894 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 



forest soils are valued as high as $75 per acre, independent of the 

 growing stock they carry. In such cases they constitute a higher 

 percentage of capital investment than indicated above in the continu- 

 ous yield forest. 



The forest owner who extracts the raw material himself needs a 

 moderate amount of additional capital for equipment and operating 

 purposes. This is mobile capital, not necessarily tied up to any one 

 property, and need not enter into the present discussion. Where a 

 forest property is very intensively developed the proportion of invest- 

 ment in forest improvements, consisting mainly of transportation 

 facilities but including some buildings, may be greater than 15 percent. 



Where the forest growing stock has been removed, forest improve- 

 ments usually become valueless. The same is more or less true of 

 the forest soil. Attention from the standpoint of remaining capital 

 values in privately owned forests should be directed to the classes of 

 forest land shown in table 1 under the following headings : 



Poor to nonrestocking . Table 1 shows 74,346,000 acres in this 

 class of privately owned forest land. 1 From this the growing stock 

 has been entirely removed. The prospect of future income is so long 

 deferred that soil value, also, has largely disappeared. It is doubtful 

 that this area as a whole has 1 percent of the capital values necessary 

 for continuous forest productivity. 



Fair to satisfactory restocking. Table 1 shows 90,366,000 acres in 

 this class. Utilization of the young trees present by chance in so far 

 in the future that here, also, forest capital is virtually lacking. The 

 soil and trees together make up perhaps 5 percent of the capital 

 necessary for reasonably continuous productivity. Capital invest- 

 ment alone will not immediately restore them, since the time 

 requirement is inescapable. 



Cordwood areas. Table 1 shows 105,262,000 acres in this class. 

 Privately owned cordwood areas include chiefly areas that have been 

 depleted of saw- timber sized trees. They bear considerable stands of 

 young trees which, if protected and developed, will grow into valuable 

 timber. It is improbable, however, that their present capital value 

 exceeds 20 percent of what it would be if they were built up to fully 

 stocked producing forests. 



Saw-timber areas. Table 1 shows 126,265,000 acres of saw timber 

 in private ownership. Even in this class more than one half of the 

 privately owned area is occupied by second-growth stands that have 

 suffered seriously from fire, insects, disease, and general lack of care. 

 In regions of low precipitation, on extensive saw-timber areas the 

 rate of tree growth is too slow for profitable management unless other 

 resources are present. If private enterprise is to continue to func- 

 tion in the field of forest ownership, organized management of the 

 remaining privately owned saw- timber area is immediately essential. 

 If depletion of the forest capital (chiefly growing stock) in these 

 forests is at once positively discontinued the problem of restoring the 

 growing stock and productivity of associated depleted areas will be 

 vastly simplified. Very little outside capital will then need to be 

 brought in. 



Since current or at least little-deferred income is a necessity in 

 virtually all private business, timber that can profitably be cut in 



1 This total does not include the abandoned nonforested farm land mentioned in a preceding paragraph as 

 potential forest land. 



