REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE. 71 



purchase. A third significant step was initiated by the same measure 

 in providing for limited cooperation between the Federal Govern- 

 ment and the States in the protection of privately owned forest lands 

 on the headwaters of navigable streams. 



The time is opportune for another forward step in national foi- 

 estry policy, whose specific aim should be to give the freest possible 

 play to the economic forces already tending to make timber a staple 

 crop on private land, so that the movement toward reforestation 

 as a commercial enterprise may attain all the momentum of which 

 it is capable. 



National assistance in private timber growing can be extended 

 most effectively in four ways, which might well form the major 

 planks in a new Federal law. These are: 



(1) Provision for nation-wide cooperation with the States and 

 private landowners in the protection of forest lands from fire, under 

 an equitable distribution of the financial burdens entailed. Such 

 cooperation should not be limited to the watersheds of navigable 

 streams, but based squarely on the national benefits of reforestation, 

 including the conservation of water sources. The maximum Federal 

 expenditure authorized for this purpose should be not less than 

 $2,500,000 per annum. 



(2) Provision for Federal cooperation with the States in investi- 

 gating the effects of prevailing methods of taxing forest lands, and 

 in devising forms of taxation which will promote reforestation with- 

 out inequity to other taxpayers. Tax legislation necessarily rests 

 with the States concerned; but nation-wide study and leadership in 

 this matter will be of the utmost benefit. 



(3) Provision for Federal cooperation with the States in growing 

 and distributing forest-planting material at cost or such other reason- 

 able rates as will promote forest planting by private landowners on 

 a large scale. The need for this form of public assistance is now 

 imperative. It is possible thereby to multiply by several fold the 

 present rate at which denuded lands are being replanted. 



(4) Provision for Federal cooperation with the States in exten- 

 sion work to teach and demonstrate timber-growing methods, with 

 special reference to timber growing on farms and other small hold- 

 ings. Here also a tremendous opportunity exists for rapidly increas- 

 ing the current rate of wood production in the United States. 



78007— AGR 1923 6 



