136 OUR FEDERAL LANDS 



tax-paying resources. It will bring the lumberjack 

 and the thriving rural community back into vast 

 areas which are now retrograding through the idle- 

 ness of land. It is the only rational solution. 



"The old law of supply and demand is at work. 

 The commercial impetus for timber-growing is 

 steadily gaining momentum. A few far-sighted 

 lumbermen in the South are leaving the small tim- 

 ber in their logging, protecting their cut-over land, 

 and planning their manufacturing enterprises with 

 a view to an assured future. Others are studying 

 their cut-over lands and weighing the possibilities 

 of timber-growing as a business venture. Many 

 landowners in the northeast are practising some sort 

 of forestry, whether they call it that or not. Two 

 New England paper companies maintain forest nurs- 

 eries and are planting on old burns and other de- 

 nuded areas. Forms of really intensive silviculture, 

 like girding old 'wolf hardwoods and thinning 

 young stands of dense spruce, are being studied by 

 business men. Forest planting on private land now 

 reaches scarcely 20,000 acres a year (1926), but the 

 states which maintain forest nurseries are practi- 

 cally unanimous in reporting that the present de- 

 mand for cheap planting stock far exceeds their abil- 

 ity to supply it. The leaven is at work. 



"Even on the Pacific coast, which is but fairly 

 entering its heyday of virgin forest exploitation, 

 private reforestation has begun. Several redwood 

 operators, recognizing the commercial possibilities 



