SECURING STATE FOREST LANDS 



BY W. M. HAYS 



ASST. SECY. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



^rtTE have been so busy with this national forest movement and with this 

 \I/ Appalachian movement that we have not looked forward, and we have 

 not thought that possibly we could have other quite as large movements 

 or nearly as large movements in this same forest promotion. I have a sug- 

 gestion along this line, which is, that by some means, the Federal Government 

 and the State Government co-operate in the broadest way in securing lands 

 that cannot be secured as Federal lands, but can be secured as State lands, 

 and that the Federal Government, possibly by paying a part of the interest 

 on the bonds, encourage the States themselves to purchase the lands. Broadly 

 speaking, there are something like one billion nine million acres of forest in 

 this country, of which less than a hundred and seventy million acres are 

 under the Forest Service. That is something like nine per cent. There are 

 somewhere from ten to twenty millions acres in the hands of the States; but 

 our Forestry Service could not give me anything like a close estimate, because 

 some of these lands have been purchased recently and some are on timber lands 

 that are ceded as school lands. 



If we could get some large area of fifty millions or a hundred millions of 

 acres, which would be one-twentieth part of the whole forest area of the 

 country, if we could get some large area purchased by the States, the Federal 

 Government paying a part of the expense, say, half of the interest on the 

 bonds for a given period of years, until the forest became productive so that 

 the States would have an income from them, it might be wise on the part of 

 the Federal Government to do that. 



There are many reasons for that, one or two of which I will mention. 

 For instance, suppose the State of Minnesota were to create the forest land ; 

 the profit would eventually go to Iowa and South Dakota, and North Dakota, 

 as well as to Minnesota; and if they were grown somewhat at a loss, or as 

 a public enterprise, these other States might properly help in paying the cost. 

 So that if the encouragement of timber-growing is to the advantage of our 

 cities as well as to the States, these cities might help in paying some of this 

 first money, this investment, in some such form. Using the process you use 

 now for those lands you are purchasing in the Forest Service, six dollars an 

 acre, we will say, as an average, and three and a half per cent an acre, will 

 mean only ten per cent or at most twenty per cent per acre that the State 

 and Federal Government would pay. In terms of ordinary appropriation, 

 that would mean about five millions of dollars, at the most, from the Federal 

 Government. So that this is not out of proportion to the ordinary expenditure, 

 and it will look to the taking up of a large area of forest land that there is 

 now no way of taking up in a public way. It would take up a great deal of 

 land that we cannot hope that private enterprise will take up, and will enable 

 the growing of forest crops on that area. 



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