CHAPTER I: FORESTRY IN THE UNITED 



STATES 



Forestry is the intelligent management of woodlands to 

 serve some definite purpose. Three distinct types of forests 

 result from working toward as many difi'erent objects, each 

 legitimate, and serving the country's needs. 



1. The Supply Forest is managed upon a commercial basis. 

 Its object is the production of wood, and Nature's resources are 

 bent to this end. How to get the highest grade of lumber of the 

 best kinds, in the greatest quantity and at the lowest cost on a 

 given area and in a given time these are the problems of the 

 supply forest. At the same time, the aim is to improve the 

 condition of the forest and to make it permanent and self- 

 sustaining in a physical as well as a commercial sense, paying 

 good returns for the cost of its maintenance. Such complex 

 problems tax the judgment of the wisest men. Action, positive 

 and aggressive, is demanded in the supply forest. Beside it, 

 other types of forestry seem negative. 



2. The Protective Forest is maintained to regulate waterflow 

 on mountain slopes the headwaters of streams upon which the 

 fertility of the lowlands depends. These forests check tendencies 

 to flooding in the early spring and consequent drought in summer. 

 They prevent destructive erosion of sloping ground and damaging 

 soil deposits in the valleys. Such are many of the state and 

 national reserve forests, including those that hoard the water 

 for irrigation ditches in California and other Western states. 

 Water companies of great cities maintain such forest covers 

 over the sources of their supplies. 



Protective forests may be maintained especially as wind- 

 breaks in regions subject to damaging winds, hot or cold. Bodies 

 of trees that drink up stagnant water, thus draining swamps and 

 reducing malarial troubles, may also properly be designated as 

 protective. Those whose balsamic exhalations improve climate 

 are in this class. 



3. The Luxury Forest ministers to the aesthetic and spiritual 



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