Timber Depletion and the Answer. 9 



which would justify a conclusion that monopolistic conditions on any 

 general scale have grown out of this situation. There are many 

 instances to the contrary. On the other hand, the degree of control 

 of the timber remaining in the United States exercised by a compara- 

 tively small number of large interests will steadily increase as timber 

 depletion continues, approaching a naturaL monopoly in character, 

 and this control will extend particularly to the diminishing supply of 

 high-grade material. 



THE ANSWER— A NATIONAL FOREST POLIGY. 



IDLE FOREST LAND. 



The depletion of timber in the United States has not resulted 

 primarily from the use of our forests, but from their devastation. 

 The kernel of the problem lies in the enormous areas of forest land 

 which are not producing the timber crops that they should. There 

 are 326 million acres of cut-over timber lands bearing no saw timber. 

 Their condition ranges from complete devastation through various 

 stages of partial restocking or restocking with trees of inferior 

 quality, to relatively limited areas which are producing timber at or 

 near their full capacity. On 81 million acres there is practically no 

 forest growth. This is the result of forest fires and of methods of 

 cutting which destroy or prevent new timber growth. There were 

 27,000 recorded forest fires in 1919, buring a total of 8J million acres. 

 During the preceding year, 25,000 fires burned over 10| million 

 acres of forest land. An additional large acreage was burned each 

 year, of which no record could be obtained. 



The area of idle or largely idle land is being increased by from 

 3 to 4 million acres annually as the cutting and burning of forests 

 continue. The enormous area of forest land in the United States 

 not required for any other economic use, estimated at 463 million 

 acres, would provide an ample supply of wood if it were kept 

 productive. Depletion has resulted, not from using our timber 

 resources, but from failure to use our timber-growing land. 



Xor does this situation exist simply in the less developed and 

 thinly settled regions of the country. The State of Massachusetts, 

 as a typical example, contains denuded forest lands, within a stone's 

 throw of her dense population and highly developed industries, which 

 have been estimated at 1 million acres and which are largely idle 

 as far as growing wood of economic value is concerned. 



CONCERTED ACTION TO STOP FOREST DEVASTATION. 



A remedy for this appalling waste must be found in a concerted 

 effort to stop the devastation of our remaining forests and to put our 

 idle forest lands at work growing timber. It is inconceivable that the 

 United States should forfeit the economic advantage of its enormous 

 timber-growing resources, and that is should go on using up its 



