1486 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 



and soil were unlimited and indestructible, has created a situation 

 which requires immediate attention. A part of the solution lies in 

 the reclamation of such land through forest planting. No other 

 practical measure will restore a large part of these lands to usefulness 

 within a reasonable period. A few examples will indicate the char- 

 acter of some of the changes in the condition of land and the oppor- 

 tunities for reclamation through forestation. 



There are some 5 million acres of abandoned farm land in the 



Eiedmont region of the South so badly eroded that, according to data 

 x>m the Bureau of Chemistry and Soils, and State agencies, success- 

 ful agriculture is impossible. The exposed subsoil is incapable of 

 producing satisfactory yields of farm crops and is susceptible to 

 further erosion, adding more detritus to stream channels and water 

 supplies. It will, however, support tree growth and can eventually 

 be successfully forested by planting. One million acres of the silt 

 loam uplands of northern Mississippi is seriously and actively erod- 

 ing, as disclosed by surveys by the Southern Forest Experiment 

 Station. In the Central region 74 million acres (or 44 percent of the 

 whole region) is eroding, some 10 million acres to a destructive degree, 

 according to a summary of State soil surveys and other data gathered 

 by the Central States Forest Experiment Station. 



Roscommon County in the southern peninsula of Michigan, with 

 an ^area of more than 300,000 acres, formerly bore splendid northern 

 white pine timber that contributed its part to the one-time supremacy 

 of Michigan in lumber output. A comprehensive survey by the 

 State about 10 years ago showed that there was in this county less 

 than 2,000 acres of land in actual cultivation. Much of the land is 

 clearly devastated and the rest has but a scattering stand of low 

 value species. The land that bore good stands of northern white 

 pine is now in many cases incapable of growing a commercial stand 

 of this species. The sandy soil through wind erosion and repeated 

 fires has in many instances lost its fertility and must be rebuilt 

 through rotations of jack pine or inferior species. 



The people of New York State reached a decision in 1929 to refor- 

 est one million acres, of the 4 to 5 million acres of farm land that 

 had been abandoned since 1880, a considerable part of which had 

 not restocked naturally. 



These examples do not by any means represent the whole of the 

 problem but are indicative of a need for forestation so widespread 

 as to be of primary national importance. 



The area of land, including nonproductive forest land and per- 

 manently idle agricultural land, which is available for forestry is 

 shown by regions in table 1. Much of this land will, however, 

 restock to forest naturally within a reasonable period. A number 

 of other factors to be discussed later will still further reduce the 

 amount of this land which common sense would set up as the mini- 

 mum for reclamation by planting. 



