8 THE BOOK OF FORESTRY 



town and city dwellers the forests owned by the nation 

 as a whole are open to the freest possible use. 



Future of Forestry. This splendid national storehouse 

 of timber, however, constitutes but one-fifth of the total 

 stand of the United States, therefore will have relatively 

 little influence in preventing any timber famines when 

 the privately owned forests have been exhausted. More 

 forest land should be acquired by the National Govern- 

 ment and already under the Weeks law over 1,000,000 

 acres have been purchased upon the headwaters of navi- 

 gable streams in the Appalachians and White Mountains. 

 The States should be encouraged to extend their hold- 

 ings of timber reserves, which now comprise only about 

 3,500,000 acres. Private landowners, especially paper 

 manufacturers and water companies organizations 

 with continuous existence should be shown the value 

 of forever keeping their wild forest lands producing 

 crop after crop of timber. 



One phase of timber production worth tiying in this 

 country is the raising of forests by cities and towns. 

 Thirteen States have already made a small beginning, 

 Massachusetts leading with a total of fifty-six communal 

 forests. In Europe many such forests are operated by 

 the villages, serving as a recreation ground and revenue 

 producer at the same time. 



The city of Zurich, Switzerland, possesses a forest 

 of nearly 10,000 acres, which yields a net revenue of 

 $7.50 per acre per year. Numerous other villages in 

 Germany and Switzerland may be found where the 

 revenue from the city forest pays a large share of the 

 running expenses of the city. 



Thus we see that in spite of the fact that forestry 

 had its humble beginning forty years ago and did not 

 begin to establish national forests on a large scale until 



