A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 983 



sufficient, in conjunction with owners' capital, to enable forest owners, 

 forest workers, and forest-products consumers to take full advantage 

 of the great industrial opportunity offered by our forest resources. 



REVISION OF FOREST TAXATION 



Revised methods of forest taxation are discussed in detail in a report 

 now being prepared by the Forest Taxation Inquiry. 



FINAL MEANS TO INSURE CONTINUED PRODUCTIVITY 



The measures mentioned in the foregoing virtually exhaust the 

 means by which private forestry can be encouraged and facilitated. 

 Failure of these measures would necessitate resort to more drastic 

 measures. One of these is governmental regulation of the manage- 

 ment of forest property. The methods utilized in such governmental 

 regulation in various countries and the limited measures so far adopted 

 in this country are discussed elsewhere in this report. The other and 

 final measure is public ownership and management of the resource to 

 the end that a continuous supply of raw material may be available 

 to the forest industries. It is probable that stability will eventually 

 be obtained by a judicious distribution of private and public manage- 

 ment according to the economic and physical conditions present in 

 each locality. 



SUMMARY 



1 . Owing to the almost complete removal of the forest capital from 

 about 40 percent of the privately owned forest land and to very 

 material reduction on an additional 30 percent, less than 280 million 

 acres out of the 396 million acres of privately owned forest land in the 

 United States is capable of being organized into sustained-yield forest 

 properties from which annual returns can be expected immediately. 



2. Of this area 127 million acres is in farm woodlands and is man- 

 aged as part of the farm business. Improved practices are needed on 

 this acreage. 



3. Of the remainder about 2,300,000 acres has actually been 

 organized for sustained yield and an additional 15,600,000 acres is 

 being subjected to various measures designed to prolong productivity 

 in some measure. Beyond this, large areas are being partially pro- 

 tected from fire. 



4. The liquidation policy applied to private forest lands has resulted 

 in a costly waste of industrial assets. Wherever practicable, this 

 policy should be abandoned in favor of a sustained-yield policy, to 

 save the heavy costs of depletion and other losses. 



5. The selection system with short cutting cycles provides in most 

 forests an effective means of preserving and building up growing stock. 

 At the same time in most cases it increases current returns from forest 

 properties. 



5. The extent to which forest properties have been liquidated, and 

 the consequent critical state of the growing stock in most regions, call 

 for prompt action placing suitable forest properties under responsible 

 organized permanent management. 



168342 33 vol. 1 63 



