104 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



felling and extraction, and a certain amount of rough manufacture. 

 The British Forestry Commission estimates that on the average, 

 forests in the planting stage require 1 full- tune worker for 100 acres 

 and forests in the productive stage, 1 worker to 50 acres. Including 

 hauling and woodworking, fully productive forests give work to 1 

 person for every 25 acres. 4 



The wide variation in the above figures is not surprising. Not only 

 is there great variation in the productiveness of the forests of different 

 regions, but the amount of work involved in timber growing'and utili- 

 zation also varies widely with the kind of timber that is grown, and 

 with the kinds of products that are made from it. 



IN THE UNITED STATES 



There is little information in this country to indicate how many 

 persons might be employed in developing and managing sustained 

 yield forests and utilizing their products. The Harvard Forest of 

 2,100 acres in Massachusetts, which has been under management for 

 25 years, employs 5 men all of the time and about 10 others for sea- 

 sonal work, or roughly one full-time employee for 250 acres. This 

 includes work in the woods and sawmill. In Maine, the Bates College 

 Forest of 1 1,300 acres employs 5 year-long men and about 35 others for 



Eeriods of 2 to 6 months in forestry and logging, or at the rate of one 

 ill-time man to 600 acres. This figure does not include sawing or 

 further manufacture of the lumber. The number of employees will 

 probably increase as the output of timber increases. A wood-working 

 industry wliich has been operating in the same locality in northern 

 Vermont for more than 80 years employs about 200 persons in har- 

 vesting and manufacturing the timber from about 8,000 acres, or at 

 the rate of one worker to 40 acres. A southern company which is 

 practically on a sustained yield basis cuts about 12,000 board feet a 

 day of second-growth timber. About 100 persons are employed dur- 

 ing most of the year. This is roughly at the rate of one worker to 120 

 acres. The State Forester of Connecticut has estimated that 500 

 men could be profitably employed for 6 months every year on the 

 63,000 acres of State forest. This is equivalent to one year-long man 

 for every 250 acres. 



A very rough estimate of the aggregate possibilities for employment 

 in American forests may be derived as follows: In 1929 there were 

 employed in forestry, logging, and wood manufacture an average of 

 1,300,000 persons. Including the part-time work of farmers, the total 

 was equivalent to possibly 1,500,000 full-time workers. The total cut 

 of timber (not including small trees cut for firewood, etc.) was approxi- 

 mately 54 billion board feet, or 36,000 board feet for each person en- 

 gaged in the industries. Our forest land, averaging poor and good 

 sites together, can probably grow timber at the rate of 100 to 150 

 board feet or more per acre per annum. At the present rate of em- 

 ployment this would give full-time work to one man for every 240 to 

 360 acres. Inasmuch as the present employment includes very little 

 silvicultural work, and since a considerable amount of work in con- 

 nection with the utilization of range and recreational resources is not 

 included in the above figure, it is possible that our forests when fully 



* H. A. Pritchard. Labour in Relation to Forestry in Great Britain. Papers presented at Third British 

 Empire Forestry Conference, Australia and New Zealand, 1928. pp. 689-600. 1928. 



