LUMBER rUT OF UXTTED STATES, 1870-1920. 
21 
Measures of economy, though helpful, \vill be found insufficient 
where such an enormous demand is involved. We must utilize 
them to the utmost, but economize as we will, the introduction of 
inferior species, the use of lumber substitutes, the general application 
of timber preservatives, all of them together can not account for 
more than a fraction of the 35,000,000,000 feet of lumber a year 
which we must have unless our present standards of living and 
industrial facilities are to be greatly reduced. 
TIMBER GROWING THE ONLY REMEDY. 
It is already too late to avoid the results of the past century of 
exploitation. The pinch for lumber will be upon us before new forests 
can be gro^Mi. It will be felt not only in the scarcity or increased 
cost of wooden articles. Directly or indirectly every commodity of 
life will cost more because of the depleted supply of forest products. 
Every American will pay an unnecessarily large part of his income for 
shelter and food and clothing, fuel, transportation and amusements, 
necessities and luxuries alike, because wood will be no longer plentiful 
and near at hand. This economic punishment will increase in severity 
as time goes on. There is only one way by which its pressure can be 
relieved and removed, and that is by growing enough timber for the 
national needs. 
There seems to be among the American people a sort of naive 
confidence that each form of national resource will last indefinitely, 
no matter how great the inroads upon it. There was mild surprise 
when the buffalo vanished. The practical exhaustion of free Govern- 
ment farm lands aroused a half resentful disappointment. The 
peak of lumber prices caused widespread indignation, and was attri- 
buted to every sort of cause except the fundamental reason that 
depletion had so localized the remaining timber supplies as to make 
them unavailable. The fact that we are beginning in earnest to cut 
our last reserve of virgin timber, with no suitable cycles of young 
forest to take its place, may not cause a ripple of public sentiment, 
for the public has heard a gi^eat deal of these things and as yet no 
cataclysm has occurred. There will be no cataclysm — no sudden 
deprivation of all timber products. There will always be lumber in 
our markets, but if the price is bevond the reach of the average 
American, it might as well not be tKere, as far as he is concerned. 
More idle lands, more idle men, less home o^^mership, and the slow 
throttling of demand for lumber by the rising tide of prices will be 
the evidence of our failure to restore the forests. 
Timber is essential to national life of the standard which Americans 
demand. In peace or war it is a form of wealth the possession of 
which is partial assurance of success; the lack of which will be found 
a heavy handicap. Therefore as a measure of self-preservation such 
steps must be taken as will assure the national supply. 
Forest culture in the United States is inevitable. Price pressure 
will attend to that. Once our house is put in order, timber will no 
longer be the volunteer product of the public domain, but a crop, 
planted, tended, and cut as regularly as those of the farms. It may 
never again be as plentiful or as cheap as in the past, but after awhile 
there will be enough, and perhaps some to spare for less fortunate 
