34 BULLETIN 1241, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTUKE. 
wood cut from American forests although second to no product in economic 
importance, is now less than 2.5 per cent of the total volume cut for all purposes 
or destroyed. To supply all of our present requirements and to be entirely 
independent in pulp wood, pulp, and paper would require less than 5 per cent 
of the amount of timber now annually cut or destroyed. (Table 48.) 
The total annual drain upon American forests exclusive of Alaska falls only 
a- little short of 25 billion cubic feet. While This approximates one-thirtieth of 
the- total visible wood supply of the United States, annual replacement through 
new growth, reaches only one-fourth of the drain, or 6 billion cubic feet. Our 
timber resource is therefore becoming less by nearly 19 billion cubic feet, or 160 
million cords a year. 
The general outlook might not be so serious if the cut and destruction were 
confined mainly to timber of the larger sizes. Unfortunately, however, in the 
tfaafc er behev -aw-rimber size drain exceeds renewal by about three ffttn.es 
that the possibil.iiy ,-f replacing the larger-sized timber is rapidly being reduced. 
The drain upon the larger-sized material suitable for saw timber is still more 
excess; :ng live and one-half times the annual growth. 
No other int? rpretation of these and other known fedte is possible than a 
serious future timber shortage, already in fact bediming for many important 
products. Data are not available for any ver> • rf fry comparison of stand, 
current drain, and growth for all the pnip-wood specie^ taken togeMer, but 
there is iiMIe reason to hope that the situation is much better then for the 
timber stand as a whole. "While a timber shortage will in general be felt first 
in the high-grade products, such as lumber, an inadequate supply of timber 
means of course .-narper competition among forest industries for ohe remaining 
material and higher prices. 
in that competition the pulp and paper industry has great advantages. It 
can use small-sized trees, and it can under the conditions that have hitherto 
obtained outbid the lumber rndustr . its chief competitor, for at least Vne lower 
grades of saw-Log material of the species most in demand by both. The bid of 
the lumber industry for such stumpage has gewe up as regional timber sm 
have been cut, but its limit is reached when it becomes cheaper to meet require- 
ments by lumber from other regions. T • the rre%h*t haul from the 
regions of virgin forests and the greater the stumpage i those f 
the higher the competitive bid that the puip and paper industry must be pre- 
pared t-o imo~ :;. tlie older regions. In short, a tim ere will affect pulp- 
jii-, which v.- ill be highc in pfkto and move difficult to '^<?t, 
though requirements i w puip wood are small in enmp-v: 
for other pur; . #H)h our food umbo;- supplies. 
Depletion of timber supplier is :e brmgrng an increase in the value of timber 
b^low saw-log >;b;e and >r\ certain to carry that increase further. In var 
of the East conditions have already reached the noint -i I \vi>i.-h the praeb 
forestry bv private owners is good busm rpeetation vfcftrc ' . 
young growth is rec-^nuec!, the competition of the lumber and other forest 
industries for e . ial wiii n Reft iu the form «>f 
placed upon inmiatu-' limit-,- an I in a m the 
port of fen permit euttirag of their under the practice 
of forestry. 
This will unboubted'v not ! 
ry in the long run, though 
d ?e. The application of forestry will in tune make available \-'r pulp a e 
amount of MMall-d! rial which should be I J -binds T > 
90BHPE j 1 1 ; j x i m ! i / 1 1 production. Kvn; u.illy , it i< aie to | -onomic condi- 
tions will produ- . a radical dunge in the chnnou <-r of the pulp and paper indus- 
