FlIfTH NATIONAL, CONSERVATION CONGRESS 377 



the needs for various classes of material. A fiat reduction in all grades and 

 species would not be practical because some woods, on account of their scarcity, 

 are always in demand at a high price, while others, such as the yellow pine and 

 red fir, because of their abundance, are usually available in excess of demand. 

 The yellow-pine producers would be very glad to have the red-fir output curtailed, 

 but would strenuously object to a reduction in their own mills, and vipe versa. 



Present tendencies are somewhat toward Government regulation and control 

 of all corporate interests, and if this was ever applied to private timberland opera- 

 tions, it might be expected to lead to regulations which would force measures for 

 forest conservation and to scientific forestry on private holdings. Since it is 

 quite evident that intensive forestry cannot be practiced profitably under present 

 conditions, the only way the private owner could keep in business under such 

 an arrangement would be to materially increase the price of the lumber produced. 

 This in turn would again put the burden on the consumer and evidently so reduce 

 the consumption that private forests would not be greatly needed as a source 

 of wood supply. Whatever the constitutional or legal phases of the question of 

 State or Federal control, it can hardly be conceived that anything in the way of 

 limitations approaching confiscation of private forests, even for the public good, 

 will be tolerated without proper compensation. 



Private forestry is needed to provide future wood supplies for the nation. 

 It is not practiced today on a commercial scale because of economic conditions 

 which make straight lumbering a more attractive investment. Some of the things 

 essential to private forestry, particularly fire protection, are being applied exten- 

 sively and successfully. 



Private forestry must come as an evolutionary development, not because the 

 public demands it but because private timberland owners find it profitable to 

 practice it. 



Public comprehension of the principles of forest economics, and the realiza- 

 tion that forestry is successive wood-crop production, must precede the full appli- 

 cation of the art and science of private foresry. 



