes for many years, and this should 

 grow timber until needed for agriculture. Besides this, 

 with the increased value of fuel, lumber, and other forest 

 products, there ^^■ill come a better appreciation of the 



241 



