Show OUR FOREST PROBLEM secretary wallace talked before ile city club of cincinnati ohio speaking of the agricultural depression and what has been done to relieve it during the pat past eighteen months and also telling of bo biome 01 r tho the work of the department culture referring to tho manner in which the forests it e act wit n i ho bald timber Is a crop one of 0 our most important crops it grows groin s ripens and becomes ready for the h harvest arvest just as other agricultural crops it should be harvested in season and another crop grown for the use of future generations it mua be protected from fires from plant diseases disease 3 from insect pests just as s other agricultural crops are arc protected that requires the services of the horticulturist of the entomologist of the plant pathologist and of the forest specialist all of these men being specially trained in their own lines working together in the closest cooperation originally it is estimated that the v virgin rahl forests of the united states covered about acres of these virgin forests there now demain about acres of the remainder it is estimated that 3 acres have been replaced by farm land towns etc acres are carrying second growth timber much of it inferior in quality acres is idle idie land devastated and growing nothing worth while our wood consumption per year is estimated at cubic cubi e feet our annual growth of timber timbe r is estimated at C cubic feet in oilier words the people of the united states are now consuming every year or permitting to be destroyed more than four times as much wood as is being grown most lost of our virgin forests now lie to the far northwest the increase in freight alone in recent years amounts to almost as much as our total lumber bill not a great many years ago as time is measured mea aured in the life of a nation |