A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 1357 



purposes land that seems to be suitable for no other purpose than 

 timber growing, or for timber growing in connection with other 

 services that a productive forest can render. Future supplies of 

 merchantable timber need not be sacrificed in hasty efforts to liqui- 

 date the entire forest wealth of the country. Wood, a resource of 

 basic importance in a wide variety of uses and one that is indefinitely 

 renewable, can be kept available for the American public, thus 

 insuring the advantage of possessing an abundant raw material 

 upon which to draw both in normal times and in national emergencies. 



Through assured markets for forest products, hundreds of thousands 

 of workmen will be benefited both by a continuing wage and by the 

 social values of employment in a settled location. Huge investments 

 of capital in timber lands and industries can be kept productive. 

 Local governments can be assured a steady basis of tax revenues, and 

 States and communities can benefit from a continuing source of 

 wealth. A vital problem of farm land can be solved. In farm wood- 

 lands there are over 126 million acres, an area nearly one fourth 

 as great as the acreage of improved farm lands. 



Beyond and in addition to the foregoing, there is one consideration 

 that alone would justify public interest in the broadening and stabili- 

 zation of forest markets. This is the investment that the Govern- 

 ment has at stake in its 140,000,000 acres of national forests in the 

 United States. With an ownership of more than 550 billion board- 

 feet of timber, worth, at a conservative estimate, half a billion dollars 

 on the stump, every 10 cents per thousand feet change in stumpage 

 value means a $50,000,000 change in the value of these holdings. 

 And stumpage values, of course, will go up or down as markets for 

 forest products go up or down. 



ACTION PROPOSED AND RECOMMENDED 



In the effort to hold, recapture, and expand the market for forest 

 products, definite accomplishment along four distinct lines is impera- 

 tive: First, a lowering of costs to the consumer; second, an increase 

 in satisfaction in the use of the products through improvement of 

 properties and qualities; third, the development of new products or 

 modified products; and fourth, the promotion of popular acceptance 

 and use of the products by all legitimate contributory means that may 

 be effective. 



Fortunately, there are many favorable opportunities for such efforts. 

 In the first place, markets for forest products have been proving un- 

 profitable or unsatisfactory, at least in part, because of improper 

 selection of material, improper preparation for use, and improper 

 design of the commodity or structure, and not because the material 

 lacked the intrinsic properties desired. In the second place, chiefly 

 because of an abundance of raw material, the forest-using industries 

 have in the past utilized only from one third to one half of the actual 

 material grown or available on the stump. The remaining one half to 

 two thirds, which costs as much to grow as the portion heretofore 

 used, has been put to no economic use. This so-called waste material 

 holds great possibilities for the production of commodities which can 

 return an added profit to the production costs of stumpage. Further, 

 for any given production, efficiency in utilization means reduction in 

 forest cut. Such reduction of cut becomes at once translated into 



