964 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



second class, those who are not farmers but nevertheless have other 

 reasons for holding forest land than the production of timber, are 

 probably less numerous than in the Central States since the mineral 

 area is less in this region. This class is augmented to some extent 

 by those holding land for recreational purposes. 



The third class, those holding timberland primarily for the pur- 

 pose of producing forest products, hold nearly all the commercial 

 forest lands in the region other than farm woodlands. This class 

 is generally characterized by uniting manufacturing enterprises 

 with timber holding. The union of these two types of enterprises 

 seems to encourage hasty liquidation of the forests rather than to 

 retard it. The large capital investment in the manufacturing 

 enterprise generally results in a desire to operate continuously to 

 keep the capital from being idle. Where these two distinct forms of 

 capital investment are kept separate, there is not nearly so much 

 pressure toward operating. The mill owner, not having so many 

 taxes and other fixed overhead charges to meet, is in a position to 

 restrict his operations to periods when some profit can be obtained; 

 and the forest owner soon learns by experience that it is good busi- 

 ness to dispose of sufficient timber in times of active demand to 

 create financial reserves sufficient to carry him through periods 

 of low demand. The forest owner of necessity takes constant 

 note of the movement of stumpage prices. This is greatest during 

 periods of change from depression to prosperity; at those periods, 

 therefore, accumulation of profit from holding stumpage is most 

 rapid. Obviously, disposal of stumpage or saw logs at the low point 

 of depression periods represents a large loss to be guarded against 

 where possible by preparing in advance for these contingencies. 



The following summary of reports by the Lake States Forest 

 Experiment Station indicates the extent to which forest owners 

 other than farmers are placing forest land under management. 



1. Fire protection, independent or in cooperation with States. 

 State-wide fire protection is furnished by public agencies in all 

 these States. Lumber companies provide special fire protection 

 for their logging operations and cooperate with the States in protect- 

 ing their lands. The region has one forest-protective association. 

 This association, in northern Minnesota, with State cooperation 

 maintains organized protection on 125,000 acres of timberland. 



2. Conservative cutting and other practices aimed at prolonging 

 productivity of the present stand. It is estimated that all but 4 

 of the 34 remaining large mills will be cut out in the next 12 to 15 

 years. This means that a sustained-yield policy was not considered 

 early enough. Selective logging, planting, and similar measures 

 are practiced to some extent. The exact acreage is not reported, 

 but 100,000 acres is mentioned as having been purchased by com- 

 panies to build up production of pulp wood. One company is pro- 

 viding sufficient acreage to yield a second cut. Plantations totaling 

 28,000 acres had been established by 1930. No definite plans for 

 sustained yield are reported. 



From this summary it is clear that of the huge area of privately 

 owned forest land very little is under any management looking to 

 continued productivity. 



