1582 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 



of the best possible quality, at the least practicable cost; and third, 

 how to harvest and market his output to the best advantage. 



OWNERS AND MANAGERS OF INDUSTRIAL FORESTS AND USERS 

 OF FORESTS PRODUCTS 



The possibilities in improved forest management and practice in 

 industrial forests are greater than in any other class of ownership, 

 because almost universally they comprise the best sites and have been 

 selected for advantageous harvesting and marketing of the products. 

 The first task of forestry extension with respect to the industrial 

 forest owner is to point out the increased financial returns that may 

 be obtained from his investment through an application of better 

 methods of timberland management and improved utilization of 

 stumpage. In the great naval stores region of the South, for instance, 

 the owner, through comparatively simple and inexpensive measures, 

 including fire control, thinning crowded stands of saplings, and proper 

 turpentining methods, may easily increase the net returns from his 

 operations and supply himself at the same time with a sustained 

 yield of timber, growing as fast as it is used. A few experienced 

 extension men working in the naval stores belt could in a few years 

 very materially increase the number of owners actively practicing 

 forestry to their own advantage and to the advantage of the region, 

 the State, and the Nation. 



The second step of extension is to supply to owners whose active 

 interest has been enlisted the available information that has been or 

 is being established by research and by the practice of others bear- 

 ing on problems at hand, and to interpret this information for direct 

 application. 



Users of forest products should be educated along lines of utiliza- 

 tion of all parts of the tree to prevent waste, the merits of different 

 wood products for different purposes, the use of wood in competition 

 with substitutes, and the extension of wood products into new fields 

 of use. These aspects of utilization are more fully treated in the 

 section dealing with increased consumption of forest products. 



THE GENERAL PUBLIC 



To make substantial progress in extending better forestry practice 

 there must be a much more general appreciation of what forestry is, 

 what it can do and how it fits into the economic scheme of things. 

 Until public leaders know more about it, there will always be dif- 

 ficulty in securing such legislation affecting protection, taxes, gov- 

 ernmental aid, and other objects as may be essential to favorable 

 development. Unless law-enforcement officers and State and county 

 administrative officers are informed and appreciative, and unless the 

 general public cooperates with them, forestry will not receive that 

 degree of protection and fair treatment necessary for success. Bank- 

 ers and others handling or controlling large quantities of capital, 

 much of which must be used in growing timber, must have a knowl- 

 edge of and confidence in the possibilities of forest culture and so 

 all along, to the man in the street and in the woods, whose careless- 

 ness with fire, largely due to a lack of understanding, is the cause of 

 tremendous annual losses. 



All classes of people must be reached and brought to understand 

 first, that it is necessary for community and national welfare that 



