10 PRIVATE FORESTRY. 



The States should adopt a policy of taxation of forests that would 

 encourage rather than hinder the practice of forestry. Present tax 

 policies tend to force early cutting and add to the burden of hold- 

 ing young forests. 



Other factors also cause premature and wasteful cutting in most 

 timberland regions. The speculative character of ownership, the 

 burdens of carrying stumpage, the necessity to meet the interest on 

 borrowed capital and other fixed charges, and the uncertainties re- 

 garding markets, labor, and other conditions are among the causes 

 of the haste to cut. The result is frequent overproduction, demorali- 

 zation of the market, and industrial instability. Lumbermen are al- 

 ready appealing to the public to aid them to bring about a more 

 stable condition of the industry. They have requested tax reforms, 

 the naming by the Government of "fair prices," based on cost of 

 production, and the modification of the Sherman act to permit agree- 

 ments, in restraint of trade, for the curtailment of production. 



The industrial situation is one that demands the consideration of 

 the public, because of the many public interests involved, including 

 the danger to our remaining forests. I do not concur in the pro- 

 posals that have been made for Federal legislation relative to agree- 

 ments in restraint of trade, but I believe that public participation is 

 necessary to meet the difficulties. The solution of this problem in- 

 volves many features that can be taken care of by improvements 

 within the industry itself ; others require public cooperation to bring 

 about a sounder basis of ownership and financing of timberlands. 

 In any case, aid extended by the public should carry with it an in- 

 sistence that the forest lands be handled constructively, from the 

 standpoint both of protection and of forest growth. In fact, the 

 very measures that would be necessary to secure a right handling of 

 forest lands would go far in solving the problem of instability that 

 constantly menaces the lumber industry and all the interests de- 

 pendent upon it. - , 



A program of forestry should include, further, cooperation in 

 problems of labor, in land classification looking to the development 

 of agricultural portions of cut-over lands, cooperation in colonization, 

 public activities in technical and economic research, cooperation in 

 the methods of forestry, and so on. 



The farm woodlot offers a special problem. The public should 

 lend liberal assistance to the farmer and the small owners, not only 

 in demonstrating the best methods of forestry and in reforestation 

 but also in matters which pertain to marketing the products of the 

 woodlot. 



Finally, a program of private forestry is intimately related to that 

 of public forests. We should greatly extend our public forests. 

 Forests on critical watersheds should be owned by the public for their 



