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Yearbook of Agriculture 1949 



tively. Several incomplete and not 

 wholly comparable estimates in the 

 aggregate indicate reasonably well the 

 size of forest-based employment. 



According to the United States 

 Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average 

 number of wage and salary workers in 

 the lumber and timber basic-products 

 industries gradually increased from 

 465,000 in 1939 to 716,000 in 1947. 

 The Forest Service estimated that, in 

 July 1944, 356,000 workers were em- 

 ployed in the woods and 509,000 work- 

 ers at plants that use rough timber 

 products, such as round logs or bolts, 

 poles, bark, crude gums. 



In 1946, it is estimated, there were 

 the equivalent of 3.3 million man- 

 years of full employment by persons 

 productively engaged in activities that 

 can be traced back basically to the 

 timber resource. If the concept of at- 

 tributing to one of the basic resources 

 a fraction of total productive employ- 

 ment is acceptable, approximately 6 

 percent of the national total man-years 

 of full employment in 1946 may be at- 

 tributed to timber-based industries 

 and trade. By a similar analysis, tim- 

 ber resources contributed 6.3 billion 

 dollars of wages and salaries to per- 

 sons productively engaged in 1946. 

 This is equal to 5.7 percent of total 

 wages and salaries in the Nation. 



The proportion of total national in- 

 come attributed to timber is slightly 

 less than corresponding proportions of 

 persons productively engaged or wages 

 and salaries paid; similarly, the pro- 

 portion of wages and salaries paid is 

 less than the proportion of productive 

 employment. These facts mean that 

 the wages and salaries paid to persons 

 engaged in economic activity attrib- 

 utable to timber are slightly less than 

 the average for all economic activity 

 and that other components of national 

 income also are below average in tim- 

 ber-based activities. 



From 1939 to 1947 in the lumber and 

 timber basic-products industries the 

 average hourly wages increased from 

 48.9 to 102.7 cents; weekly earnings 

 from $19.02 to $43.45; and weekly 



hours from 39 to 42.2. Great seasonal 

 and geographical variations are known 

 to exist in not only these items but also 

 working conditions. 



Managed forests improve communi- 

 ties: If the forest resource is to fulfill 

 its potential in building and support- 

 ing a strong economic and social 

 structure, it must be managed in the 

 broadest sense of the term. Mismanage- 

 ment of growing stock through con- 

 tinued utilization in excess of long-term 

 productive capacity leads only to forest 

 destruction and a boom-and-bust type 

 of community. 



On the other hand, an important 

 natural resource is unnecessarily wasted 

 if there are too few wood-using indus- 

 tries in a particular area or if they are 

 not diversified enough to permit full 

 utilization of the raw material com- 

 mensurate with leaving the land rea- 

 sonably productive and on its way to 

 producing another crop. 



A balance between the continuous 

 productive capacity of the forest and 

 the size, number, and kinds of wood- 

 using industries in a particular area 

 means permanent communities at a 

 reasonably high living standard. This 

 in turn means good schools, churches, 

 hospitals, service businesses, public 

 libraries, and other cultural, economic, 

 and social advantages. 



THE NATIONAL ECONOMY is an im- 

 precise concept. It is a synthesis of all 

 the factors that comprise the national 

 life. Its goodness is tested by things 

 that American citizens hold dear: 

 Security, high standard of living, prog- 

 ress, freedom, free enterprise, oppor- 

 tunity. The discipline of economics is 

 too restrictive to embrace more than 

 a few of the standards that gage the 

 national economy, but all too often 

 these are taken as the total. 



We have described so far some of 

 the varied contributions of the forest 

 resource to the national economy. At- 

 tempts to express the value of such 

 contributions in dollars are not only 

 impractical but also misleading and 

 undesirable because of their inade- 



