MISCELLANEOUS CIKCULAE NO. 61 



stand of private timber is estimated at 25 to 26 billion board feet, 

 and it is therefore clear that at the present rate of cutting the pri- 

 vate timber in Idaho would last only about 36 years. Progress to- 

 ward the point of exhaustion is especially rapid in northern Idaho, 

 and, according to present indications, in some communities where 



Fig. 2. — A typical stand of western white pine and fir in north Idaho 



the lumber industry is now most important a good many mills will 

 have to be dismantled within the next 20 years. As the private tim- 

 ber is cut out, the national forests will take up the burden of pro- 

 duction more and more. But the cutting of national forest timber 

 is limited to the yearly growth which is about 557 million board 



