A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 51 



Depending on the rate and extent of public acquisition, the public 

 share of the total might be about 19.5 million acres, costing about 

 $151,500,000. The private owners' share would be 5.5 million acres, 

 costing $20,500,000. 



ENLARGING THE CONSUMPTION OF FOREST PRODUCTS 



In the United States until recent years wood has been the accepted 

 material for a great variety of purposes and especially for general 

 building construction. 



Uses long held by wood are, however, being contested by old 

 materials refined by science and by new materials of scientific origin 

 promoted aggressively with the aid of intensive technical knowledge 

 of their properties and the requirements for their use. Since 1907 

 there has been a declining trend in lumber markets. The use of 

 wood for fuel has also decreased. The declines have not been offset 

 by increased use for such purposes as pulp and paper. 



The increasing interchangeability of materials may be expected to 

 bring about the decreasing use of almost any material which attempts 

 to rest its case solely on past importance. 



The productive use of a large part of our forest land for timber 

 growing is so important to the people of the United States that a 

 balanced program in forestry must include aggressive and persistent 

 efforts to retain, recapture, and expand markets for wood. Efforts 

 of this kind offer in part at least the solution to such problems as the 

 existing overproduction in the lumber industry. 



A much fuller use in the future than in the past of the modern com- 

 petitive methods followed for other materials is required. Accom- 

 plishments along four lines are necessary : lower costs to the consumer, 

 increased satisfaction in use through fuller understanding of or im- 

 provements in properties, the development of new or modified prod- 

 ucts, and the promotion of use. 



Among other things, greater industrial efficiency in logging, manu- 

 facture, distribution, and merchandising are involved. So also is the 

 integration of forest industries. 



Research can be made to contribute to most if not all of these ends 

 through better understanding of the properties of wood and how they 

 can be modified, and of how best to meet the requirements for ex- 

 ceedingly varied use. It can also contribute through the develop- 

 ment of new and valuable products. 



The distinct possibility that world markets in the future may be 

 able to absorb any surplus, particularly of coniferous timber, that may 

 be grown in the United States does not minimize the desirability or 

 the necessity from the standpoint of the public interest if from no 

 other, for keeping wood in effective competition with other materials 

 in the United States. 



ADEQUATE WATERSHED PROTECTION 



Adequate watershed protection requires the improvement of various 

 phases of land management, the details for most of which are outlined 

 elsewhere. Such protection is particularly important on 308 million 

 acres of forest estimated to exert a major watershed influence, and on 

 the 141 million additional estimated to exert a moderate influence. 



