120 FORESTS AND MANKIND 



lands on a basis of perpetual productivity. Thus the lands that 

 the Forest Service is buying in the east and in the Lake States 

 can never add an important amount of timber to the nation's 

 wealth but it is serving as an incentive and as an example to 

 private timber owners. Only the wide-spread practice of for- 

 estry on private land can reach the ultimate solution of our 

 timber supply. 



The National Forest movement is giving reality to forestry. 

 That is its great contribution. Twenty years ago forestry in the 

 United States was an experiment. Today it is an established and 

 successful fact. Already one can point to tracts that have been 

 cut over, under Government supervision and are now ready 

 for another cutting. Already one can find where careful lum- 

 bering and fire protection is resulting in thrifty acres of healthy 

 young trees. It is a practical and emphatic answer to the ques- 

 tion so often asked, "Will forestry work?" 



Even with insufficient funds and scant scientific background 

 it is working on the one hundred and fifty National 

 Forests. It is working in regions as dissimilar as Maine, Cali- 

 fornia, Florida and Alaska. In fact, so far as our future forests 

 are concerned, forestry is the only thing that will work in the 

 long run. 



