A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 1219 



into practical operation. Such service should be developed on a coop- 

 erative basis by Federal and State agencies in much the way as in the 

 case of blister rust; the method is discussed more fully under the 

 subhead Service Force for Control Application in the section covering 

 Protection Against Forest Diseases under " National Programs Re- 

 quired and the Responsibility for Them". 



PROPOSED FEDERAL AID IN LAND ACQUISITION 



Large areas of land throughout the country, and particularly in the 

 South, the West, and the Lake States, will apparently come into State 

 and county ownership for taxes now delinquent. Some of this land 

 can be sold again only for amounts less than taxes accrued against it. 

 Most of it is in too poor a condition to warrant serious interest in its 

 improvement by private owners. If it is held subject to resale, a 

 continuous impoverishment will likely result through purchasers 

 removing any values that have accrued and letting it again go for 

 taxes. Whether or not the States make provision for it, many of 

 them will be forced into permanent land ownership and management 

 designed to build up values, or else intermittent public and private 

 ownership with inevitable destruction of values will ensue. 



To accept the first alternative and avoid the second will involve 

 large expenditures of public moneys, which may be hard to find. 

 There may likely be large additional areas of land which through 

 adjusted taxes and public assistance can be held in a reasonably 

 permanent status of private ownership, but which for administrative 

 or other reasons should be publicly acquired. This can be accom- 

 plished through the Federal and State Governments acting inde- 

 pendently or through joint financing of the acquisition, the subsequent 

 management title resting with either agency. Programs of Federal 

 aid embodying this idea are now being prominently advocated. 



It is likely that the proposed Federal aid would stimulate State 

 expenditures for acquisition to some extent. It is also certain that 

 under present conditions the greater part of any Federal appropriation 

 made available would be taken up by those States which have made 

 most progress along forestry lines and which therefore are not in 

 greatest need of aid, unless provision were made for application of the 

 funds only to the States which have made less progress along this 

 line. 



The prospect as a whole is difficult and rather unattractive. Recog- 

 nition of the principle of Federal help to enable States to acquire 

 forest land might possibly lead to the thought that if it is proper for the 

 Federal Government to pay part of the cost, it might pay it all, and 

 this, in turn, to demands from States unable or unwilling to acquire 

 land that Federal properties be turned over to them if or when they 

 contain values that can be removed at a profit. Nothing is to be 

 gained through public ownership unless the public is prepared properly 

 to care for properties acquired, and the test whether it is so prepared 

 can well rest on its ability and willingness to acquire it by its own 

 efforts. 



FINANCING THE FEDERAL AID SYSTEM 



When the Clarke-McNary Act was under consideration, it was 

 assumed that with a Federal contribution of 25 percent of the cost of 

 fire protection, States and private owners would be able and willing 



