Some Forest Problems. 267 



every state and territory in the Union. The state.s and territories them- 

 selves should have large holdings under their own control. Some of 

 the eastern states have made good advancement in this respect. 

 New York now has reserves amounting to nearly a million and a 

 half acres. Pennsylvania holds a half million acres. Other states 

 and many cities now own e.xtensive reserves and parks. Owing to 

 the long time investments involved, and the large and comprehensive 

 measures necessary to the handling of such lands, the large forest 

 areas should be held by federal or state ownership. 



There are about eleven hundred thousand square miles of forest 

 lands in the United States. The annual increment on this area is 

 something enormous, and if it were properly managed, it would 

 supply the demand for all time to come. 



Of this forest area the federal and state governments combined 

 own less than one-third, and this compi'.;^ing the poorer land, and very 

 little virgin forests. 



Less than one-half of the private holdings are in tracts ranging 

 from five to five hundred acres — tracts which are too small for the 

 most profitable lumbering. The remaining forest lands are in large 

 holdings, owned in the main by lumber companies, and these lands 

 comprise the richest and best forests that are left. Hence it is to this 

 source that the lumber trade must look for the major part of its 

 supplies for some years to come. Here is the most difficult problem 

 that forestry has to meet, yet these are the forests which above all 

 others should be under scientific management. 



No class of forest lands lend themselves quite so readily to 

 forest management as the small private holdings. The investments 

 are permanent. The labor necessary to the care and culture of woodlots 

 can be done at odd times. The outlay is slight. And finally there is 

 a growing interest in forestry among the small holders, because they 

 can see at once that forestry practice will pay. 



But with the large holdings the situation is very different. As 

 a rule the lumberman has bought the land for the timber upon it as 

 a speculation. The land itself is of no interest to him, and he 

 usually means to abandon it as soon as the timber has been removed. 

 With him the application of the forest principles would not pay; 

 for he should have to harvest his crop with a view to reproducing 

 the forest either by natural regeneration, or by planting, either of 

 which would involve an expense which he as a mere speculator cannot 

 afford to assume. However, conservative forestry is invading the ranks 

 of the large lumber concerns; for there is a growing tendency on the 

 part of such companies, particularly those whose interests demand a 



