340 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



A second important question concerns the area, location, and dis- 

 tribution of forest lands, their relation to agriculture, and how our 

 productive land should be divided between agricultural and forest 

 crops. The most economic and profitable use of land is the founda- 

 tion both of agriculture and forestry. 



For the guidance of private owners as well as public agencies- 

 authentic data are needed on lumber values and the costs and prices, 

 of a wide range of forest products, Stumpage values afford one of 

 the best guides for the private owner in determining whether he 

 can grow timber profitably in various parts of the country. He 

 should have access to information showing the past history and 

 trend of timber values and their bearing upon the returns to be 

 expected from crops now being started. The cost of growing timber 

 and the prices of its manufactured products have an equally impor- 

 tant use in encouraging reforestation where it may soundly be 

 undertaken. 



As in agriculture, transportation is a factor of fundamental im- 

 portance in the whole question of timber growing. Transportation 

 costs from the present sources of supply may be the decisive factor 

 in deciding whether timber can be grown economically in any region. 

 This question in its relation to timber supply and forest-land use 

 has been studied but little and is only partially understood. Public 

 as well as industrial welfare demands much more complete and accu- 

 rate information than is now available. 



Timber and forest land taxation is another factor of fundamental 

 importance in private timber growing. The substitution of sound 

 and stable methods of taxation for the common haphazard and un- 

 stable system of ad valorem land taxes will remove one of the chief 

 obstacles to private forestry. While subject to State laws alone,, 

 research and leadership in the solution of forest taxation should be 

 provided by the Federal Government. 



The Forest Service now has a limited amount of work under way 

 on several of these lines. It has been possible to make some study 

 of the taxation question and to attempt the formulation of a timber 

 and forest land-tax plan which will make timber growing feasible 

 and at the same time meet the need of local communities for cur- 

 rent revenue. A publication covering the information already se- 

 cured is now in preparation. A preliminary study is being made 

 of the transportation question with particular reference to lumber. 

 A relatively small amount of data on stumpage values has been col- 

 lected from time to time, and these also will be made available as 

 soon as their character warrants. An investigation of the economic 

 effects of forest fires and forest-land devastation in certain States 

 has been under way for the past two years. An article in the depart- 

 ment Yearbook for 1922, entitled " Timber : Mine or Crop ? " pre- 

 pared during the past year, is a summary of the more important data, 

 now available in the Forest Service bearing upon the economic 

 problems of timber supply and forest-land use. 



RANGE INVESTIGATIONS. 



As a matter of business administration, it is quite as essential 

 that the forage resources of the national forests be maintained at 

 their maximum as that the timber resources be so handled. Each 



