THE NATIONAL FORESTS 



157 



operations furnished markets, kept up roads, and gave 

 employment when the farm could be left. But with the 

 exhaustion of the timber, the devastation of the lands by 

 fire,, the abandonment of the logging roads, and the 

 moving of the industry to some new region, the farms, 

 too, were abandoned and whole townships depopulated. 

 It is the department's policy to make available for 



FELLING A GIANT WESTERN YELLOW PINE 



Since 1908 there have been taken from the National Forests five billion 

 board feet of wood and timber products. All this timber has been 

 cut in accordance with forestry principles. Young growth has been 

 safeguarded and a new crop provided for. 



settlement all lands which are chiefly valuable for farm- 

 ing. In order to open such areas a careful classification 

 is being made. Large tracts found to be valuable for 

 agriculture or unsuited for permanent Forest purposes 

 are eliminated. During the last five years about 14,000,- 

 000 acres have been released. In addition, individual 

 tracts are classified and opened to entry upon application 

 of home seekers. Since the work was begun more than 

 1,900.000 acres have been made available for the benefit 

 of 18,000 settlers. 



In short, lands within the Forests really adapted to 

 agriculture are being occupied as homesteads under favor- 

 able conditions. While the lands suited to settlement 

 are classified and opened to entry, those which are not 

 chiefly valuable for agriculture are retained in public 



ownership. The alienation of timberlands under condi- 

 tions that will lead not to settlement but to speculation 

 and to increasing the holdings of private timber owners 

 would defeat the very purposes for which the Forests 

 were established. 



The real agricultural problem within and near the For- 

 ests is to make possible the successful occupancy and de- 

 velopment of the lands that already have been opened 

 to entry or actually patented. The mere private owner- 

 ship of land does not insure successful use of it. In 

 Oregon and Washington alone there are about 3,000,000 

 acres of logged-off land, much of it agricultural in char- 

 acter, now lying idle. In this condition speculative hold- 

 ing of the land for higher prices plays a large part. An- 

 other cause is the lack of transportation facilities. A 

 settler may clear land and raise crops upon it, but he is 

 helpless if he cannot market them. There are great 

 areas of fertile land unused today on this account. In 

 many sections near the National Forests pioneer condi- 

 tions still exist. The population is small and the task 

 of road building is beyond the means of the residents. 

 There is little or no demand for timber and the receipts 

 from the Forests which go to the community are small. 

 The fact that the public property is not subject to taxa- 

 tion makes such communities feel, and very justly, that 

 the Forests are not contributing enough to local devel- 

 opment. This situation should be changed. Assistance 

 should be given in the building of roads to bring into pro- 

 ductive use the resources of such regions. 



Two of the 155 National Forests are in Alaska. The 

 Tongass comprises approximately 15,000,000 acres in 

 southeastern Alaska, while the Chugach, covering the 

 timbered area about Prince William Sound and thence 

 westward to Cook Inlet, contains about 5,500,000 acres. 

 The volume of timber on the two Forests is estimated to 

 be between sixty and eighty billion board feet, about 

 one-eighth of the total estimated quantity on all the 

 Forests. In accordance with the general principle of 

 organization adopted for all the Forests, but to a greater 

 degree than elsewhere because of their remoteness, the 

 administration of the Alaska Forests is decentralized to 

 permit the prompt transaction of business and ready re- 

 sponse to the needs of the public. Approximately 40,000,- 

 000 feet of timber are cut annually under sales. Settlers 

 secure free, without permits, the timber needed for per- 

 sonal use. Mining locations are made as on the public 

 domain. Agricultural land is classified and placed at the 

 disposal of settlers. Every encouragement is given to the 

 use of lands for miscellaneous purposes. In some places 

 there is an increasing use of land for canneries, stores, 

 and other enterprises. 



FAMOUS ELM TREE CUT DOWN 



THE big elm tree in Independence Square, Philadel- 

 phia, said to have been planted by King Edward 

 VII of England, when he visited this country as 

 the Prince of Wales in 1861, was cut down a short time 

 ago. The tree had been dead for some time. 



