WORK OF THE UNITED STATES FOREST SERVICE 23 
A specific example of need for extension of sound forestry man- 
agement into private forest lands may be seen in the Southern 
States. In this region there is a capital investment of approximately 
$150,000,000 in the form of pulp and paper mills dependent upon 
forests for raw material. About 800,000 people are dependent upon 
the industry. Operating in the area are more than 10,000 sawmills 
and a tremendous naval stores industry. Such forest byproducts as 
telephone poles and railroad ties also add to the timber income. 
If the second-growth timber on which these southern industries 
largely operate is cut out with no consideration of future forest 
production, a vast area will gradually be turned from an economic 
asset into an economic liability. It could then be anticipated that 
in the South, as has already occurred to greater or_less degree in 
some other regions, a vast area would be left tax-delinquent and 
devastated, with the social and economic evils attendant upon such a 
condition. The need for wise forest management aimed at estab- 
lishing a basis for the support of a permanent prosperity is obvious. 
This is the type of problem, with variations in regional, industrial, 
and economic backgrounds, that the Forest Service, through cooper- 
ation with State forestry departments and private woodland owners, 
is attempting to solve. 
Definite progress has been made. Several basic fields of action 
have been established. Protection of forest lands against fire is 
perhaps the most important task, for fire ruins timber values, de- 
stroys reproduction of trees, and makes necessary extensive planting 
programs to return burned-over lands to productivity. 
STATE AID UNDER THE CLARKE-McNARY LAW 
The Federal Government offers financial aid to some 40 States and 
Hawaii under provisions of the Clarke-McNary law of 1924 to bring 
private and State-owned forest lands under protection from fire. 
The importance of this aid is seen in these figures: From 1933 to 
19387, inclusive, an average of more than 35,000,000 acres of forest 
land other than that in Federal ownership was burned over annually. 
Of this, by far the greater part—some 33,000,000 acres—was upon 
unprotected land. The area covered by cooperative protection was, 
in 1937, some 259,000,000 acres, only a little more than half of the 
total area needing protection. The Forest Service is working to 
increase the area under organized protection. 
Funds allotted by the Federal Government for fire-prevention 
work during 1938 totaled $1,610,007; State and private funds budg- 
eted for the same period were $6,448,694. Cooperative fire-preven- 
tion projects are administered by the State forestry departments, 
aided by the Forest Service in developing plans and inspecting the 
work. Under terms of the law, the Federal Government limits its 
expenditures in a given fiscal year to a sum not greater in each State 
than the funds expended by the State and private owners. Federal 
allotments in no case may be more than 25 percent of the estimated 
cost of adequate protection of forest lands in the State. 
The Federal Government also cooperates under the Clarke-McNary 
law with State and private forest owners in the reforestation of areas 
in 41 States, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii. Approximately 42,000,000 
trees were distributed in 1937. This stock is distributed by State 
