THE EXTENSION OF FORESTRY PRACTICE 



BY HENRY S. GRAVES, UNITED STATES FORESTER 



f I^HE year covered by the report of the Forest Service 

 for the last fiscal year was signalized by a new 

 movement for extending the practice of forestry. 

 More than 20 years ago the Division of Forestry offered 

 to give advice and assistance to private timber owners 

 who might wish to consider applying forest management. 

 The offer received a remarkable response and formed a 

 real turning point in the forestry movement. For the 

 first time forestry in the United States became something 

 which a business man could grasp and weigh on its 

 merits as a definite business proposal. This aided pow- 

 erfully in bringing the whole question of forestry, public 

 as well as private, before the country. But it did not 

 result in any widespread acceptance of the practice of 

 forestry by timberland owners. 



The failure of this early movement to get private 

 forests extensively under management was, however, 

 not immediate. The Division of Forestry made its offer 

 of cooperation early in the fiscal year 1898. By the 

 close of the fiscal year 1905 requests had been received 

 for the examination of private holdings, large and small, 

 comprising all told more than 10,900,000 acres of land. 

 Many requests were from lumber companies and other 

 owners of extensive timber tracts. On the strength of 

 the showing made by the preliminary examinations, a 

 number of these large owners entered into cooperative 

 agreements for the preparation of working plans. The 

 interest of the lumbermen was much increased by the 

 fact that the young foresters were able to show them 

 that they were losing money by certain wasteful prac- 

 tices. Closer utilization spread rapidly through the in- 

 dustry. Public interest in forestry and an intelligent 

 idea of what it meant became general. In the early 

 years of the present century it really looked as though 

 the management of forests as permanent productive 

 properties might be voluntarily undertaken by private 

 owners on a very large scale. Although many obstacles 

 were presented by the internal conditions of the lumber 

 industry, progressive lumbermen were giving much 

 serious attention to the possibility of engaging in the 

 practice of forestry. The chief stimulus was furnished 

 by the rising value of stumpage. 



The panic of 1907 radically changed the situation. 

 The lumber industry entered a period of protracted de- 

 pression. From that time or private forestry made 

 relatively little progress in the United States, except on 

 farm woodlands. While public forestry has made vast 

 strides, the forests of the country that are in private 

 hands are being depleted with very great rapidity, and 

 almost everywhere without effort to renew them. A grave 

 situation is becoming manifest in various ways. This is 

 why the Forest Service is now putting forth a new ant' 

 energetic effort to call public attention to the facts and 

 to propose a program that will afford relief. 



The problem presented is one that can be solved only 



50 



by public action. The general practice of forestry on 

 privately owned lands in the United States will not 

 take place through unstimulated private initiative. 



The magnitude of the National Forest enterprise and 

 the prominence given to its accomplishments have given 

 the impression to some that the problem of forestry is 

 under way of solution. In point of fact, this is by no 

 means the case, for the National Forests represent in 

 area only about a quarter of the forest area of the 

 country and less than that proportion of the actual 

 standing timber. Private owners therefore hold more 

 than three-fourths of the present timber supplies of the 

 United States. The amount of material which is actually 

 placed on the market from the National Forests amounts 

 to only about 3 per cent of the entire consumption of 

 the country. The rest comes from private lands. While 

 the proportion will be altered, the country must still 

 look to private lands for a large part of its forest sup- 

 plies. 



The rate of depletion of our forest resources is more 

 than twice, probably three times, what is actually being 

 produced by growth in a form which will be servicable 

 for products other than firewood. High prices of lum- 

 ber are not wholly due to the increased cost of labor 

 and materials. A part is due to the ever-retreating 

 sources of timber supply. Already the supplies of all 

 our eastern great centers of production are approaching 

 exhaustion with the exception of the South, and even 

 there most of the mills have not over 10 to 15 years' 

 supply left of virgin timber. Already the southern 

 pine is being withdrawn from many points as a com- 

 petitive factor and its place taken by western timbers, 

 with consequent freight charges which the consumer 

 must pay. Communities needing to build roads and 

 other public works which involve increased taxation are 

 often having brought sharply to their attention the 

 economic consequences of stripping off the forests and 

 leaving in their stead unproductive wastes of low tax- 

 able value now or in the future. These facts are re- 

 calling public attention to the effects of uneconomic and 

 wasteful exploitation of our forests in the past and to 

 the need of steps which will put a stop to the destruc- 

 tive processes and replace them with methods which will 

 build up rather than injure the country. 



The situation necessitates a broad policy of forestry 

 for the whole Nation which will include both an enlarged 

 program of public acquisition of forests by the Govern- 

 ment, the States, and municipalities and protection and 

 perpetuation of forest growths on all privately owned 

 lands which may not better be used for agriculture and 

 settlement. 



The proposed plan for realizing these objectives con- 

 templates cooperation between the Federal Government 

 and the States. The Government and the States must 



