34 BULLETIN 753, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
sites and under suitable climatic conditions can such yields be ex- 
pected even with these species. 
FORESTRY. 
It will not do for communities in wooded regions to depend on the 
chance growth of wood for their future fuel supply. Already many 
communities, especially in the Northeast, are finding it necessary 
each year to go farther and farther back for their wood, or to cut 
smaller trees each succeeding year, because the available supply of 
standing wood is too small to allow the trees to grow to the proper 
size before they are cut. 
Tt is not too much to expect that the time will come—and soon in 
some regions—when it will be necessary to provide definitely that cer- 
tain areas be set aside to produce wood, and that they be so man- 
aged as to produce the maximum amount of wood possible within 
the shortest possible time. It is not desirable to devote good 
agricultural land to growing an annual supply of fuel; generally the 
inferior land on farms will grow sufficient fuel to supply regularly 
each year’s needs. Farms with such land are numerous in the hilly 
sections of the country, and are found almost everywhere except in 
the prairie and plains regions and in limited areas in the river 
bottoms. . 
Meanwhile, the least that should be done is to see that fire and other 
destructive agents are kept out of growing woodland, and that when 
cutting is done for firewood only that material is taken out whose 
removal will not cause injury to the productive capacity of the 
remaining stand. Advice on these matters will be freely given by 
the various State forestry departments, or where they are not avail- 
able, by the Forest Service of the United States Department of 
Agriculture. 
MUNICIPAL FORESTS. 
Acute need for fuel in emergencies furnishes one of the strongest 
arguments for maintaining municipal forests by cities or towns in 
wooded districts where this is possible. These emergencies may be 
expected periodically, and municipal forests serving as parks and 
pleasure grounds or as protection to water supplies can come into 
play as fuel reserves in time of stress when coal can not be obtained 
in sufficient quantities for the needs of the communities. It is a point 
well worth the thoughtful consideration of every community which 
has woodland adjacent to it suitable for this purpose. Some towns 
already own such tracts, and no doubt there will eventually be many 
of these forests in the older settled sections of the country when it 
is found how easily they are handled and how advantageous they are 
in many respects. Instead of being sources of expense, well-managed 
woodlands should quickly become sources ‘of considerable revenue to 
the communities owning them. 
