20 



THE UTILITY OF FORESTS. 



In West Virginia there are 14,000 men, earning about 

 $9,000,000 a year, engaged in logging and operating the band 

 saw mills alone. Add to this 5,000 men who work on smaller 

 operations^ 5,000 in planing mills and other wood-working 

 establishments, and 2,000 more in tanneries, pulp mills, chemical 

 factories, etc., and we have a total of 26,000 men earning ap- 

 proximately $16,000,000 a year. Beside these there is a large 

 number of men, such as carpenters, salesmen, jobbers and others, 

 who are indirectly furnished with employment through the lum- 

 ber industry. These approximate figures and general statements 

 are not included for the purpose of justifying the present ab- 

 normal development of our forests, but to call attention to the 

 direct utility of forests as a means of supplying employment. 

 In order to show the possibility of an extensive, indestructive, 

 and perpetual lumber industry in this state we quote from 

 report of the West Virginia Conservation Cum mission as 

 follows : 



''It is of interest to know how much timber West Virginia 

 can grow^ year by year, if its forests are properly cared for, and 

 the vacant spaces are put to work as they should be. Take it 

 for granted that 8,000,000 acres in the state will be kept perma- 

 nently in productive forests. It can be figured out with a fair 

 degree of accuracy how much timber will grow on an acre, and 

 how much the yearly growth will be. The same rule does not 

 hold everywhere. The growth depends on climate, soil, kinds of 

 trees, and the care given them. In some of the finest Japanese 

 forests the yearly growth is as much as 80 cubic feet per acre. 

 In some of the neglected and fire-wasted woods of West Virginia 

 it is not one-tenth that much. In the vigorous hardwood forests 

 of this state the annual increment may be as much as 50 or 60 

 cubic feet, but in choice localities only. The state's 8,000,000 

 acres, if guarded from fire, and well cared for in all ways, ought 

 to yield 25 cubic feet of timber yearly for each acre. The esti- 

 mate is conservative. That would provide for a yearly harvest, 

 from the whole state of 1,600,000,000 feet, board measure- At 

 $20 a thousand feet, the gross income from lumber sales would 

 be 32 million dollars a year. That would not be the rake-off of 

 several years growth at one time, as at present, with nothing for 



