Note Footnote 5: — Chapter VII

How lavishly we use lumber may further be appreciated from the fact that we consume 260 cubic feet5 per capita, while the average for 13 European countries is but 49 cubic feet per capita. In other words every person in the U. S. is using five times as much wood as he would use if he lived in Europe. It is estimated that on an average each person in this country uses annually the product of 25 acres of forest. The country as a whole, cuts every year, between three and four times more wood than all the forests grow in the meantime. By contrast, the principal countries of Europe, cut just the annual growth, while Russia, Sweden and Japan, cut less than the growth. In other words, the 2,800,000,000,000 feet B.M. of the stumpage of the United States is a capital which is constantly drawn upon, whereas, the 944,700,000,000 board feet of the forest of the German Empire is a capital which is untouched but produces annually 300 board feet per acre.