WHEN OUR COUNTRY IS FIFTY YEARS OLDER 



579 



Photo from U. S. Forest Service 



MOUNTAIN ROAD WITH PEELED TIMBER ( WHITE FTR) HAULED OUT WHERE IT CAN BE 

 REACHED BY THE LOGGING WAGONS : GERMANY 



tion of the real needs of the people. 

 Countries with greatly differing stand- 

 ards of living, such as the United States, 

 Sweden, Canada, and Russia, but with 

 abundance of forests, all show a high 

 per capita consumption of wood. The 

 waste in the utilization of our timber 

 products is enormous. We use only 50 

 per cent of the total volume of the tree 

 and leave 50 per cent to be wasted. We 

 are just beginning to learn the useful- 

 ness of many trees hitherto considered 

 worthless. We are just beginning to 

 learn to prolong the life of ties, poles, 

 and posts by means of preservative treat- 

 ment. 



It is safe to assume that by greater 

 economy in the use of wood the per cap- 

 ita consumption could easily be reduced 

 from 260 to 150 or even 100 cubic feet 

 without curtailing in the least the real 

 needs of the people. 



THE PRODUCTIVENESS OF OUR FORESTS CAN 

 BE GREATLY INCREASED 



The other, even more effective, means 

 of meeting the increasing demand for 

 wood is by increasing the productiveness 

 of the forest land. The annual production 

 of our forests is scarcely more than 12 

 cubic feet per acre of all kinds of wood, 

 including firewood, of which less than 10 

 cubic feet is of log and bolt sizes, while 

 for all of Germany the annual growth 

 per acre is more than 38 cubic feet, and 

 the forests of Saxony produce 93 cubic 

 feet, those of Switzerland 50 cubic feet, 

 and those of France nearly 40 cubic feet. 

 Our forests have been badly burned in 

 the past and have been entirely neglected. 

 By proper care and protection the forests 

 of the United States cannot only be 

 made to produce as much as those of 

 France or Switzerland, but they can pro- 



