560 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



The analysis of the activity of the Forest Service, though brief, out- 

 lines its great constructive work during the first two decades of the 

 present century. In reading these chapters one cannot help expe- 

 riencing a feeling of pride in a public service which has done so well 

 and accomplished so much against harrowing criticism and opposition 

 on the part of would-be profiteers as welj as many Congressmen. 



The final three chapters deal with the results of our forest policy 

 and with a rational policy for the future. Emphasis is placed upon the 

 consolidation of privately owned timber in few hands, the power of 

 large holders, timber speculation and the so-called lumber monopoly. 

 Special attention is also given to price fixing, the instability of the lum- 

 ber market and the lumber industry and timber speculation. Atten- 

 tion is also given to the waste of timber and the failure to reforest 

 denuded lands. 



Taken as a whole the history and results of the United States forest 

 policy as characterized and discussed by Dr. Ise at considerable detail 

 leaves a bitter taste in the mouth of patriotic American citizenship. 

 As the author says, "it is a distressing story of reckless and wasteful 

 destruction of magnificent forests and a flagrant and notorious theft 

 of valuable lands." What the nation has been able to save from her 

 former abundance is due to the development of the idea of forest con- 

 servation and the momentum which it received during the 80's and 90's 

 and which flowered in the 'conservation movement of the early years 

 of the present century under the leadership of Gifford Pinchot. 



The least satisfactory part of the entire volume is the meager two 

 pages given to a national policy for the future. The story of our past 

 as characterized by an economist and historian does not lead to a 

 clearly stated forest policy which gives reasonable assurance of ade- 

 quate timber supplies for our future needs. Although the need for a 

 careful classification of all public lands is recognized, that only those 

 that are fit for agriculture be alienated, the author apparently does not 

 recognize the essential need of a forest policy under which all absolute 

 forest land both public and private be brought under sustained yield. 

 In the reviewer's opinion a forest policy adequate for our future needs 

 must recognize a great increase in publicly owned forest or the organi- 

 zation of privately owned timber land for sustained yield. The former 

 is only possible through a policy of extensive purchase by the public 

 of timber land now privately owned and the latter by a plan of coopera- 

 tion between the public and the private owner or possible mandatory 

 regulations which will make sustained yield attainable without undue 



financial loss to the private owner. 



J. W. T. 



