691 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
THE FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES: THEIR USE* 
How many are aware that the industries of the nation 
which subsist wholly or mainly upon wood pay the wages of 
more than 1,500,000 men and women. “The industries 
which use wood wholly or mainly in manufacture represent 
an investment of over $2,250,000,000.00 and yield each year 
a product worth nearly $3,000,000,000.’’ 
The following quotations from this interesting bulletin 
present the forest situation in a very striking attitude in 
relation to the agriculture and manufacture of the country 
at large. 
What Forests Do 
Our industries which subsist wholly or mainly upon wood 
pay the wages of more than 1,500,000 men and women. 
Forests not only grow timber, but they hold the soil and 
they conserve the streams. They abate the wind and give 
protection from excessive heat or cold. Woodlands make 
for the fiber, health, and happiness of each citizen and of the 
nation. 
The fish which live in forest waters furnish each year 
$21,000,000 worth of food, and not less than half as much is 
furnished by the game which could not exist without the 
forest. 
What We Have 
Our forests now cover 550,000,000 acres, or about one- 
fourth of the United States. The original forests covered 
not less than 850,000,000 acres. 
Forests publicly owned contain one-fifth of all timber 
standing. Forests privately owned contain at least four- 
fifths of the standing timber. The timber privately owned 
is not only four times that publicly owned, but it is generally 
more valuable. 
Forestry is now practiced on 70 per cent of the forests 
publicly owned and on less than 1 per cent of the forests 
privately owned, or on only 18 per cent of the total area of 
forests. 
What is Produced 
The yearly growth of wood in our forests does not aver¬ 
age more than 12 cubic feet per acre. This gives a total 
yearly growth of less than 7,000,000,000 cubic feet. 
Nearly all our native commercial trees grow much faster 
than those of Europe. We already grow post timber in 
twenty to thirty years, mine timber in twenty-five to thirty- 
five years, tie timber in thirty-five to forty years, and saw 
timber in thirty to seventy-five years. 
We have 200,000,000 acres of mature forests, in which 
yearly growth is balanced by decay; 250,000,000 acres 
partly cut over or burned over, but restocking naturally 
with enough } r oung growth to produce a merchantable crop; 
and 100,000,000 acres cut over and burned over, upon 
which young growth is either wholly lacking or too scanty 
to make merchantable timber. 
What is Used 
We take from our forests yearly, including waste in 
logging and in manufacture, 20,000,000,000 cubic feet of 
wood. 
We use in a normal year 90,000,000 cords of firewood, 
40,000,000,000 board feet of lumber, 118,000,000 hewn ties, 
1,500,000,000 staves, over 133,000,000 sets of heading, 
nearly 500,000,000 barrel hoops, 3,000,000 cords of native 
pulp wood, 165,000,000,000 cubic feet of round mine tim¬ 
bers, and 1,250,000 cords of wood for distillation. 
What is Wasted 
Forest fires burn over millions of acres and destroy bil¬ 
lions of feet of timber annually. The young growth 
destroyed by fire is worth far more than the merchantable 
timber burned. 
One-fourth of the standing timber is left or otherwise lost 
in logging. The boxing of longleaf pine for turpentine has 
destroyed one-fifth of the forests worked. The loss in the 
mill is from one-third to two-thirds of the timber sawed. 
The loss in the mill product through seasoning and fitting for 
use is from one-seventh to one fourth. Great damage is 
done by insects to forests and forest products. An average 
of only 320 feet of lumber is used for each 1,000 feet which 
stood in the forest. 
Where we Stand 
We take from our forests each year, not counting the loss 
by fire, three times their yearly growth. We take 36 cubic 
feet per acre for each 12 cubic feet grown; we take 230 cubic 
feet per capita, while Germany uses 3 7 cubic feet and France 
25 cubic feet. 
We invite by overtaxation the misuse of our forests. We 
should plant, to protect farms from wind and to make 
stripped or treeless lands productive, an area larger than 
that of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia combined. 
But so far, lands successfully planted to trees make a total 
area smaller than Rhode Island. And year by year, 
through careless cutting and fires, we lower the capacity of 
existing forests to produce their like again, or totally 
destroy them. 
The condition of the world supply of timber makes us 
already dependent upon what we produce. We send out of 
our country one and one-half times as much timber as we 
bring in. Except for finishing woods, relatively insignifi¬ 
cant in quantity, we must grow our own supply or go with¬ 
out. 
What Should be Done 
We should stop forest fires. By careful logging we 
should both reduce waste and leave cut-over lands produc¬ 
tive. We should make the timber logged go further by 
preservative treatment and by avoiding needless loss in the 
woods, the mill, the factory, and in use. We should plant 
up those lands now treeless which will be most useful under 
^Circular 171 U. S. Dept, of Agr. 
