A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 115 



FORESTRY THE BEST USE FOR LARGE AREAS OF LAND 



During the pioneer period many scores of millions of acres of pro- 

 ductive farms were carved out of forests. Originally, nearly all of 

 the land east of the Great Plains was forested, and the pioneer farmer 

 necessarily acquired a farm by destroying the forest. Thus the idea 

 became firmly intrenched that all, or nearly all, forest land was suit- 

 able for agriculture after the forest was removed. As extensive 

 lumbering operations spread in the Lake States and the South it 

 was generally believed that agriculture would permanently utilize 

 the cut-over lands. Land colonization became an accepted sequel 

 to logging. 



Experience rapidly demonstrated, however, that on millions of 

 acres of forest land agriculture could not succeed. On large areas 

 in the Lake States, in the South, and in the West, the idea that any 

 kind of agriculture was feasible had to be given up. 



Meanwhile, there has been widespread abandonment of agricultural 

 lands which had been farmed for generations. The Northeast, the 

 Piedmont Plateau, the southern Appalachians, and the Ohio Valley 

 in particular have been the scene of widespread farm abandonment. 

 Reduced fertility or usability caused by erosion has -been a prime 

 factor in removing millions of acres of hill farms from cropping. In 

 those regions most of the cropped land was originally forested; much 

 of it is likely to revert to forest. 



The Bureau of Agricultural Economics (see section "Agricultural 

 land available for forestry") estimates that the following areas have 

 passed out of agricultural use since 1910, within those portions of the 

 eastern United States that were once forested and are available for 

 reforestation. 



Acres 



Cleared land on abandoned farms 25, 000, 000 



Idle crop land on farms -not yet abandoned 10, 000, 000 



Unused, nonwooded pasture land 15, 000, 000 



Total 50,000,000 



This does not include land which has come up to young timber and 

 is now classified as forest. Furthermore, the bureau estimates that 

 30 million acres additional will cease to be used for crops or pasture 

 between now and 1 950. PartiaUy offsetting this will bo land that may 

 be cleared for agricultural use. This is not likely to be a very large 

 area. Agricultural economists state that 



If these economic and technical forces continue to act as they did during the 

 decade 1920-30, it will not be necessary to increase appreciably the total area of 

 agricultural land or of crop land to provide the increased agricultural products 

 required by the expected increase in population. 



Agriculture evidently cannot be expected to utilize, either for crops 

 or for pasture, any large area of lands now in forest, so that in the 

 future it must be a case of forests or nothing. Constructive treat- 

 ment of the agricultural lands being abandoned and the lands now 

 forested will have to be under the practices of forestry, whether the 

 purpose is timber production, watershed protection, recreational 

 use, wild-life production, or some combination of these. 



