8 BULLETIN 638, L\ S. DEBASEMENT OF AGEICTJLTUBE. 



it before it could be utilized fully for agriculture. If forestry had 

 been practiced on only three-fourths of this 10,000.000 acres, and if 

 the annual growth had been only 300 board feet per acre, there would 

 be an annual production of 2 J billion board feet annually. This is 

 almost exactly twice the present lumber cut of the State. The pro- 

 duction of this amount of material would support a good-sized pop- 

 ulation, stimulate business, provide a market for local agricultural 

 products, and offer employment to the settler during slack times on 

 the farm. Clearly nothing has been gained and much has been lost 

 by abandoning forest production on the land before the time for its 

 cultivation was ripe. 



There are large areas that once were used for farms, justifiably 

 perhaps, but that under present conditions should be used for the 

 production of timber crops. In Xew England and New York, for 

 example, thousands of acres that were cultivated before the opening 

 up of the more fertile lands farther west are now proper!}' being 

 allowed to revert to forest. This conversion is being permitted for 

 the most part to take place in a haphazard fashion, and consequently 

 is proceeding all too slowly and irregularly. Proper care of these 

 areas would help greatly to increase their productiveness. 



A somewhat similar situation exists in northern Georgia, where 

 approximately 10 per cent of the mountainous land now being 

 acquired by the Government for National Forest purposes consists 

 of abandoned farm lands. Practically the entire farming commu- 

 nity that had settled there moved out in a body to raise cotton on 

 the level, sandy lands of the coastal plain. In nearly all parts of 

 the country are tracts that formerly were settled, cultivated for a 

 while, and then abandoned either because the land was inherently 

 unsuitable for permanent farming or because more valuable lands 

 elsewhere became available for settlement. As a general rule, there 

 is more clanger that attempts will be made to cultivate land better 

 suited for timber crops than that really good agricultural land will 

 be retained in forest. 



LOCAL SHORTAGES OF TIMBER. 



Thanks to the successive opening up of fresh sources of supply 

 as the lumber industry has moved south and west, the United States 

 has not yet experienced a general shortage of timber. Sufficient 

 wood still is cut each year to meet the needs of the country. This 

 is being done, however, at the expense of the forest capital, and is 

 possible only because the country has been so fortunate as to have 

 available for immediate use the accumulation of many centuries of 

 forest growth. The best available estimates indicate that for many 

 years the annual cut of wood products of all kinds has greatly 



