FORESTRY AND PERMANENT PROSPERITY 9 



harvesting, manufacturing, and marketing of forest crops are the 

 outstanding industries; the main occupations; the only assurances 

 of a decent livelihood. 



In this area, every county and nearly every town and hamlet has 

 its turpentine orchards and stills, for the area contains three-fourths 

 of that naval stores industry which produces all of the rosin and tur- 

 pentine used in this country, and approximately 65 percent of the 

 world's production. Close on the heels of the turpentine operators 

 follow the sawmills. These, large and small, are found everywhere. 

 Other wood-using industries produce poles, piling, railroad ties, and 

 material for vegetable and fruit containers. The present and future 

 successful operation of public utilities such as railroads, steamship 

 and barge lines, power companies, and truck lines depends upon 

 forest products. And many little settlements have one or more 

 wood-manufacturing plants. 



Most of the agricultural land is tilled by small farmers, but the 

 farm economy is such that part-time work for 3 or 4 months each year 

 must be found for owners, field hands, and animals. Otherwise they 

 cannot exist. In this area as a whole, there is sufficient growing stock 

 of timber on hand to afford work and an opportunity for a comfortable 

 living not only to the population now within its borders, but to hard- 

 pressed people from less fortunate sections as well. But this holds 

 true only if the forests are properly used and cared for. It has not 

 been done in the past. If in the future the South is to prosper, it 

 must be done. Now is the time to start. 



FOREST-LAND FORAGE 



Within the continental United States as a whole, some 342 million 

 acres — more than 50 percent of all commercial and noncommercial 

 forest lands — are grazed by domestic livestock. In the pine forests 

 of the South, forage is a resource of forest areas often not owned by 

 the stockmen, but of value to the rural population. In the humid 

 East, grazing is usually so detrimental to hardwood forests that wood- 

 lot and other forest owners are often faced with the necessity for 

 making a choice as between pasturage and forest values, or of attempt- 

 ing a dual use which generally results in poor pasturage and forests, 

 both. In contrast, controlled grazing in coniferous forests (such as 

 those so prevalent in the West) results in comparatively little damage 

 to tree growth. 



In some parts of the country, economic and social welfare is fre- 

 quently dependent upon forest-land forage. This is particularly 

 true in the West, where it largely involves public lands in the national 

 forests, which are administered by the Forest Service of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, and public domain, part of which is under ad- 

 ministration by the Department of the Interior through the Taylor 

 Grazing Act. 



NATIONAL-FOREST RANGES 



In recent years western national-forest ranges have been used 

 annually by approximately 1,300,000 cattle and 5,500,000 sheep plus 

 their natural increase; the forage produced on these ranges is vital, 

 yearly, to some 25,000 individuals who own or control more than 



