A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 21 



etc., and then with refrigeration for dairy products, fruit, and truck 

 crops. Machinery adapted to use on level prairies has been devel- 

 oped. The opportunities in commerce and manufacture have at- 

 tracted people to the cities. The loss of industries such as lumbering 

 has led to loss of markets and to higher taxes. 



These complex causes have accentuated each other and tended to 

 make abandonment cumulative. The extent to which abandonment 

 will lead to tax delinquency and involuntary public ownership cannot 

 be forecast with any certainty. 



The economic and social results are of the same order as those 

 described under the private forest land problem and affect the entire 

 economic and social structure of local communities and even of entire 

 States. All of the unfortunate results react upon and aggravate each 

 other, so that the country no less than the town has its slums and 

 forgotten man. 



Some of the most critical erosion and streamflow problems in the 

 United States, as will be shown elsewhere, have resulted from the 

 cultivation of land unsuited for agriculture. Such areas probably 

 constitute a large part of the abandoned agricultural land class. 



The abandoned agricultural lands are often of higher potential 

 timber producing capacity than those now remaining as forest lands, 

 but even the forest productivity has frequently been seriously reduced 

 by erosion. 



The abandonment of submarginal agricultural lands constitutes 

 still another problem of private ownership of major importance. 



THE PROBLEM OF UNMANAGED PUBLIC LANDS 



THE FEDERAL PUBLIC DOMAIN 



Not all of the major forest problems are those of private lands. 

 The Federal Government has an unredeemed responsibility and an 

 unsolved problem in the forested public domain of the Western States. 



Although the public domain still includes nearly 175 million acres, 

 it is but a remnant, not much more than one tenth of the original 

 public domain, and naturally the area of lowest value from the private 

 standpoint. Of this remnant about 23 million acres are forest land, 

 including somewhat over 4} million acres of commercial forest. 



It receives at best only inadequate fire protection. It is given no 

 timber management. Unrestricted private use of the range has 

 reduced the forage cover over large areas to less than half its original 

 density and on some areas to practically nothing. The valuable forage 

 plants have suffered most. Under unrestricted private use it consti- 

 tutes one of the most critical erosion and flood problems in the West. 



No valid reason exists for delay in giving national forest status to 

 the larger part of these la"nds and thus insuring the necessary manage- 

 ment. The remainder should be placed under administration with 

 the public domain. 



An additional area of more than 2 million acres of revested Oregon 

 and California Railroad and Coos Bay wagon-road grants is forest 

 land. Management goes no farther than fire protection. The 

 timber may be cut without any provision for restocking. Under 

 existing law this land, after the timber is removed, is open to agricul- 

 tural entry for which it is unsuited; if the timber stand is light, it is 



