584 HOW DOES MAN CONSERVE HIS RESOURCES? 



Methods of forest conservation. Back of all life on the earth 

 are the food supplies made by the green plants. Back of our 

 water supplies and our rich soil lie our forests. Our forest 

 areas are lessening each year. We already lack hardwoods for 

 trim and furniture and our pulp-wood reserves are dwindling 

 rapidly. 



It is evident that we must replant our forests as they are used, 

 plant new areas, make use of waste products from the forests, or 

 we must obtain substitutes for some of the forest products. 

 Formerly, lumber companies burned the sawdust and other waste 

 from the mills; now fuel alcohol and other valuable products 

 are obtained from them. It is estimated that more than 300,000,- 

 000 gallons of fuel alcohol could be made annually from the wood 

 thus wasted. It is estimated that 20 per cent of the timber now 

 wasted might be used in building. Railroads use 15 per cent of our 

 timber for ties; treatment of these ties with creosote or other 

 chemicals resulted in the annual saving of 1,500,000,000 board feet. 

 Substitutes are being found for wooden boxes, which take a very 

 large amount of cut lumber. And since it is estimated that 25 per 

 cent of a tree in the forest is lost in the cutting and 40 per cent is 

 wasted in the mill, it is evident that less wasteful methods will 

 conserve a large amount of the lumber now lost. 



Better management is needed in our forests, especially those 

 under private control. Forests should be kept thinned. Too 

 many trees are almost as bad as too few. They struggle with 

 one another for foothold and light, which only a few can obtain. 

 The cutting of a forest should be considered as a harvest. The 

 oldest trees are the " ripe grain/ ' and the younger trees are to be 

 left to grow to maturity. Several methods of renewing the forest 

 are in use in this country. (1) Trees may be cut down and young 

 ones allowed to sprout from cut stumps. Beech, chestnut, and the 

 redwood of California are among the trees that grow in this way. 

 This is called coppice growth. (2) Areas or strips may be cut out 

 so that seeds from neighboring trees are carried there by the wind 

 to start new growth. (3) Forests may be artificially planted. 

 Two seedlings planted for every tree cut is a rule followed in 

 Europe. (4) The most economical method is to thin a large area 



