124 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



can be avoided by allowing the private owner to exploit his timber 

 first, the National Forest being allocated to later cutting budgets. 

 This is obviously sound finance, because the Federal Government 

 working under say a -i per cent interest rate can hold a dollar's worth 

 of timber 25 years for the same interest cost that the private owner 

 working under a 7 per cent rate would incur in less than 15 years. 

 Furthermore, taxes add to the private owner's costs. Since the public 

 must stand most or a large part of the cost of holding the timber, it is 

 advisable to allow the high cost holdings to be cut ofif first. No con- 

 cessions of this type should he made unless the land where the private- 

 ozvned timber is being cut is to be continued in production If not, it is 

 more in the public interest to have the private timber remain standing, 

 thus making the area function at least as a storehouse, while at the 

 same time the State benefits through the tax collector. It is clear then 

 that through this policy of cutting or withholding cutting from the 

 National Forest lands forming part of a forest unit such as we have 

 under discussion, the Forest Service possesses in many cases the key 

 to the situation. It can materially increase the value of the private 

 holdings without expense to itself by holding the public timber for 

 future operations of the existing plants. It can decrease the value of 

 the private holdings in many cases without legitimate cause for protest 

 by the private owner by throwing National Forest timber on the open 

 market. It can also hold forth future purchase of the private land as 

 an investment. It is my judgment, therefore, that in innumerable 

 cases the Forest Service can hold forth ample inducements to get the 

 private owner to enter into adequate co-operative agreements which 

 will insure continuous forest production on the forest units concerned, 

 including both public and private lands. If this be true then it is 

 clear duty of the Service to undertake it, because it forms an adequate 

 method of putting a large area adjacent to National Forests under 

 immediate management. 



TERMS OF THE CO-OPERATIVE AGREEMENT 



Among other details of a more minor nature, the co-operative agree- 

 ment should provide the following fundamentals. 



1. The exterior boundaries of the economic unit, part of which is in 

 private ownership and part in public, should be carefully defined. 



2. Fire patrol on the entire unit shall be organized co-operatively ; 

 the cost shall be borne pro rata according to the area owned by each 

 party to the agreement. 



