8 THE FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES: THEIR USE. 
white oak in forty-five years, from red pine in forty years, from 
lodgepole pine in sixty years, from western yellow pine and Douglas 
fir in the Rocky Mountains in fifty years and on the Pacific coast in 
thirty-five years. 
The time now needed to grow a tie in our forests runs from thirty- 
five years for red gum to one hundred and fifty years for white 
cedar and tamarack in the northern swamps. Douglas fir and west- 
ern yellow pine on the Pacific coast, and chestnut, red oak, and lob- 
lolly pine are, on the average, making tie timber in forty to forty-five 
years, cypress in sixty-five years, longleaf pine in seventy-five years, 
white oak in eighty years, lodgepole pine in the Rockies, and beech, 
in one hundred years, and western hemlock in one hundred and thirty 
years. 
These figures are taken from measurements of trees grown in 
forests not conservatively managed. In the same forests, conserva- 
tive management would, as the result of greater density, less un- 
soundness, and the growing of desirable kinds, not only yield several 
times as much timber in the same period, but would increase the 
growth of individual trees. 
The 200,000,000 acres of mature forest in the United States are 
mainly in the northern Rockies and on the Pacific coast, the very 
regions in which the immature forests grow most rapidly. The 
250,000,000 acres partly cut or burned over, but restocking naturally 
with young growth, are mostly in the southern mountains and in the 
southern pine belt. The 100,000,000 acres cut over and burned over, 
upon which young growth is wholly lacking or too scanty to make 
merchantable timber, are chiefly in the Lake States and in the south- 
ern pine belt. 
WHAT IS USED. 
We take from our forests yearly, including waste in logging and in manufac- 
ture, 20,000,000,000 cubic feet of wood. 
- We use in a normal year 90,000,000 cords of firewood, 40,000,000,000 board feet 
of lumber, 118,000,000 hewn ties, 1,500,000,000 staves, over 133,000,000 sets of 
heading, nearly 500,000,000 barrel hoops, 3,000,000 cords of native pulp wood, 
165,000,000 cubic feet of round mine timbers, and 1,250,000 cords o* wood for 
distillation. 
The kind and quality of timber used for these products vary enor- 
mously. The great bulk of firewood comes from farmers’ woodlots 
or from forests already logged. Some of it is made from wood unfit 
for any other use, but a large part is taken from immature trees, 
especially hardwoods of kinds valuable for lumber. 
Lumber and shingles are usually made from large timber of high 
quality. Lumber is being made in commercial quantities from 30 
kinds of trees. Softwoods furnish 77 per cent of our total yearly 
lumber supply, and hardwoods 23 per cent. 
[Cir. 171] 
