A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 1319 



of $2 per acre. Costs of acquisition will vary and will involve an 

 average expenditure of about $2.75 per acre for all lands to be acquired, 

 including those obtained through tax delinquency. 



COSTS OF PRIVATE FOREST MANAGEMENT 



Only meager data are available for estimating the costs of handling 

 forest lands held at present in private ownership. Forests in farm 

 woodlands are held incidentally in conjunction with farm land under 

 crops and ? excepting for taxes, ordinarily carry no financial burdens. 

 On many farm woods, however, a reasonable expenditure per acre 

 should bring a greater and more continuous return, making the wood- 

 land a source of sustaining reveune to the farmer and possibly con- 

 verting an otherwise unprofitable farm into a profitable venture. 



Conscious effort in the direction of a continuous and sustained 

 cropping of timber is made today on only a mere fraction of the total 

 forest land held in private ownership. The great bulk of the privately 

 owned virgin and even second-growth forest, as reported in other 

 sections of this inquiry, is being rapidly exploited under pressure for 

 immediate liquidation. Only in a few favored sections is there 

 sufficient interest among private owners to invest in forest lands as a 

 long-term enterprise. To practice forestry, whether by private or 

 public endeavor, requires immediate and continuous investments if 

 future continuous returns are to be insured. Rapid exploitation or 

 liquidation is incompatible with the long-term rotations demanded in 

 forest management and with the nonrevenue-producing periods which 

 must pass while depreciated areas are converted to productive forests. 



The costs that the private owner must consider in any intensive 

 system of forestry are as follows: Taxes, carrying charges, protection 

 (fire, insects, disease), silvicultural practice, stand betterment, plant- 

 ing. In contrast to the public owner, he need make no investment for 

 nonrevenue-producing public benefits such as recreation, although in 

 some parts of the East, where hunting privileges can be leased, costs 

 for game management may be justified. 



The possibilities for private ownership and management of forest 

 lands are discussed in other sections of this report. The costs for 

 private forestry must be determined for each property under one 

 individual ownership and general or average figures can be indicative 

 only. Where the convertible cash values on a forest have been largely 

 removed and a long period must expire before current incomes become 

 available, private ownership may not be attracted, even by the 

 prospect of large profits, if too long deferred. On the other hand, 

 where a property produces a steady current income, private enter- 

 prise may be attracted to make the necessary investments in silvi- 

 cultural treatment, fire protection, and capital investments, because 

 the current income can be made to carry expenditures. Some of the 

 more recent logging and milling studies show that what appears at 

 first hand as added expenditures for silvicultural treatment of a 

 forest may be in reality a blessing in disguise. Case after case has 

 been investigated where such treatment not only gives higher current 

 returns but offers the best opportunity for fuUy and adequately 

 depreciating heavy capital investments. 



168342 33 vol. 2 18 



