1214 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 



they offer the best field for improvement of private forestry practice 

 and increase of production and hence are an entirely fitting field for 

 Federal aid. In many communities and in a number of the most 

 extensively forested States, farm woodlands are the major source of 

 raw materials for the wood-manufacturing industries. They supply, 

 in addition, a very large quantity of the fuel and structural material 

 that is used on the farms. They are thus a considerable factor in the 

 national timber supply, and their maintenance and improvement have 

 important interstate aspects. 



Farm woodlands may hold part of the answer to the national 

 problem of agricultural distress. They offer possibilities in the use 

 of labor on farms during inactive seasons, which commonly makes it 

 possible for farm owners to hold forest land and sell from it manufac- 

 tured or partially manufactured products, the receipts for which are 

 net, as against sales of products by owners of more extensive forest 

 areas, which entail a heavy expense for labor. 



Total annual public expenditures, Federal and State, for coopera- 

 tion in farm woodland management approximate $160,000 a year. 

 This is essentially an extension activity and is administered as such. 

 The funds provide for the employment of less than one field specialist 

 for each 3 million acres of farm woodland, or perhaps about one to 

 each 50,000 owners. ^ Under the plan of organization, the field speci- 

 alists, generally one in each State, work with the assistance of the 

 county agents, who are expected to carry on forestry as a part of the 

 general farm extension work. A large percentage of the poorer 

 agricultural counties, in which the acreage of farm woodlands is high, 

 do not employ county agents and so receive no assistance except what 

 may be extended by the State extension forester direct. In other 

 counties, owing to the pressure of other work, lack of training, or 

 lack of interest, the county agents frequently furnish little advice 

 regarding farm woodland management. While the results obtained 

 thus far are apparently commensurate with public expenditures for 

 the purpose, possibilities for greater returns through increased public 

 activity are relatively large. 



WOODLANDS NOT ON FARMS 



From the abstract standpoint of Federal interest in the growing of 

 forests and maintaining the supply of forest products, there seems 

 to be no reason why farmers, as one class of owners, should be favored 

 over others in assistance in woodland management. Indeed, the 

 large commercial owner might make more effective use of the assist- 

 ance given, since his management applies to a wide area. 



Fundamentally, commercial woodland management falls outside 

 the field of the agricultural extension system as now organized. On 

 the farm the woodland management is a part of farm management, 

 which involves many other activities. The farm woodland should 

 presumably take its place in proper balance with all the other work. 

 It was for this reason that administration of the Federal act was 

 placed in the Federal agricultural extension services, in order that 

 farm advisers in forestry should be fully acquainted with the business 

 of the farm as a whole. 



In other words, commercial woodland management falls more 

 particularly within the sphere of the Forester. From that aspect it 



