716 



Yearbook of Agriculture 1949 



set apart for parks and game preserves. 

 In present or potential productive- 

 ness, the forest lands of the South and 

 of the Douglas-fir region of the Pacific 

 Northwest are outstanding. Climate 

 and other factors there favor forest 

 renewal and rapid timber growth. 

 Those regions have 45 percent of the 

 commercial forest. 



It is too bad, but too little of the 

 commercial forest is producing as it 

 should. More than 75 million acres 

 one-sixth of the total is denuded or 

 is so poorly stocked with seedlings and 

 saplings as to be unproductive for 

 decades. In addition, 30 million acres 

 of pole timber, too small for sawlogs, 

 and 58 million acres of second-growth 

 saw timber have less than 40 percent 

 of the number of trees needed for full 

 stocking. Most of the denuded and 

 poorly stocked land is in the East; the 

 southern forests are the most deficient. 

 The idle land contributes little to 

 the maintenance of schools, roads, or 

 other community services. It supports 

 no jobs. In some regions it contributes 

 needlessly to destructive floods and the 

 siltation of reservoirs. Taxes, if paid, 

 must come from some other produc- 

 tive enterprise. 



It is reasonable to assume that the 

 acreage of poorly stocked land will 

 shrink as a result of improved fire pro- 

 tection and better cutting practices. 

 Indeed, stocking in the South is better 

 than it was a decade ago. Young 

 growth is springing up on millions of 

 acres now protected from fire a hope- 

 ful sign. Nevertheless, the United 

 States faces a huge job of planting to 

 restore the less favored lands to pro- 

 ductivity. 



Character of ownership is a funda- 

 mental factor in the forest situation. 

 Most private ownership is, properly, 

 motivated by financial gain. Seventy- 

 five percent of the commercial forest 

 land, generally including the more 

 productive and accessible, is privately 

 owned and furnishes about 90 percent 

 of the timber cut. In contrast, only 

 about 40 percent of the noncommer- 

 cial forest is in private ownership. 



One-third of all the forest land is 

 publicly owned or managed, but half 

 of this is noncommercial. The national 

 forests include the major part of the 

 public forest land. Placing the national 

 forests about one-twelfth of our total 

 land area under intensive manage- 

 ment has been hampered by remote- 

 ness and inaccessibility, by poorly 

 consolidated ownership, and by inade- 

 quate funds. Yet steady progress has 

 been made and these forests are con- 

 tributing increasingly to the economy. 



The nature of the ownership of the 

 345 million acres of private commercial 

 forest is largely the result of national 

 land policies that favored small-scale, 

 fee-simple ownership. Seventy-six per- 

 cent of the private commercial forest 

 is in more than 4 million small proper- 

 ties that average only 62 acres each. 

 The other 24 percent is held in proper- 

 ties of more than 5,000 acres each by 

 only 3,600 owners. Even in the West 

 more than half is in small holdings. 



Wood-using industries, directly de- 

 pendent on timberlands for their raw 

 material, own a surprisingly small part 

 of the private commercial forest. Lum- 

 ber and pulp companies together hold 

 only 15 percent, some 51 million acres 

 in all, mostly in large holdings. On the 

 other hand, the 139 million acres of 

 farm woods is the largest single cate- 

 gory of forest land. 



Farm ownership generally affords a 

 favorable setting for forestry, and pub- 

 lic policy has long encouraged farmers 

 to make woodland management an 

 integral part of the farm business. Yet 

 most farm woodlands are still mis- 

 treated, being subject to unwise cut- 

 ting, pasturing, and burning. Along 

 with other small holdings, farm wood- 

 lands are at the heart of the Nation's 

 forest problem. 



THE TIMBER RESOURCE for 300 years, 

 particularly during the past century, 

 has contributed richly to the develop- 

 ment of the country. Now we can see 

 the end of our virgin resources ; a tim- 

 ber shortage, the impact of which has 

 been deferred by almost 20 years of 



