Germany, although making the most of her own forest resources, imports 

 large quantities of lumber from northern and eastern Europe; longleaf pine, 

 Douglas fir, cedar, and hardwood timbers from the United States; oak from 

 Japan; and jarrah, teak, cabinet woods, and dyewoods from the Tropics. 



Italy, with a low productivity and undeveloped wood-using industries, 

 meets her needs for wood by imports from abroad. 



How Can Forests be Used and Maintained? 



Mine or crop? — When all the gold is removed from a mine, there will 

 never be any more there. When the timber has been cut from a forest, 

 more timber will grow if seed trees are left and fire is kept out of the cut- 

 over land. 



Gold is a nonrenewable resource. Forests are a renewable resource, and 

 therefore should be treated as a crop. Crops are grown for use. Use gives 

 value to forests. If use and value are to be maintained, forests must be 

 properly managed. 



deforestation needed. — Forests have the power to spread and renew them- 

 selves if conditions are right. These conditions even permit cutting most 

 of the trees. Only in a few kinds of forest will there be a new growth of 

 the same kind unless some trees are left. All kinds of forests are kept from 

 renewing themselves if they are burned severely or repeatedly. This is 

 especially true if all the trees have been cut, and the land is burned over. 



Much land from which the forest has been cut is unproductive for farm 

 crops. In fact, some of it is a liability unless it is covered with forest 

 growth. These conditions make it man's responsibility to provide for 

 reforestation of such land. It is necessary in some cases to plant trees of 

 a valuable kind on cut-over land where otherwise worthless weed trees 

 would occupy the land. In other cases, it is necessary to plant trees to 

 hasten the growth of a protective cover to keep the soil from washing or 

 blowing away. 



Two methods of reforestation are possible — artificial or natural. A 

 lumberman may clear-cut his holdings, removing all the mature trees at 

 one time, then replant with young trees. That is artificial reforestation. 

 On the other hand, he may remove the mature trees in several cuttings. 

 Each time he will take only part of the timber, thus taking advantage of 

 the seed produced by the remaining trees to grow a new forest. Periods of 

 from 5 to 40 years may elapse between cuts. In such harvesting, which is 

 known as selective logging, the smaller, more thrifty trees are left each 

 time. After the large mature and overmature timber has been cut, the 

 vigorous trees usually grow at a more rapid rate. The remaining stand 

 also functions very well in protecting the seedlings and saplings which fill 

 in the openings caused by the cutting. That is natural reforestation. 



The decision as to which method of reforestation to use must be made by 

 expert foresters who have carefully studied the problem. Where it is 

 possible the natural reforestation method is cheaper because lumber pro- 

 duction is continuous and water, soil, wildlife, and recreation values are 

 least disturbed. But much land has been left without any provision for 

 natural seeding and so must be planted. The extent of the task is shown 

 partly by the 131,707 acres in national forests planted in 1939. Up to 

 Jan. 1, 1940, the total area of plantations on the national forests amounted 

 to 946,574 acres. The Civilian Conservation Corps has made extensive 



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