A NATIONAL PLAN" FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



1273 



million acres now so devoid of forest values, owing to destructive 

 logging and fires, that before it can again produce a forest income it 

 must be planted with trees and protected against fire and other 

 destructive agencies for 25 to 100 years. 



Even with liberal public assistance in planting and protection, the 

 cash expenditures needed to restore realizable crops on the "poor to 

 nonrestocking " areas, and the period of waiting for a cash income, 

 make the bulk of such lands exceedingly unattractive for private 

 ownership. Public ownership of one kind or another appears in- 

 evitable for a very large part of this acreage. Whether it is pur- 

 chased, or whether the public agencies wait to acquire the land 

 through the slow process of tax-delinquency, the eventual outcome 

 is likely to be the same. It will come into public ownership because 

 nonproducing forest land is a liability to private owners and neither 

 eventual possibilities nor immediate public assistance are likely to 

 offset this stubborn economic fact. 



TABLE 6. Possible future distribution of ownership on the basis of present condi- 

 tion of private land (other than farm woodland) 



About 125 million acres of the privately owned forest land other 

 than farm woodland has been cut over but has a partial reserve of 

 unmerchantable trees and young growth or trees of cordwood size. 

 The stocking varies greatly, and the attractiveness of this class of 

 forest land as a permanent private ownership opportunity varies 

 just as widely. On millions of acres of pine land in the South, for 

 example, cash returns can be obtained when even a partial forest 

 stand is both young and small. Naval stores, posts, poles, and pulp- 

 wood can be sold readily, and most of the land is readily accessible 

 so that scattered trees and products can be harvested. 



In much of New England likewise an income can be obtained 

 from the young, partially stocked forests through sale of cordwood, 

 posts, poles, and other special products of small trees. Under such 

 circumstances, and where markets are close at hand, many of the 

 partly stocked forest lands offer a possible or even an attractive 

 return to the private owner. In most of the West, on the contrary, 

 partially restocked forest land offers little opportunity for current 

 returns through sale of forest products obtainable from small trees. 

 Until the trees reach saw-timber size, the owner must pay carrying 

 and protection costs without in the main realizing any current income. 

 Transportation charges make it uneconomic to harvest such products 

 as cordwood and posts. 



