14 THE FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES: THEIR USE. 
made up for by the development of needs for wood along new lines 
or of greater needs along old lines. Only rising prices can serve to 
lessen the consumption of wood by an advancing nation, and after 
wasteful use has been cut off, any further reduction means an eco- 
nomic disadvantage. It means harder conditions of life, a handicap 
on industry. : 
In the United States our use of wood is lavish. By better methods 
in the woods, at the mill, and in ways of use we can make what we 
have go further than we are now making it go, without industrial 
hardship. On the other hand, our legitimate need will certainly not 
decline but advance as we go on to greater industrial strength. We 
can without hardship reduce our per capita consumption through 
economies; but after we have reached a reasonable basis we must 
expect to see our needs advancing again. We are like a growing 
family which is extravagantly living beyond its income, but which is 
sure to need, when it has cut off extravagant use, an advancing income 
through future years. 
WHAT SHOULD BE DONE. 
We should stop forest fires. By careful logging we should both reduce waste 
and leave cut-over lands productive. We should make the timber logged 
go further by preservative treatment and by avoiding needless loss in the 
woods, the mill, the factory, and in use. We should plant up those lands now 
treeless which will be most useful under forest. We should so adjust taxa- 
tion that cut-over lands can be held for a second crop. We should recognize 
that it costs to grow timber as well as to log and saw it. 
We should continue and perfect, by State and nation, the preservation by use of 
forests already publicly owned; and we should extend it to other mountain 
forests more valuable for the permanent benefit of the many than for the 
temporary profit of a few. 
For each million acres of forest in public ownership over 4,000,000 are privately 
owned. The conservation of public forests is the smaller task before the 
nation and the States. The larger task is to induce private forest owners, 
which means 3,000,000 men, to take care of what they have, and to teach wood 
users, which means everyone, how not to waste. 
If these things are done, they will conserve our streams as well as our forests. 
If they are not done, the usefulness of our streams will decrease no less than 
the usefulness of our forests. 
THE DUTY OF THE PRIVATE OWNER. 
Four-fifths of our standing timber isin private hands. The conser- 
vation of our forests and of the timber used depends mainly upon 
individual forest owners and users. If American citizens will pro- 
tect their forests from fire, will provide by conservative logging for a 
good second crop, and will take every reasonable precaution against 
the waste of timber in the woods, in the mill, in the factory, and in 
use, their forests will eventually supply more than their need, continu- 
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