Actually, the drain is substantially more than that. The 
cut for lumber is only about 60 percent of the total drain 
on the saw timber of our forests. In 1944 the total cut for 
all purposes including pulpwood, fuel wood, and many other 
products, was about 3 percent of our present total saw-timber 
stand; and losses from fire, storms, insects, and disease add 
to the drain. 
But whatever the percentage of drain might be, the impor- 
tant point is that cutting into forest capital without adequate 
replacement is traveling a downhill path. We should re- 
member that a large volume of timber must be kept as grow- 
ing stock if we are to maintain an adequate and uninter- 
rupted output of commercial products. More than two- 
thirds of the remaining saw timber is concentrated in the 
West. ‘The available timber in the East is not sufficient to 
sustain the present rate of cutting. And several decades are 
required to grow trees suitable for saw timber. 
The drain on timber is serious enough for the Nation as a 
whole; for some communities it has been a terrible blow. 
Each year we hear of a number of sawmills closed down and 
dismantled because they are no longer able to get a satis- 
factory supply of logs. In acommunity primarily dependent 
on its sawmills, what satisfaction can it be to the people 
affected by a permanent shut-down to know that nationally 
the cut is only 2 or 3 percent of the stand? 
This does not mean that we should stop the cutting of 
either old-growth timber or second growth. It does mean, 
however, that we can and should meet current needs with 
cutting practices and other measures that will assure ade- 
quate new growth. 
With reasonably good management, our forest land should 
be ample to produce eventually all of the wood’ we are 
likely to need, and keep on producing it continuously. There 
is no need for permanently curtailing our consumption of 
wood, provided we take the necessary steps to produce it in 
abundance. 
—~I 
842167°—492 
