NOTES ON OUR FOREST SERVICE 



29 



been a serious diminution of the rainfall 

 of northeastern China. The level of the 

 Sungari River in northern Manchuria has 

 been sensibly lowered during the last fifty 

 years, at least partly as the result of the 

 indiscriminate cutting of the forests 

 forming its watershed. 



Almost all the rivers of northern China 

 have become uncontrollable and very 

 dangerous to the dwellers along their 

 banks as a direct result of the destruction 

 of the forests. The journey from Peking 

 to Jehol shows in melancholy fashion 

 how the soil has been washed away from 

 whole valleys, so that they have been 

 converted into deserts. 



In northern China this disastrous pro- 

 cess has gone on so long and has pro- 

 ceeded so far that no complete remedy 

 could be applied. There are certain 

 mountains in China from which the soil 

 is gone so utterly that only the slow ac- 



tion of the ages could again restore it, 

 although, of course, much could be done 

 to prevent the still further eastward ex- 

 tension of the Mongolian desert if the 

 Chinese government would act at once. 



LESSON FOR AMERICA 



What has thus happened in northern 

 China, what has happened in central Asia, 

 in Palestine, in North Africa, in parts of 

 the Mediterranean countries of Europe, 

 will surely happen in our country if we 

 do not exercise that wise forethought 

 which should be one of the chief marks 

 of any people calling itself civilized. 

 Nothing should be permitted to stand in 

 the way of the preservation of the for- 

 ests, and it is criminal to permit indi- 

 viduals to purchase a little gain for them- 

 selves through the destruction of forests 

 when this destruction is fatal to the well- 

 being of the whole country in the future. 



THE VALUE OF THE UNITED STATES 

 FOREST SERVICE 



MASTERY by the Forest Service 

 of one of the greatest practical 

 forest problems ever under- 

 taken by any government is advancing 

 apace. Briefly stated, that problem is to 

 develop to its highest usefulness a total 

 area of 168,000,000 acres of wild lands, 

 mainly mountain wilderness, but closely 

 related to the welfare of the entire coun- 



tr y- 



From an administrative standpoint the 

 most striking fact of the year was the 

 remarkable increase which took place in 

 the actual use of the forests by the pub- 

 lic. This increase is partly brought out 

 by the following statement : 



Per cent 



Increase in area 11 



Increase in number of timber sales 236 



Increase in amount of timber cut 102 



Increase in number of free-timber permits . 76 

 Increase in number of special-use permits. . 67 

 Increase in number of grazing permits 11 



Regarded as property, the national for- 

 ests justify liberal expenditures for their 

 protection and improvement. At $2 per 

 thousand feet stumpage the merchantable 



timber alone forms, just as it stands, an 

 asset worth something like $800,000,000, 

 while the very moderate grazing charge 

 yielded the government last year an in- 

 come of nearly $1,000,000. It is a safe 

 prediction that within twenty years the 

 forests will bring in from the sale of 

 timber alone an annual net income of as 

 many millions of dollars. 



An average wood production of 30 

 cubic feet to the acre of commercial 

 forest is a moderate estimate of what will 

 ultimately be obtained under manage- 

 ment. One hundred million acres of such 

 forest would allow to be cut each year 

 over 3,000,000,000 cubic feet, or from 

 20,000,000,000 to 25,000,000,000 board 

 feet, without diminution of the supply. 

 This is but a fraction of the country's 

 consumption of wood at the present time, 

 but at the stumpage prices which already 

 obtain in the older and better settled 

 parts of the United States its sale would 

 bring the government each year from 

 $80,000,000 to $125,000,000. 



Were it wise to do so, the receipts 



