CHAPTER XVI 



Town Forests 



Town and city owned wood-lots in America ; 

 essentials necessary to general adoption of the plan; 

 forests and unemployment. 



If the sum total of countless little wood-lots on 

 farms is a potentially important factor in its ability 

 to solve the shortage of wood and lumber, why not 

 carry the idea a little further? If a wood-lot is 

 valuable to the farmer in supplying his home needs, 

 why is it not doubly valuable to a settled community 

 where there is an opportunity to use almost every 

 product? Towns and cities have already success- 

 fully engaged in the business of furnishing water, 

 gas, electric light and transportation. In Europe 

 municipalities also control their own wood supply, 

 and the Chamber of Commerce or local Trade 

 Board uses as an attraction for all sorts of indus- 

 tries the fact that a guaranteed supply of wood 

 products can be offered. Thousands of cities, towns 

 and villages throughout the United States already 

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