FORESTRY IN RELATION TO LAND ECONOMICS 



By W. D. Sterrett,^ 



Forest Examiner, U. S. Forest Service 



INTRODUCTION 



It is desired to emphasize in this paper the subject of classification 

 of land resources from the standpoint of its economic utilization as 

 ftirnishing a good point of view from which to further the develop- 

 ment of forestry by public forest agencies. As the primary require- 

 ment for the growing of forests is land, the first step, theoretically, 

 toward securing the practice of forestry on any land would seem to 

 be its classification as economically best suited for timber growing. 

 In order to make such a classification most effective, it should be in 

 agreement with the owner's judgment, after an intelligent review of 

 the facts for himself. The owner would then be satisfied to put the 

 land to work growing forest, and enter into forestry work with sin- 

 cerity and earnestness of purpose. Would not this method of securing 

 forestry on private lands possibly be more rational and practicable 

 than to attempt to secure compulsory forestry on privately owned 

 timberlands? Land classification with special reference to lands for 

 timber growing, including land for public as well as private forests, 

 seems to me to form an important line of work for public agencies 

 charged with the development of forestry. 



Many of our foresters agree with the thesis of the agriculturist that 

 it is gross misuse of the land to grow forests on possible agricultural 

 land. The error of this point of view will be shown later. A State 

 forester, with whom the subject of land classification was discussed, 

 who had given the matter considerable thought, expressed the opinion 

 that such work would be detrimental to forestry development. He 

 said that owners of rough mountain land in a certain section of his 

 State were claiming it all to be the fine5t kind of land for fruit growing, 

 and it would be disastrous to the cause of forestry for him to attempt 

 to classify any of it as land economically best fitted for timber growing, 



^ Including comments by Dr. L. C. Graj\ 

 224 



