three of which have great economic importance. The total stand of timber 

 potentially susceptible to these spores has a stumpage value of over 

 $300,000,000. 



White pine blister rust has spread from Maine to Georgia, and westward 

 to Minnesota, the northern Rocky Mountain region, southern Washington, 

 Oregon, and northern California. The disease cannot go directly from one 

 pine to another, but passes to currant and gooseberry bushes (Ribes) and 

 thence to other pines. Since the spores are delicate and their infecting 

 range limited to relatively short distances, control is effected by destroying 

 the currants and gooseberries growing in the vicinity of white pines. 



Control areas on Federal, State, and private lands total more than 28 

 million acres. Initial Ribes eradication has been performed on over two- 

 thirds of this area, and about 7 million acres have been reworked one or more 

 times. 



In the control of tree diseases in the national forests, the Forest Service is 

 aided by the Division of Forest Pathology, Bureau of Plant Industry, Soils, 

 and Agricultural Engineering, and the Division of Plant Disease Control, 

 Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine, of the Department of Agri- 

 culture. The Division of Forest Pathology maintains pathologists in several 

 Forest Service regional offices and forest experiment stations. 



Cooperation With States and Private Owners 



Management of our forests so that they will produce abundant forest 

 crops continuously is necessary if the social and economic values of these 

 lands are to be permanently retained. That this principle is workable has 

 been proved by progressive private timberland owners as well as in the 

 management of the national forests. The time has come when such man- 

 agement should be extended to all commercial forest lands in private 

 ownership. 



BETTER MANAGEMENT OF PRIVATE FORESTS 



The Nation depends primarily on privately owned forests for its timber 

 supply. Of the total land area in the United States suitable to growing 

 commercial timber crops, 340 million acres are in private ownership and 

 only about 120 million acres in some form of public ownership. The pri- 

 vate timberlands are generally the most accessible, easiest logged, and most 

 productive. They supply over 90 percent of all our lumber and other 

 forest products, contain nearly two-thirds of our critical watershed areas, 

 and are important to our welfare in many other ways. 



The United States uses tremendous quantities of wood in peace and war. 

 Abundant natural resources are essential to the realization of our ideals of 

 peace and plenty. They can be developed and maintained only through 

 far-sighted conservation. 



It is clear, therefore, that the public has a vital interest in the proper 

 management of all forest lands, regardless of who owns them. Bad cutting 

 practices, fires, pests, and disease are depleting our merchantable timber 

 much faster than it is being replaced by new growth. 



Reports of millions of trees planted and increased fire protection have 

 led many citizens to believe that the forestry problem is being met ade- 

 quately. But it should be borne in mind that a million seedlings cover only 

 about 1 ,000 acres and that, even after an area is planted, we must wait from 

 50 to 100 years or more before the seedlings grow into high-quality saw 



