is not now much tendency for softwoods to replace hardwoods, and there is not likely to be, because they have not the strength or other properties to make them acceptable as substitutes. The replacement of hardwood by other materials is to be welcomed where those materials make for better service and cheaper cost. Where they will not, and experience thus far shows this list to be a large one, the problem of a hardwood shortage must be solved in another way. There seems to be but one practicable solution, and that is to maintain permanently under a proper system of forestry a sufficient area of hardwood land to produce by growth a large proportion of the hardwood timber which the nation requires. Where is this land to be found? Not in the Ohio Valley, the Lake States, or the Mississippi Valley, for the reasons already given. It is to be found in the Appalachian Mountains. These mountains increased their proportion in the nation's hardwood output from 42 to 48 per cent during the past seven years. On the principle of using the land for its highest purpose they should further increase their proportion to not less than 75 per cent. Other sections of the country will readily furnish the remaining 25 per cent. APPALACHIANS THE KEY TO THE SITUATION. The mountain ranges from Maine to Alabama should be made to produce the greater part of the hardwood supply, because growing hardwood timber is their most profitable use. There is, in fact, no other use to which the surface of these mountains can permanently be put. That they can not be successfully farmed has been proved in thousands of cases. For the most part they can not even be permanently grazed. It is in the production of timber that they excel. They bear the greatest variety of species and the best remaining hardwood growth anywhere to be found. Freed from their enemies-fire and unwise cutting their forests readily reproduce the best kinds of timber. Outside of local areas of the Pacific coast nowhere else is forest growth so rapid. Even land cleared and farmed to the complete exhaustion of its soil will in this region in time reclothe itself with forests, if only it is protected. Field estimates by counties show that south of Pennsylvania there are in the Appalachians 58 million acres of forest land, practically all of which is covered by hardwood and over 85 per cent of which is in a cut-over or culled condition. Including the mountains of Pennsylvania, New York, and New England it is probably safe to estimate that the entire Appalachian area includes as much as 75 million acres primarily adapted for hardwood timber. Only a very small part of this is still in virgin growth. By far the great part of it has been cut over, and some of it has been cleared. Well managed and protected from fire, this area has enormous producing powers. Studies by the Forest Service of average virgin and cut-over lands in eastern Tennessee show that under protection these lands are capable of producing 50 cubic feet of wood per acre annually. Even taking the production as 40 cubic feet, this means for the area of 75 million acres a possible annual production of 3 billion cubic feet. How does this compare with the annual requirements? The 25 billion feet, board measure, used annually (allowing a product of 8 feet B. M. for each cubic foot, which is believed to be not too high under present utilization) represents a little over 3 billion cubic feet. This is just about equal to the amount which the Appalachian forest is capable of producing. When it is remembered that the Appalachians will probably not be called upon to furnish more than three-fourths of the total supply, it is clear that there is a good margin of safety. Therefore, if the Appalachian forests are rightly managed and taken soon enough, they will insure continuously the hardwood supply of the country, and do it without exhausting the forest. In fact, it can be done so that the systematic treatment will at the same time improve the forest. Our experience will doubtless be the same in this respect as that of Germany. In Saxony the cut, which represents only the growth, increased during the period from 1820 to 1904 55 per cent, bringing the annual yield to 93 cubic feet per acre. Prussia shows a still more pronounced increase. In 1830 the cut was only 20 cubic feet per acre, and in 1865 had increased to only 24 cubic feet. But in 1890, owing to proper management, it had risen to 52, and in 1904 to 65 cubic feet. These results came largely from nonagricultural lands, sandy plains, swamps, and rough mountain slopes, and from forests which had been mismanaged, much the same as ours. Much of the Appalachian forest has been so damaged that years will be required for it to reach again a high state of productiveness. Its present average production is probably not over 10 cubic feet per acre per year. The increase would of course be gradual and it would be slow at first. It would be some time before it could average the 40 cubic feet per acre used in the above estimate. Until it does we can expect a shortage in hardwood timber. The longer the delay in putting this forest under control, the longer continued and more extreme will be the shortage. Approved: JAMES WILSON, Secretary of Agriculture. a From article by Dr. B. E. Fernow, Forestry and Irrigation, February, 1907. [Cir. 116] 634179 GENERAL LIC UNIV. OF MICH Issued December 4, 1907. U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, FOREST SERVICE-Circular 117. GIFFORD PINCHOT, Forester. THE PRESERVATIVE TREATMENT OF FENCE POSTS. 16460-Cir. 117-07 By HOWARD F. WEISS, Forest Assistant. ORGANIZATION OF THE FOREST SERVICE. GIFFORD PINCHOT, Forester. OVERTON W. PRICE, Associate Forester. P. P. WELLS, Law Officer. HERBERT A. SMITH, Editor. GEORGE B. SUDWORTH, Dendrologist. Operation.-JAMES B. ADAMS, Assistant Forester, in Charge. Maintenance.-HERMON C. METCALF, Chief. Accounts.-GEORGE E. KING, Chief. Organization.-C. S. CHAPMAN, Chief. CLYDE LEAVITT, Assistant Chief. Engineering.-W. E. HERRING, Chief. Lands.-GEORGE F. POLLOCK, Chief. Silviculture.-WILLIAM T. Cox, Assistant Forester, in Charge. Extension.-SAMUEL N. SPRING, Chief. Silvics.-RAPHAEL ZON, Chief. Management.-E. E. CARTER, Chief. W. G. WEIGLE, Assistant Chief. Grazing.-ALBERT F. POTTER, Assistant Forester, in Charge. Products.-WILLIAM L. HALL, Assistant Forester, in Charge. Wood Preservation.-CARL G. CRAWFORD, Chief. [Cir. 117] (2) CONTENTS. Introduction Causes of decay-- Preservative methods in use.. Experiments by the Forest Service___. Description of the experiments_ Results Cost of treatment__ Conclusions Selection and preparation of posts. ILLUSTRATION. FIG. 1. Diagram of an experimental tank used for treating fence posts-- [Cir. 117] (3) Page. 5 6 7 9 12 13 13 14 Page. |