038 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



only 54.4 per cent of our farm area is reported by the last census as 

 being "improved." In addition to the unimproved land now in farms 

 must be considered the areas of swamp and desert now available for 

 reclamation and that portion of the great logged-ofif country which is 

 truly of present agricultural value. This cut-over area has been esti- 

 mated at 228 million acres."' It might also be considered that the 

 average acre yields of American farms are greatly below those of other 

 lands, and that the possibilities of increasing farm products is currently 

 thought by most investigators to be less urgent than the maintenance 

 of fair prices for the crops now produced.-® Moreover, it should be 

 obvious that the chances for increased income per unit of produce are 

 vastly greater for forest than for farm products. Certainly it cannot 

 well be alleged that there is any economic need or justification for the 

 agricultural development of new low-grade lands. That there are very 

 great areas of such lands unquestionably suitable for timber production 

 is surely beyond all question. 



3. That nobody is able to classify undeveloped lands so as to segre- 

 gate land chiefly valuable for farm as against forest. This is, to say 

 the least, unreasonable, and simply leaves land classification to indi- 

 vidual judgment and the wiles of the landshark. As to the ability of 

 the individual to select only such land as will "justify a reasonably 

 prudent person in the further expenditure of funds and labor in the 

 development thereof,'"-^ official testimony is not at all lacking,^" or if a 

 typical case is required, Lincoln's will serve. Of his father's Kentucky 

 farm, he said :^^ "I remember that old home very well. Our farm was 

 composed of three fields. . . . One Saturday afternoon the other 

 boys planted the corn in the big field ; it contained seven acres — and I 

 dropped the pumpkin seed. . . . Sunday morning there came a big 

 rain in the hills ; the water, coming down through the gorges, washed 

 ground, corn, pumpkin seeds, and all clear ofif the field." 



The family finally moves to another State, where another homestead 

 was taken up. Then the family moved yet again, for "Any one who 

 has traveled through the portions of Spencer County (Indiana) in 

 which the Lincolns settled will respect Thomas Lincoln for his energy 

 in moving. When covered with timber, as the land was when he chose 

 his farm, it no doubt promised well ; but fourteen years of hard labor 



" Report Secretary of Interior, 1918, p. 14. 



-' F. C. Howe : "The High Cost of Living." 1918. 



" The criterion in the case of mineral claims. 



^'' See Dana, Commission of Inquiry. (Howe, loc. cit., et al.) 



" Tarbell, "Lincoln," pp. 17, 45. 



