26 



AMEK/CA.X MUSEUM GUIDE LEAFLETS 



broad; in maple, elm and ash they arc moderately broad; in willow, they 

 can be discovered only by means of a magnifying glass. 



The presence of the pith rays proves descenl from more primitive trees of 

 much less strength of trunk, their hulk being made up of pith as are the stalks of 

 corn of to-day. Pith rays are lines of weakness in the trunk; especially are they 

 such in the lumber. Boards cut with the pith rays (radial or quartered) are, of 

 course, less liable to warp and split than are those cut across them i tangential I. 



FORESTS, THE WEALTH AND THE NECESSITY OF THE NATION 



ORIGINALLY the people of America possessed great forest wealth 

 which they did not realize exhaustible, wholly ignorant of the 

 country's growth in population and industries. To-day a timber 

 famine is in sight, and there is still far too little realization that this forest 

 wealth is exhaustible; we are destroying annually three and a half times 

 as much wood as new growth adds. Unless all forests from this time on 

 are managed according to some system which will no longer exhaust, hut 

 instead, will reconstruct, it is thought that twenty years will see the end 

 of the timber supply in the United States. The original forests covered 

 850,000,000 acres; at present 550,000,000 acres 1 are forest lands hut in 

 large part the trees represented in these forests have only a fraction of the 

 commercial value of those of the primeval forest. (See Figs. 2] and 22.) 

 An even more impressive view of the situation is given by the following 

 figures, which are averages calculated for the five years previous to L908, 

 showing the ten countries that lead in the net wood exports and net wood 

 imports respectively: 



Countries Selling Wood 



Tons 



Count ries 



Buyii 



i: Wood 



i .Hi- 



Russia with Finland 



5,91 )(),()()() 



(deal Bri 



tain 



md Ire- 





Sweden 



1. 160,000 



land 







0. 21)0,000 



Austria-Hungary 



3,670,000 



( Jermany 







1,600,000 



Canada and Newfoun 1- 





France 







1,230,000 



land 



2.144.(iu(i 



Belgium 







1.020.000 



Norway 



1,040.000 



Denmark 







170.000 



United States 



1.02! ).()()() 



Italy 







120.000 



Roumania 



(ill. 000 



South America 





330,000 



India 



.").") 000 



Spain 







210.000 



West ( 'oast of Africa 



28,000 



Egypt 







200.000 



West India. Mexico, 





Holland 







ISO. 000 



Honduras, etc 



13,000 











> The report of the suite Commissioner lor January l. L910, gives to New York State a 

 holding of 1,841,523 acres of forested land. Including 1,530,559 acres in the Adirondack^ and 

 1 10,984 in the Catskills. 



