A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 1583 



there be forests ample in extent in each region to produce bountiful 

 supplies of cheap wood products for building, for the railroads, for the 

 factories, for fuel, for paper-making, and for national defense in 

 times of emergency, and that forests are indispensable assets for 

 stream control, for erosion prevention, and for those forms of recrea- 

 tion that contribute most to health and vigor. They must learn 

 that our depleted or cut-over forest lands are capable of growing 

 finer forests under reasonable care than the original virgin forests 

 their forebears knew, and that with skill and knowledge these forests 

 can be grown and harvested with greater profit to the grower and 

 still offer forest products to the consumer at a price within his reach. 

 They must be led to understand that the growing, culture, and har- 

 vesting of forest crops and the manufacturing of forest products 

 presents a great opportunity to put men to work and to provide 

 livelihood for millions that have been or may be crowded out of 

 industry by the advance of mass production and labor-saving 

 machinery. When the general public has been educated along these 

 lines, then and only then will the business of growing successive 

 crops of timber receive that support, material and moral, that is 

 necessary to a reasonable degree of success. 



One or more, and frequently all, of the three classes here referred 

 to as subjects for forest extension are found in every section of the 

 United States. It will hardly be possible, of course, to reach them 

 all directly or to educate all who need educating. It is not necessary 

 that each individual be reached. The knowledge of correct forest 

 culture will gradually spread far beyond the direct influence of 

 extension agents and eventually become a part of common knowledge, 

 just as improved agricultural practices are adopted into common use 

 among farmers. No great army of forest extension workers will be 

 necessary to develop the project and carry out the extension mission, 

 provided that a certain amount of organization and coordination is 

 attained and careful plans are made and followed out with skill, 

 determination, and enthusiasm. 



The following is a conception of the organization needed to start 

 the work; such an organization would possibly be sufficient for the 

 next 10 years, after which time the situation should be reappraised 

 and the work adjusted to the needs as found. 



ORGANIZATION OF PROPOSED EXTENSION WORK 



FARM FORESTRY EXTENSION 



To expand the forestry extension work with farm woodland owners, 

 the logical thing to do is to enlarge and strengthen the work now 

 being done by the State agricultural colleges under the Clarke- 

 McNary Act and the Agricultural Extension Service of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture in cooperation with the Forest 

 Service. The expansion of effort should not be uniform over the 

 country but should be based upon the needs of the farmers in the 

 various States for advice and technical information, upon the aid 

 they are already receiving from other sources, and upon the relative 

 importance of the woodland on the farms as a source of revenue in 

 other words, the States in the regions of most profitable forestry with 

 the greatest number of farm woodlands would receive the most 

 attention. 



