903 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



Stimulate action by the States, and to bring into harmony the efforts 

 of the different States. In the problem of private forestry, the 

 Government would work through and in cooperation with the States. 

 The legislation affecting the private owner in the matter of protection 

 and continuance of forests should be by the States. The Government 

 should help the States in formulating plans and developing methods 

 and should give direct assistance in carrying them out. The assistance 

 offeree! by the Government should be contingent upon the States taking 

 legislative and administrative action to provide for the protection and 

 renewal of their forests. 



A national policy must recognize the problems of the private owner 

 of forests. Greater security of forest property from fire, better 

 returns from timberland in the long run, and more stable industrial 

 conditions must be sought. A program in which the public partici- 

 pates and recognizes industrial problems, like taxation, would enable 

 private proprietors to handle their forests in a way that would result 

 not in a public injury but in making these forests serve in Iniilding up 

 the localities in which they are situated. 



PUBLIC FORESTS 



There should be an extensive program of public forests, owned by 

 the Nation, by the States, by municipalities, and, too, by quasi-public 

 institutions and organizations. The public forests today comprise 

 about 25 per cent of the total forest area of the country. They should 

 be extended to include ultimately from 40 to 50 per cent. 



In any plan of extensive public holdings, whether Federal or State, 

 provision should be made for returning to the communities a share of 

 the receipts, as is done in the case of the National Forests, or for other- 

 wise compensating them for withdrawing the lands from taxation. 



The Federal Government should not only provide adequate support 

 properly to protect and develop its forest properties ; it should also 

 rehabilitate, by planting if necessary, the depleted and wasted cut-over 

 and burned lands. 



National Forests 



The Federal holdings should be extended by purchase, by exchange 

 of stumpage for land, and by placing under permanent administration 

 forest lands now in the unreserved public domain. 



The program of acquisition should seek two classes of forest land : 



