Abstract
IT is common knowledge that the drain upon the world's resources of coniferous timber is very heavy, and that in some countries the outlook is regarded with increasing disquietude. In the “Third Report on a Forest Survey of Illinois,” by C. J. Telford, the position of the State is explained with great clarity, and the parallel to the state of affairs existing in Great Britain is depicted. The present forests of the United States contain an estimated total of 481,800 million cubic feet of standing timber, the annual cut is 25,000 million cubic feet and the annual growth 6039 million cubic feet. “The virgin forests,” the report says, “will carry us another 25 years, after which we shall probably be wholly dependent upon growth from cut-over lands. By utilising the entire 470 million acres of forest lands at prevailing rates of growth these cut-over lands can supply us with an estimated annual yield of 14,000 million cubic feet-a little more 'than half our present requirements. The conviction that satisfactory substitutes for wood will be found is untenable when the enormous amount of wood required is appreciated. This drain of 25,000 million cubic feet of standing timber a year means that for every hundred pounds of coal, iron, cement, petroleum and copper consumed the forests supply 67 pounds of wood, and the crop lands supply 44 pounds of all forms of crops, including cereals, seeds, clover, hay, forage, cotton, potatoes, sugar, fruit, and nuts. It is obvious that a satisfactory substitution for a commodity representing by weight two-thirds of virtually all the minerals consumed, or one and a half times all crops raised in the United States, is impossible. A timber famine will be more disastrous to Illinois than to any other State. Its manufacturing establishments employ 11.6 per cent. more hands than agriculture, transportation, and mining combined, and thirty per cent. of all persons employed in manufacture are in industries dependent upon wood. In the single item of lumber, Illinois consumes one-thirtieth the total lumber-cut of the world.”
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Forestry in Illinois and Great Britain. Nature 119, 31 (1927). https://doi.org/10.1038/119031a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/119031a0