AMERICA AND THE -WORLDS WOODPILE d 



most of it made from wood pulp, than the rest of the world com- 

 bined. Also, as a consequence of wood being until recently very 

 cheap as compared with the costs of labor, transportation, and equip- 

 ment required for more intensive utilization, a great deal more has 

 been cut from our forests than could actually be utilized and much 

 has been wasted. 



In 1906, approximately 280 cubic feet of wood was cut from our 

 forests for every man, woman, and child in the United States, or 

 about eight times the rate of consumption in western Europe. The 

 rise in the cost of wood during the past 20 years has, however, led 

 to greater care in its utilization and now only 200 cubic feet per 

 capita is cut in a year. While still further reduction will doubtless 

 be made, there is no reason to suppose that timber consumption in 

 the United States will ever fall as low as it is in western Europe. 

 To a considerable extent our high rate of timber use is a natural 

 result of geographic conditions and of our social and economic organ- 

 ization. It can not be reduced to the present European level with- 

 out serious disruption of many of our important industries and a 

 lowering of our standards of living. 



THE WORLD'S APPETITE FOR TIMBER IS GROWING 



The widely held idea that wood is more or less out of date — used 

 now because of its cheapness and abundance but to be replaced 

 eventually by other and better materials-— has no basis in fact. On 

 the contrary, as populations grow and as living standards rise and 

 human wants become more complex, timber consumption increases in 

 spite of the extensive and growing use of substitute materials, and 

 in spite of the tendency to utilize wood more economically. No 

 sooner do substitutes take the place of wood for some particular 

 use than new uses are found. A century ago, railroad ties, railroad 

 cars, and telegraph poles had not been thought of. Now American 

 railroads use more lumber in a year than was required to meet all 

 the needs of the 30,000,000 people living in the United States in 

 1860. Newsprint and other products of wood pulp, automobiles, 

 phonographs, radio cabinets, and many other articles requiring large 

 quantities of wood, all have come into extensive use within a 

 generation. 



In Great Britain timber consumption has increased much more 

 rapidly than has the population. In 1915, with the total national 

 consumption nearly six times as great as in 1851, the requirements 

 per capita were almost four times as great. Even in France, with 

 a practically stationary population, timber consumption was slowly 

 increasing up to 1914. That of Germany more than doubled within 

 the century. In the United States, at least seven times as much 

 lumber is now used in a year as in 1850, and even the per capita 

 rate of consumption is considerably larger. Judging from the rates 

 of increase in these and other important consuming countries, the 

 world's timber needs may be expected to double within approxi- 

 mately 50 years. 



THE PREFERENCE FOR SOFTWOODS 



With more than 11,000,000 square miles of forest in the world, 

 much of it bearing heavy stands of virgin timber and with a pos- 



