poorly stocked land will shrink as a result of im- 
proved fire protection and better cutting practices. 
Indeed, surveys in the South indicate that stocking 
in that region is better now than it was a decade 
ago. Young growth is springing up on millions 
of acres now protected from fire. This is one of 
the hopeful signs. : 
Quality of Timber Is Declining 
Exploitation of the forests has lowered timber 
values in a number of ways. “High-grading’’— 
cutting the best trees and leaving the poor—destruc- 
tive cutting, and fire have all replaced valuable 
timber with inferior stands. 
Evidence from all regions makes it clear that the 
fine logs needed by many forest industries are no 
longer abundant. This is serious because only 
after a long period of purposeful management can 
second growth approach the high quality of the 
original timber. 
In the Northwest, the young and rapidly expand- 
ing Douglas-fir plywood industry faces major re- 
adjustment almost before it has hit its full stride. 
In the South, veneer manufacturers have difficulty 
maintaining an adequate flow of suitable hardwood 
logs. Some piece out their supply with logs from 
South America. 
White oak suitable for tight cooperage is playing 
out also. Some operators are going after as few 
as 10 trees per 40 acres. 
So it is with other items. The end of Port Or- 
ford cedar for battery separators is in sight. The 
cedar-pole industry faces radical curtailment. 
Hickory ski blanks are hard to get. Durable heart 
cypress in any quantity will soon be a thing of the 
past. 
High-grading, as to both species and quality, be- 
gan in Colonial days with the combing of the 
eastern seaboard for white pine masts and oak 
ship timbers. It went through another cycle as the 
country’s growing lumber industry took the virgin 
white pine in the Middle Atlantic and New Eng- 
land States, leaving spruce and hardwoods for a 
later generation. 
Before the pulp and paper industry became an 
important factor, lumbermen had again worked 
over the northeastern forests, selecting the big 
spruce that could be logged to the drivable streams. 
Pulp operations, in turn, have been concentrated 
on the remaining spruce and balsam fir, practically 
eliminating these species from some of the mixed 
stands and leaving much of the land in possession 
of hardwoods, which are often unmerchantapble 
and highly defective. 
Even where the northern hardwoods could be 
marketed, operators sought out the best yellow 
birch for veneers and sugar maple for flooring, 
furniture, etc. Beech, although an important 
species, has been largely neglected, not only be- 
cause the wood is more difficult to season, but also 
because the trees are so commonly defective. 
In southern New England the deterioration of 
the sprout hardwood forest by repeated cutting 
and fire (accentuated by the blight which killed all 
the chestnut some 25 to 30 years ago) has left little 
timber attractive to the timber industries. In fact, 
forest management here is handicapped by the dif- 
ficulty of disposing of the inferior growth that now 
preempts so much of the land. 
In the Middle Atlantic region between 5 and 6 
million acres that once bore good commercial 
stands have been hit particularly hard. Destruc- 
tive logging and repeated burning have almost 
desolated much of the oak-pine land of New Jersey. 
Similar practices in eastern Pennsylvania converted 
a large acreage of good forest to scrub oak. Under 
organized protection some of this land is slowly 
recovering, but the composition and quality of the 
new forest are distinctly inferior to what might have 
been maintained, as is shown by isolated tracts 
that escape destruction. 
In the Lake region forest deterioration is an old 
story. It has perhaps been more complete and more 
extensive than in any other region and it is still con- 
tinuing. Farm woodlands in the oak-hickory sec- 
tions are mostly stocked with short, limby, and de- 
fective trees. Farther north, 5 million acres which 
once bore magnificent pines now grow scrubby 
aspen—scrubby because on that dry, sandy soil aspen 
grows slowly and deteriorates at an early age. This 
scrubby and often worthless timber greatly impedes 
the growth of conifer plantations. As for saw tim- 
ber, since 1936 the volume of white pine and red 
pine has dropped 29 percent; birch, beech, and 
maple together have declined 16 percent; but the 
volume of the much less desirable aspen increased 
55 percent. 
During the war, Missouri produced only about 
32 million board feet of softwood lumber a year. 
Yet in 1899 its softwood output was 273 million 
board feet. Although from 250 to 300 million 
board feet of hardwood lumber is still cut in the 
State, the forests of the Ozarks have largely degen- 
erated into a stand of small and inferior timber 
24 Miscellaneous Publication 668, U. S. Department of Agriculture 
