898 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



In general, the annual cut of material from farm woodlands repre- 

 sents a sustained yield. In some regions, however, it is in consider- 

 able part made up of virgin or second-growth timber not being re- 

 placed in full measure by growth. Farm woodlands should be devel- 

 oped to sustain a larger output and larger local manufacturing indus- 

 tries. It is obvious from the above statistics that the proportion of 

 high-grade material cut is lower than it should be. Diversion of 

 considerable productive effort from other crops to forest crops would 

 aid in relieving agricultural crop surpluses. The regional conditions 

 will be discussed later. 



ADVERSE CONDITIONS AND PRACTICES ACCOMPANY- 

 ING THE LIQUIDATION OF PRIVATE FOREST LAND 

 INVESTMENTS 



UNWISE LOCATION OF MANUFACTURING PLANTS AND 

 CONSTRUCTION OF EXCESS PLANTS 



Economical utilization of forest products demands carefully con- 

 sidered location of the major manufacturing plants at points where 

 forest raw materials can be concentrated at low cost and the manu- 

 factured product economically distributed to market. It also demands 

 that no more plants be built than are necessary to utilize the produc- 

 tion. Sometimes, of course, there are reasons for building temporary 

 plants and for building plants disproportionate to the continuous 

 productivity of the forest. Gross overbuilding and consequent 

 wastage of capital both in building and in subsequent competitive 

 marketing have occurred in every forest region. Such losses have 

 been accentuated in late years, owing to the ease with which modern 

 industrial methods produce large output. 



Accompanying these losses, the taxation problem usually becomes 

 acute. Stimulated development entails the presence of more people 

 and hence necessitates more schools, roads, and public services than 

 will be needed permanently. This requires the levy of taxes beyond 

 the amounts necessary under sound development. Moreover, as 

 liquidation progresses the tax base becomes narrower, so that near 

 the end of the liquidating period it is difficult to raise the revenues 

 needed for the population which remains until plant operations cease. 



Poor location of plants, lack of integration, and excessive number 

 of plants requiring the same kind of raw material in one locality 

 contribute to losses discussed in the following. 



FAILURE TO COORDINATE DIFFERENT WOOD USES 



Wood uses in the United States cover a wide range of products. 

 Table 13 of the section of this report entitled "The Present and 

 Potential Timber Resource" shows 20 major items of wood use 

 requiring the cutting of 14,495,308,000 cubic feet of timber from our 

 forests annually. Of this quantity slightly more than one half is 

 cut for lumber purposes. As shown in the same table, additional 

 uses requiring saw timber sized trees bring the cut of saw timber 

 to about 70 percent of the average cut of the years 1925 to 1929. 



Of the cordwood material used annually, 35 million cords are taken 

 from trees under saw-timber size. There is no doubt that this 

 cordwood could be supplied entirely from the remnants of saw-timber 



