4 PRIVATE FORESTRY. 



crowding of the railroads. Most of the lumber would have come 

 from the Pacific Coast. We may not expect a repetition of such a 

 grave emergency as we have just passed through, but we would be 

 unwise indeed if we failed to recognize that the sources of timber 

 supply upon which we have relied are being greatly ^depleted, with 

 far-reaching economic and industrial consequences. 



WANING SUPPLIES OF VIRGIN TIMBER. 



Many people are deluding themselves with the idea that we do not 

 need to concern ourselves with regard to forests because of large 

 virgin supplies which still exist in the Pacific Northwest, the Inland 

 Empire, and California. I have even heard it suggested that if we 

 should use up or destroy all of the forests in the United States, there 

 are very considerable quantities of wood supplies in the great river 

 valleys of Brazil and other South American countries. 



Leaders of the southern pine manufacturers state that the bulk of 

 the original supplies of yellow pine in the South will be exhausted 

 in 10 years and that within the next five to seven years more than 

 3,000 manufacturing plants will go out of existence. This is an ex- 

 ceedingly significant statement, because it means that the center of 

 lumber production of the United States will within no long time 

 move to the Pacific Coast. While it does not mean that there will 

 be an actual exhaustion of all of the timber in the South, it does 

 mean that the competitive influence of southern pine in many mar- 

 kets will be withdrawn and that there will be the increase of prices 

 that inevitably must follow such an important economic occurrence 

 as the shift of the center of supply of a raw material one to three 

 thousand miles. 



One of the most acute problems of forest supplies is that of wood 

 pulp, particularly the material suitable for news print. Already 

 paper manufacturers are embarrassed for supplies. Some of our 

 principal paper concerns have fortified themselves by purchasing 

 large blocks of timber in Canada. Many of you are familiar with 

 the progressive diminution of supplies in the regions like the White 

 Mountains, where private owners are rapidly working back on the 

 high slopes, even stripping off areas which for the general public 

 benefit should be kept substantially intact for all time. It is my hope 

 that we may secure sufficient public support to enable us to accelerate 

 the acquisition by the Government of the more important remaining 

 areas before it is too late. The claim is made that the Adirondack 

 State Preserve should be opened to cutting because of the urgent 

 need of supplies for the paper mills in the near future. The question 

 of supplying the paper mills in Michigan and Wisconsin is even more 

 acute, and it is only a question of time when those mills will have to 



