70 



FORESTS, FOREST LANDS AND FOREST PRODUCTS. 



the value and use of the wood for purposes where such qualities are 

 requisite. The rapid thinning of the woodlands of the eastern 

 United States will cause an increase each year in the value of all 

 timber near centers of consumption ; and there is a constant increase 

 in the value of stumpage as the utilization of the forests proceeds. 

 When once the mass of standing woody material, the uninterrupted 

 accumulations of centuries, is destroyed, the entire country will 

 each year be dependent for w^ood on what may be called the annual 

 increase in the forests. 



The lands of the greater part of the northeastern States are 

 already in this condition, and those of the southern States, with 

 the exception of the hardwood forests of the Appalachian mount- 

 ains, are fast being reduced to a similar condition. This second 

 growth forest is producing very largely nonvaluable woods, having 

 been produced by the seed of inferior species left in lumbering as 

 worthless, and only such of these survive as can naturally with- 

 stand the repeated burnings to which the woodlands are subjected. 

 Moreover, most of this second growth is very open and thin, caused 

 by fires and other agencies, and the trees from the same causes are 

 often defective. A large part of the land which should be timber 

 land is unproductive waste land, with absolutely no arborescent 

 growth, and the continued violation of all natural laws concerning 

 plant-life prevents the development of such a growth. The 

 demand for wood is yearly increasing and each year the power of 

 the woodlands to supply it is diminishing. 



An abundant supply of wood and timber must be an impor- 

 tant factor in the future development of eastern, and particularly 

 south-eastern North Carolina, whether that development be an 

 agricultural or manufacturing advancement; but unless there is a 

 more strict observance of the fundamental laws of all plant-life, 

 particularly in respect to the long-leaf pine on the high sandy 

 land, preventing the destruction of the seed and young pines, this 

 section will be in great want of timber at the time when it will 

 need its timber most. 



AREA OF WASTE I,AND INCREASING. 



In conclusion, it can be said that there are now 400,000 acres of 

 waste sandy land in Eastern North Carolina, and that this area is 



