18 MISC. PUBLICATION 2 4 7, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



part of their subsistence by regularly harvesting resources such as 

 timber and forage, the while recreational use has increased enor- 

 mously in 30 years. 



This multiple-use principle of land management requires special 

 treatment in its application to restricted areas, of course. There 

 are, for example, many spots of rare scenic beauty in the national 

 forests; places which afford visitors all they desire in the way of beauty, 

 interest, and inspiration. These places are not as a rule susceptible of 

 being combined one with another. They are instead, scattered but 

 integral and inseparable parts of much larger areas. 



Recreational uses of these larger areas are affected by managed 

 uses of such resources as timber, water (for municipal and other 

 purposes), forage, or minerals. But on certain smaller areas — on 

 shores of limpid, tree-fringed lakes, beside beautifully clear mountain 

 streams, in fragrant meadows from which lofty, snow-clad peaks are 

 visible — recreational values are often so outstanding that special 

 treatment — which approaches single-purpose management — is applied 

 to them. 



FOREST RESEARCH 



In all phases of forestry, research is fundamental and vital, par- 

 ticularly in these days when changes in methods of handling forest 

 lands and in manufacturing, distributing, and utilizing forest products 

 seem inevitable. The major part of the effort in this field in the 

 United States is now concentrated in the Forest Service. Provision 

 is made for basic silvicultural, range, watershed, economics, and 

 products investigations. Congress has provided for a series of 12 

 regional forest, or forest and range, experiment stations and a Forest 

 Products Laboratory. Here studies and research are conducted on 

 forest problems of the entire United States. 



The diversity of the research problems undertaken and their wide 

 direct application to everyday life may be illustrated by three examples 

 of work accomplished by the Forest Service. One concerns the con- 

 dition and weight of cattle as affected by use of range forage; another, 

 inexpensive, modern homes; the third, the forest-credit situation. 



The first instance is one of an investigation made by the Northern 

 Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station of the Forest 

 Service, in cooperation with the Bureau of Animal Industry. This 

 showed that overgrazing short-grass range during a series of years 

 near Miles City, Mont., was costly to the stockmen. During the 

 drought of 1934, so little forage was produced that hay was required 

 as a supplement in all pastures. On controlled experimental areas 

 over a ton of hay to each cow was required on overgrazed range, as 

 compared to an average of approximately a half ton per cow on range 

 not normally overgrazed. It was also found that over a 2-year 

 period, calves from cows on the latter range averaged 72 pounds 

 heavier at weaning time than calves from cows on the overgrazed 

 range. The cost of range and supplemental feed per pound of calf 

 produced in 1934 was about 8K cents for the overgrazed lot, as against 

 about 3% cents for the more conservatively grazed lot. In other 

 words, this greater cost of feed per pound of beef is a penalty — of 

 about 240 percent — paid during drought periods for overgrazing. 



The second illustration has to do with the acute need in the United 

 States today for small, inexpensive homes of such simple but sound 



