VI LETTERS OF TRAKSMITTAL 



several forest regions as to constitute virtually a breakdown of 

 private ownership. Stability of tenure is one of the essentials for 

 timber growing. 



The overload of forest land and timber in private ownership and 

 the cut-out-and-get-out policy have led to excessively large capital 

 investments in manufacturing plants, high capital charges, pressure 

 to liquidate, overproduction, demoralized prices, waste of the raw 

 product, and large financial losses to the forest industries and chiefly 

 to the lumber industry. 



Transient forest industries resulting from the conditions described 

 have caused far-reaching and utterly demoralizing economic and 

 social losses to dependent industries, to local communities, and to 

 entire forest regions. The full extent and far-reaching character of 

 such losses has been but little appreciated. 



The problem of balancing the national timber budget centers 

 largely in private ownership because four fifths of the timber-growing 

 land with 90 percent or more of the possible growing capacity is pri- 

 vately owned. The practically universal tendency under private 

 ownership is to reduce the forest capital or growing stock below the 

 point where satisfactory growth is possible. The forest capital of 

 the entire East, for example, where 96 percent of the forest land is 

 still in private ownership, must be increased 2} times to permit 

 growth adequate to meet national requirements, but the current 

 drain from cutting and losses in the East exceeds growth by nearly 

 29 billion board feet annually. Furthermore, we must depend upon 

 eastern forest lands for nearly 85 percent of pur forest growth. 



The most critical factor in balancing the timber budget is the large 

 saw-timber sizes, which take the longest time to grow and which 

 now constitute 70 percent of the drain on our forests. Drain in these 

 sizes exceeds growth by five times. This deficit has been concealed 

 by the remaining supplies of virgin timber. But 80 percent of the 

 remaining saw timber and 95 percent of the old growth is in the far 

 West, and probably not much more than half is accessible and avail- 

 able under present conditions. The privately owned forest capital in 

 the West is being liquidated as rapidly as possible, and if present 

 processes continue, the same kind of a deficit will be created as in 

 the East and the possibilities of full growth will be reduced for many 

 years. 



Private ownership of forest or of agricultural land is responsible 

 for practically all of the critical watershed problems of the East and 

 a substantial part of those of the West. The result is unnecessarily 

 destructive floods, causing damages running into scores of millions of 

 dollars and the wasting away in a few years of the soil resource which 

 will require centuries to replace. 



The largest and most critical western forest range problem is on 

 privately owned lands where the forage cover has been reduced by 

 half or more over large areas. The eastern problem is almost entirely 

 one of private ownership. 



The forest land problem is aggravated by still another growing out 

 of private ownership. More than 50 million acres of agricultural 

 land, originally timbered, have been abandoned because they were 

 never suited for agriculture or because they have reached the sub- 

 marginal class from erosion or other causes. The land is now idle 

 and available for forestry. The area may become still larger in the 

 future. 



