A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 1507 



Farm-woodland planting is of course in a special classification. 

 Here the justification for greatly enlarged effort is clear. Planting 

 stock in most States can be secured at cost, the work of setting out 

 the trees will usually be done during slack work periods with little 

 actual cash outlay to the owner, submarginal areas on otherwise 

 supermarginal farms are usually available, and the plantations will 

 have early value in improving living conditions and in furnishing 

 timber for farm use or for sale as a supplemental cash crop. 



Industrial planting should be stimulated by public aid of one sort 

 or another. Planting stock should be furnished at cost, advice in 

 planting and subsequent management should be made available 

 through enlarged extension service, seed-certification service should 

 be provided for owners desiring to grow their own nursery stock, 

 financial assistance in fire protection on a fair basis should be extended, 

 and an equitable method of taxation of reforestation lands should be 

 inaugurated in the several States. 



With such assistance and advice private owners will be encouraged 

 to extend the work being done in this field, particularly where the 

 planting of unproductive areas coupled with the leaving of a better 

 growing stock on cut-over lands will enable them to approach sus- 

 tained yield in their operation. Although farm woodland and indus- 

 trial planting might take care of 6 million of the 25 million acres 

 during the ensuing 20-year period. 



PUBLIC RESPONSIBILITY 



Public responsibility, aside from the forms of aid indicated to 

 stimulate private effort, had best be restricted to the planting of 

 public lands. A large acquisition program, both Federal and State, 

 seems inevitable in viewing the whole forest-land ownership situation. 

 A substantial part of the land may be acquired through land abandon- 

 ment and tax delinquency, a lesser amount through outright gift, 

 and the balance through purchase or exchange. Part of the land 

 acquired, because of the public importance of watershed protection, 

 will be land in need of immediate planting. The actual division of 

 responsibility between Federal, State, and local governments is con- 

 tingent on such factors as the ability of the various units to finance a 

 program as large as that to be undertaken, the extent to which water- 

 shed values are interstate in character and the degree to which refores- 

 tation will aid in the solution of local social problems. 



In arriving at the actual division given in table 9, the acreage for 

 farm woodland and other private planting was first determined from 

 the best available data on ownership conditions and the possibility 

 of permanent management of the land for timber production. The 

 Federal program was next set up by starting with the 20-year pro- 

 gram shown in table 8 and adding to it the planting which will be 

 required by the acquisition program set up elsewhere in this report. 

 The balance, for each region, was assigned to other public agencies 

 including the States, counties, and municipalities. While the area 

 assigned to the last group seems large when compared to that assigned 

 to the Federal Government it must be remembered that this grouping 

 includes 48 States besides a great number of counties and municipali- 

 ties which are or should be responsible for carrying forward a part of 

 the burden. 



