national, state
and municipal forests were established and extended, our lumber
problem would largely solve itself. We not only should produce a
large permanent supply of timber for domestic use, but also
should have great reserves available for export. Under such
conditions, the United States would become the greatest supply
source in the world for lumber.

CHAPTER XV

WHY THE LUMBERMAN SHOULD PRACTICE FORESTRY

The lumber industry of this country can aid reforestation by
practicing better methods. It can harvest its annual crop of
timber without injuring the future production of the forests. It
can limit forest fires by leaving the woods in a safe condition
after it has removed the timber. Some private timber owners who
make a living out of cutting lumber, have even reached the stage
where they are planting trees. They are coming to appreciate the
need for replacing trees that they cut down, in order that new
growth may develop to furnish future timber crops.

The trouble in this country has been that the lumbermen have
harvested the crop of the forests in the shortest possible time
instead of spreading out the work over a long period. Most of our
privately owned forests have been temporarily ruined by practices
of this sort. The aim of the ordinary lumberman is to fell the
trees and reduce them to lumber with the least labor possible.
He does not exercise special care as to how the tree is cut down.
He pays little attention to the protection of young trees and new
growth. He cuts the tree to fall in the direction that best
serves his purpose, no matter whether this means that the forest
giant will crush and seriously cripple many young trees. He
wastes large parts of the trunk in cutting. He leaves the tops
and chips and branches scattered over the ground to dry out. They
develop into a fire trap.

As generally followed, the ordinary method of lumbering is
destructive of the forests. It ravages the future production of
the timberlands. It pays no heed to the young growth of the
forest. It does not provide for the proper growth and development
of the future forest. Our vast stretches of desolate and deserted
cut-over lands are silent witnesses to the ruin which has been
worked by the practice of destructive lumbering. Fortunately, a
change for the better is now developing. With the last of our
timberland riches in sight on the Pacific Coast, the lumbering
industry is coming to see that it must prepare