64 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



ing the timber on the national forests at less than its actual market 

 value. 



In other words, the very stability which the livestock industry 

 desires and should have in the use of the national-forest ranges de- 

 mands that users pay the public fairly for value received. A perma- 

 nent and settled program of range use which will command public 

 confidence and go forward without interruption can not be predi- 

 cated on any other basis. The Department of Agriculture is not 

 seeking to charge for the use of national-forest ranges more than a 

 just price. It stands for the allocation of the forage to the stock- 

 growing enterprises most dependent upon it and most logically situ- 

 ated for its efficient use. It stands for a stabilization of this use to 

 the fullest possible degree, so that the livestock industry may prosper 

 and establish favorable credit and banking relations. And, as an 

 integral part of this program, it must require payment for the value 

 of the public resources so utilized, as determined reasonably and 

 equitably on accepted business principles. 



A CONSTRUCTIVE FOREST POLICY NEEDED. 



The difficulties against which the farmers of the country are strug- 

 gling to-day are dovetailed with the need for a constructive program 

 to increase the production of timber. Many agricultural products 

 do not bring a fair return upon the capital and labor employed in 

 their production, and cultivation is contracting on many areas of 

 the less fertile or more poorly situated land. At the same time, the 

 country is rapidly draining down its diminished supply of timber 

 and adding to the area of idle, cut-over lands which have no possible 

 agricultural utility. The disposal of logged-oif land is becoming a 

 more and more serious problem to its owners, while to the public 

 the economic retrogression resulting from idle land and the burdens 

 resulting from the shortage of timber supplies grows more for- 

 midable. 



The relative requirements of the country for farm and forest 

 products call for maintaining a forest area approximately equal 

 to the present total, including second-growth, burned, and cut-over 

 land and abandoned farms in timber-growing belts. The cost of 

 forest products, already oppressive, is mounting. Our present sup- 

 plies of merchantable timber are fast diminishing. Our stock of 



