n8 FORESTS AND MANKIND 



much the board foot, if the product is timber, or so much a 

 cord if pulp wood or fuel. Ties and posts are valued at so 

 much per piece, or per linear foot. 



So the National Forests are just as much a going business as 

 a manufacturing plant for automobiles or radio sets. They 

 are manufacturing plants whose product is wood and this 

 wood, as soon as it is ready, is put on the market. Nothing is 

 held back except what is necessary to insure future growth, or 

 to protect the land. 



Not all the forest may be cut over. Spots of beauty about 

 lake shores, or areas where for one reason or another people 

 love to come for recreation such places are kept as natural 

 playgrounds and no lumbering may be carried on there. For 

 recreation is still another gift of the forest a very important 

 one and the Forest Service is working out a system of play- 

 grounds throughout the nation where people may come and 

 for a time breathe the peace of the woodland. 



The National Forests, then are lands owned and operated by 

 the federal government where timber is growing for the bene- 

 fit of all the people, and where forestry is to be practiced as an 

 example of what scientific methods can do toward raising con- 

 tinuous crops of timber. It is a very concrete and forceful way 

 of taking the leadership in establishing the practicability of 

 forestry as a business undertaking. It is showing what forestry 

 applied over large areas can accomplish. But the National 

 Forests cannot produce all the timber we are going to need. 

 They are not large enough and never will be. In the long run 

 one of their most valuable functions will probably be to serve 

 as great demonstration areas and by the force of example per- 

 suade states and private owners to place their own timber 



