JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



Vol. XVII OCTOBER, 1919 No. 6 



The Society is not responsible, as a body, for the facts and opinions advanced in 

 the papers published by it. 



THE SEGREGATION OF FARM FR0:M FOREST LAND 



By p. S. Lovejoy 

 Assistant Professor of Forestry, University of MicJiigan 



Failure to secure the development of a rational forest policy for the 

 lands now waste and idle has been largely due to the assumption that 

 there is inherent conflict between the forest and the farm. This misap- 

 prehension must be removed before adequate progress can be expected. 



"Forestry" meets with little or no opposition save when it is pro- 

 posed for specified lands. When so proposed it almost invariably meets 

 with radical opposition. That somebody should somewhere grow tim- 

 ber as a business strikes most people as a wholly reasonable idea, but 

 that such things should be done near home at once strikes them as 

 bizarre. In this opposition there are three principal factors : 



1. The idea, still somewhat prevalent, that there can be no real short- 

 age in essential forest supplies. The last ten years has reduced this 

 attitude to the disappearing point, and it is no longer widely current, 

 even among lumbermen.^ 



2. A hesitancy to accept a new procedure. This is a perfectly reason- 

 able attitude and one which publicity of the facts constantly wears 

 away. The difficulties arising out of this item have not passed ; and, it 

 should be noticed, conservatism in all matters, especially those affecting 

 property rights, tends to be greatest among those living in the edges of 

 the world current. The "mossback" point of view is a very potent force 

 in the politics of most of our States and especially in the more back- 

 ward ones. 



3. The deep-rooted assumption, often an absolute conviction, that, 

 with rare and extreme exceptions, all land is or is about to become 

 "agricultural." 



^ J. H. Kirby to West Coast Lumbermen. Lumber Trade Journal. August 15, 

 1918, p. 23. 



G27 



