FOREST SERVICE. 291 



for such bonds or by purchase with the money derived from the 

 sale of bonds, and the bonds can not mature before the time neces- 

 sary to grow a merchantable forest on the lands acquired. Wash- 

 ington has also adopted the policy of designating as State forests 

 the land it now owns suitable chiefly for the production of timber, 

 which totals about 800,000 acres. 



In Indiana a beginning has been made through the establishment 

 of a contingent fund for various public-forest activities, including 

 the purchase of land for State forests, the fund being used only 

 upon the authority of a committee composed of the governor and 

 certain members of the legislature. 



While these and other States are going forward in the extension 

 of public-forest ownership, the National Government is lagging be- 

 hind. The purchase of less than 81,000 aci"es under the Weeks Act 

 during the year marked the lowest ebb in Federal acquisition of 

 forest lands since the policy was initiated in 1911, with the exception 

 of one year during the World War. Over 4,500,000 acres should be 

 acquired to complete the program of protection on the watersheds 

 of navigable streams which has been approved by the National 

 Forest Eeservation Commission. There is also a strong demand 

 that the Federal Government blaze the path of forest restoration in 

 the big black belts of denuded land, where tree planting must be 

 employed extensively, by acquiring key areas as national forests. 

 Public sentiment is urging more and more that the National Gov- 

 ernment assume a larger direct part in reforestation, by the acquisi- 

 tion of land where reforestation is difficult or costly or where timber 

 production can be combined with the protection of valuable sources 

 of water. 



Private forest owners are giving more and more attention to the 

 growing of timber. Particularly is this so in the Northeast, w^here 

 economic conditions are the most favorable and protection against 

 forest fires in general the most complete; and it is true not only of 

 the large timber tracts but also of the farm woodlands, which com- 

 prise about one-third of our total forest area. Owners of cut-over 

 pine lands in the Southeast are beginning to appreciate the possi- 

 bilities for satisfactory returns from their second growth, and there 

 is a distinct movement initiated by lumber companies to solve their 

 cut-over land problem by classifying the lands and growing timber 

 crops on those not suited for farming. 



In order to place the timber supply for its business on a permanent 

 basis, a large manufacturing company has recently purchased several 

 hundred thousand acres of forest land in Michigan and Kentucky. 

 While harvesting the mature crop of timber, this company is leaving 

 the young trees and protecting the lands cut over. 



Lumber companies producing 65 per cent of the cut of redwood 

 in California have initiated a system of reforesting their logged-off 

 lands in which young redwood trees grown in nurseries will be 

 planted to the extent necessary to supplement natural reproduction. 



Recent years have seen a considerable expansion in the scale of 

 forest-tree planting. The stimulus has been supplied very largely 

 through the policy adopted by some of the States of distributing 

 young trees. Twelve of the States maintain forest-tree nurseries, 

 which grow, in addition to the stock for planting on State-owned 

 lands, about 12,000,000 trees for distribution yearly to private own- 



