20 



FOREST POLICY. 



(B) As commercial production, or the' amount of timber and 

 wood taken from the forest. 



(a) Increment production, as regards timber, is almost at » 

 standstill in the United States. In the primeval forest, the death 

 rate equals the production; and in cut-over forests, the production of 

 timber proper is very small. Since large amounts of fine timber are 

 annually destroyed by fire, it may be said that the actual production 

 of timber in the United States is nil. On the other hand, the produc- 

 tion of wood fit for fuel, etc., is very large on cut-over land not too 

 heavily burned. It is impossible to give accurate figures; 200,000,000 

 cords, perhaps, is a safe estimate of fuel wood annually produced in 

 the United States. 



The increment or rate of production of timber in any given forest 

 depends on: 



(i) Species grown, conifers generally producing more than hard- 

 woods. 



(2) Climate and soil. 



(3) Condition of the growing stock. 



In the German forests the average annual production of timber 

 per acre is 90 feet, b. m. 



The fuel production per acre amounts to two-thirds of a cord. 



(b) The commercial production of timber in the United States 

 slightly exceeds the consumption; the produced surplus, amounting 

 to about one billion feet, b. m., is exported. 



In Germany, the increment production falls short, by about 3^ 

 billion feet, b. m., from covering the home requirements for commer- 

 cial production. Germany could easily supply all her commercial 

 demands, without timber imports, for a long number of years, if she 

 would reduce her forest capital as unscrupulously as the United 

 States. 



TABLE No. 10. 



Showing Shift of Center of Commercial Timber Production in the 

 United States since 1850. 



