_The Lumber Industry._ Measured by the number of persons employed, lumbering is the country's largest manufacturing industry. In its 48,000 saw mills it employs more than 600,000 men. Its investment in these plants is over $1,000,000,000, and the investment in standing timber is $1,500,000,000 more. This industry furnishes the railroads a traffic income of over $200,000,000 annually. If we include in these statistics also the derived wood products, we find that over 1,000,000 wage earners are employed, and that the products and derived products are valued at over $2,000,000,000 annually. Most certainly we are dealing with a very large business enterprise.
_Our Future Lumber Supply._ You may ask, "What effect have the great annual consumption of wood and these large business interests upon the future supply of wood?" The most reliable statistics show that out of 5,200 billion feet of merchantable timber which we once possessed, only 2,900 billion feet are left. In other words, almost half of our original supply of timber has been used. Besides, the present rate of cutting for all purposes exceeds the annual growth of the forests. Even the annual growth is considered by many experts of unknown quantity and quality, to some extent offset by decay in virgin forests. The only logical conclusion to draw from this condition of affairs, if the present rate of consumption continues, is a timber shortage in so far as our most valuable woods are concerned. In view of this it is fortunate that the National Government began to control the lumber and forest situation by the creation of National Forests and the institution of scientific forestry practice.
_Forests and Stream Flow._ But the forests not only supply us with wood. For other reasons they deserve governmental consideration. The forests in the mountains control our streams, vitally affect the industries depending upon water power, reduce the severity of floods and erosion, and in this way are intimately wrapped up with our great agricultural interests. For this reason forestry is by nature less suited for private enterprise. In agriculture and horticulture the influence of the farm or the fruit crop rarely extends beyond the owner's fence. What I plant in my field does not affect my neighbors; they share neither in my success or failure. If by the use of poor methods I ruin the fertility of my farm, this fact does not influence the fertility of my neighbor's fields. But in forestry it is different. Unfortunately, just as the sins of the fathers are visited upon their children, so the sins of the mountains are visited upon the valleys.