924 JOURNAI< OF FORESTRY 



ing. Of this area, some 16 per cent is located in the mountainous 

 portions of the Eastern and Northeastern States ; 27 per cent is in the 

 Southern States bordering the Atlantic and Gulf ; 23 per cent is in the 

 Central States, including the northern portions of Michigan, Wis- 

 consin, and Minnesota, the mountain regions of Kentucky, Tennessee, 

 and Arkansas, and the farm woodlots of the Ohio Valley ; 19 per cent 

 is in the Rocky Mountain region ; and 15 per cent is in the Pacific 

 States, principally in the Cascade and Sierra Mountain ranges. 



Of this total forest area of 500 million acres : 



One hundred million acres and more are so devastated as to be 

 almost wholly nonproductive. 



Over two hundred and fifty million acres have been cut over and 

 more or less damaged by fire, but are producing new timber, usually in 

 small amounts. 



One hundred and fifty million acres are in standing timber where 

 growth merely balances decay, with no net increase in wood produc- 

 tion from year to year. On a large part of this area the virgin timber 

 is of poor quality and very inaccessible. 



Of the 500 million acres of forest land, 400 million, in round num- 

 bers, are in private ownership, and 100 million are publicly owned. 

 Most of the publicly-owned timber is in the National Forests, whose 

 total area is about 155 million acres in all. This figure includes lands 

 above timber line, parks temporarily deforested, old burns, etc., so 

 that the area actually under forest at this time is much smaller. 

 Because it is of poor average quality and hard to reach, it will be 

 many years before the National Forest timber can play any consider- 

 able part in the general timber market. 



Eighty per cent of our standing merchantable timber is privately 

 owned. 



Ninety-seven per cent of our annual cut comes from privately-owned 

 forests. 



By reason of their extent, quality, and location, the forest lands now 

 in private ownership have always furnished and must always furnish 

 the great bulk of the Nation's timber supply. 



It is the privately-owned forests, our chief dependence for the 

 present and the future, which are being devastated. 



A few men have secured vast amounts of private timber and timber- 

 lands. Already 1,802 owners control more than 79,000,000 acres of 

 the forest lands of the United States. In Florida, 182 holders own 

 more than 9,000,000 acres. In Michigan over 5,000,000 acres are held 



