USES AND SUPPLY OF WOOD. 23 



he sells to an outsider he expects to receive the mill-yard value, which 

 in this case is $1.85 more than the factory pays. 



A large number of factories making baskets, veneer, excelsior, and 

 the like, consider logs as their raw material, which they get below the 

 cost of sawed lumber at the mill yard. Some of the apparent incon- 

 sistencies in value and cost in Table 18 are doubtless due to this. 



FUTURE SUPPLY. 



The merchantable timber in Arkansas has been estimated at 

 78,700,000,000 feet board measure, 1 and the yearly cut of all products 

 (lumber, crossties, staves, firewood, etc.) at about 5,000,000,000 feet. 2 

 The last is much more than the annual growth. It is therefore 

 apparent that the end of abundance is approaching, though absolute 

 exhaustion is not near. The State now sends its forest products 

 all over the country, but in time it will be face to face with the ques- 

 tion of supplying its own needs. It should not be expected that a 

 change from abundance to scarcity will come suddenly, or that the 

 landowners will abruptly turn from cutting timber to growing it. 

 The change will be gradual. Yet it has, in fact, already commenced. 

 In some localities there is little timber now where it once was plen- 

 tiful. These areas of scarcity will enlarge until they cover the State. 

 As the quantity of timber decreases a beginning in practical forestry 

 must be made. Planting trees will perhaps not be the first step. 

 The control of fires is at present more important. In most places 

 timber will grow without artificial planting if protected against fires ; 

 but without protection cut-over lands can not produce a new and 

 valuable forest growth. 



In Arkansas the pines suffer most from burnings. They do not 

 reproduce from sprouts, as do most of the hardwoods, and when seed 

 trees are cut there can be no reproduction. When cutting is clean, 

 destruction of the pine forests is immediate; but if occasional trees 

 are left, a growth of seedlings will follow, provided fire does not kill 

 them. This, however, is very likely to happen. Up to the present 

 it has nearly always occurred, and the pine lands will become barren 

 unless better protection against fire is provided. A moderate blaze, 

 running through grass or litter where the little trees are getting a 

 start, is usually sufficient to kill nearly all of them. 



Longleaf pine is a wood of great value, but if present methods 

 continue the species will be practically at an end in Arkansas when 

 the present stands have been cut, for its reproduction is poor and the 

 seedlings tender. Shortleaf pine is more abundant in the State, but 

 it is being cut ten times as fast as the longleaf, and the same destruc- 

 tive agencies are everywhere attacking the young trees. 



i "Summary of the Report of the Commissioner of Corporations on the Lumber Industry, Parti, 

 Standing Timber," page 20, 1911. 

 8 See page 5. 



