i MISC. PUBLICATION 26, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
unlikely that any considerable portion of the lands now classed as 
forest land in the United States will be needed for producing food or 
forage crops for many decades, if ever. 
Upwards of 80,000,000 acres of land in this country—an area 
almost as large as the States of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois com- 
bined—once covered with forests and now denuded, is capable of 
producing valuable timber crops when we are ready to expend the 
necessary sums for planting them. (Fig. 4.) But far more promis- 
ing is the 250,000,000 acres of cut-over land more or less stocked 
with second-growth or culled forests, some in excellent condition. 
At present this land, almost equal in area to all the land devoted 
to cereal and cotton crops, is producing only a fraction of the 
timber that might be grown upon it. under proper management. The 
practice of intensive forestry on this land will result, within a few 
decades, in the production of full timber crops. 
The rest of our forest area still bears the stored-up growth of old 
timber; 1f this is cut according to approved methods, and the cut-over 
land given proper attention, the result will be that timber crops will 
be grown on that land also in perpetuity. 
If the entire forest area of the United States, approximately 
470,000,000 acres, were producing wood at the same rate as the 
250,000,000 acres which are now partially productive, it would 
supply about one-half of our present requirements for all wood, 
and three-tenths of our need for saw timber. If a fairly intensive 
practice of forestry were applied to this area, the maximum growth 
that could be expected would be a little more than our present con- 
sumption. Such a maximum production could hardly be attained, 
however, within less than 50 years and would likely require a much 
longer time, even if the entire forest area could be put under intensive 
management at an early date. How far our timber consumption 
may meanwhile have to be reduced will depend upon the action that is 
taken in the next few years, before our remaining forests are cut off. 
A permanent reduction far below the present standards can be 
avoided if our forest lands are put to work without further delay. 
Every day that this task is postponed means an added burden on 
the American people in increased costs of forest products. In the 
short period from 1914 to 1923 the annual expenditure for such 
products increased by approximately $2,000,000,000, with no increase 
in quantity. This sum is as great as the entire cost. of the Federal 
Government in 1923 (exclusive of interest on the public debt). 
Directly or indirectly, this extra burden adds to the cost of living of 
every citizen, and if it continues to pile up the consequences may be 
disastrous. In so far as the increased cost has resulted from inade- 
quacy of local supplies, it is an unnecessary burden, for we can readily 
produce adequate supplies if we choose. 
The question, “ Why grow timber?” is answered first of all by 
the many indications that our need for timber is not likely to de- 
crease. As the virgin forests are more and more depleted the very 
factors that might cause us to use less will tend to insure prices 
sufficient to make timber growing a profitable undertaking. 
It was not voluntary curtailment of her requirements for wood 
or the introduction of substitutes that brought China to the present 
low level of timber consumption. It was the destruction of her 
