46 REPORT OF THE FOREST COMMITTEE 



at least to a fair rate of interest. Many examples of successful plantations exist 

 which meet these conditions. 



(4) As an investment forest planting is not attractive to the small private 

 landowner excepting where other valuable considerations exist, such as apprecia- 

 tion of land values or early returns from quick-growing species. The long-time 

 nature of the investment makes planting more feasible for federal, State and 

 local governments or long-lived corporations than for the individual or small 

 company. 



(5) The problem of reforestation of denuded lands should be met squarely 

 by entering upon a comprehensive plan covering at least a fifty-year period. Such 

 a plan should include adequate federal and State appropriations, an extension of 

 State forests to include more waste lands, federal aid for States, State aid for 

 counties, cities, and towns, and encouragement of private planting. 



(6) Sixty-five million dollars, at least, are being lost annually because 

 denuded forest lands remain unproductive. Reforestation will go far toward 

 lessening the severity of the coming timber famine, provided it is done on a large 

 scale and begun at once. 



INTRODUCTORY 



THE topic selected for discussion by the sub-committee on planting is the 

 conditions under which commercial forest planting is desirable. Interest 

 in this work has been increasing during recent years. The total acreage 

 annually planted, however, is utterly inadequate to bring into productiveness 

 within a reasonable period the very great area which requires reforestation. It 

 will require Federal, State, private and corporate planting on a large scale, 

 annually, to reforest denuded lands so that the United States may receive the 

 benefit of additional timber supply when the period of great scarcity of timber 

 begins. 



It is chiefly the purpose of the report to point out the fundamental facts 

 concerning commercial planting, its drawbacks and its advantages. A discussion 

 of commercial planting in the various forest regions is appended to this 

 report as a compilation of available data and a basis for consideration of its 

 recommendations. 



COMMERCIAL BASIS FOR FOREST PLANTING 



Safety of Investment 



IT is essential that a commercial enterprise be relatively safe from loss or 

 destruction. Danger from forest fires has been regarded in years past as 

 sufficient to render an investment in planting wholly impracticable. In gen- 

 eral, this danger has been greatly exaggerated ; yet it does exist as a local problem 

 and must be taken into account in determining protective measures for each 

 prospective planting. Fire in a young planted forest of conifers usually kills 

 the trees; in hardwoods it may kill or seriously injure them. Organized work in 

 fire fighting and more efifective prevention of fires in many of the forested States 

 has minimized losses from this cause. Thus, in the record of Connecticut* 

 planting, less than one per cent of the total planted area was destroyed by fire 



*Rept. Conn. Agri. Exp. Station, 1912. 



