A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 1317 



size of the unit rather than for the fraction acquired. This means 

 that if 5 million acres are purchased in one year, protection must be 

 given to an area nearly twice its size, first to safeguard the acquired 

 land from encroaching fires, and then to prevent deterioration of 

 values on land subsequently to be purchased. Likewise capital 

 investments in improvements cannot be confined solely to the lands 

 purchased, but must of necessity go through intermingled and 

 adjacent forest property. 



There are other reasons for advancing expenditures for capital 

 investments with great rapidity on new purchase units. Time is an 

 essential factor in the national-forest program. Every acre imme- 

 diately placed in productive condition, whether for timber growth to 

 build up the national growing stock or for improvement of watershed, 

 will the more promptly return income and public benefits. Delay, 

 on the contrary, does not merely mean a deferred program. In the 

 process of delaying protection and proper management, the forest 

 property which is to come under public management is likely to 

 depreciate and deteriorate from neglect and abuse and the ultimate 

 costs to the public will be correspondingly higher. It is therefore 

 important to provide adequately for expenditures required in capital 

 investments and at least extend protection to the areas surrounding 

 the land already purchased and ultimately to be acquired. Table 

 4 gives approximately the area which is recommended for acquisition 

 and the appropriations needed for capital investments and current 

 administration for the first 5 years of the acquisition program. 



The following method was used in the calculations involved in 

 table 4: 



For the East: Capital investments needed are approximately $2 

 per acre, or for the entire area to be acquired $214,200,000. As 

 explained before, the rate of construction must be planned in excess 

 of the area purchased in any given year. It has been assumed that 

 in the first year 1 percent of the total needed in capital investment 

 will be made, 3 per cent of the total in the second year, 4 percent in the 

 third year, 6 percent in the fourth year, 8 percent the fifth and sixth 

 years, and thereafter at the rate of 10 percent per year until the capital 

 investment needed for the entire plant is completed. Direct current 

 expenditures for protection are estimated at 5 cents an acre, but pro- 

 tection must be applied to about twice the area actually purchased in 

 any one year until the entire acquisition program is completed. Cur- 

 rent administration, outside of protection, is estimated at approxi- 

 mately 5.6 cents per acre for the areas actually purchased; with, of 

 course, no allowance for privately owned adjacent areas. 



For the West: Capital investment per acre, as has been seen, will 

 not be as large as in the East, amounting to about $1 per acre, or a 

 total of $27,100,000 for the entire acquisition program. In the West 

 it is suggested that appropriations for capital investments be made at 

 the rate of 5 percent of the total the first year, increasing 5 percent 

 each year including the fifth year, 10 percent the sixth and seventh 

 years, and 5 percent the eighth year. Protection in the West need 

 only be applied to the areas actually purchased. The current cost of 

 protection and administration, which need be applied only to the area 

 purchased each year, is estimated at 10 cents per acre. 



