A MISC. PUBLICATION 247, TJ. S. DEFT. OF AGRICULTURE 



the income from. them. But he does not destroy the source of that 

 income; he holds the land — and its power continuously to produce — 

 inviolate for future generations. 



Our own attitude toward forest-land ownership has been different. 

 "This is ours", we have said, ''to do with as we please." And burned 

 acres and wasted empires have been a result (pi. 1). Unfortunately, 

 they are only a part of the Nation's record of forest-land misuse. 

 Another, a more vital aspect, is the human one. For as the timber 

 disappeared and sawmills shut down, hundreds of thousands of 

 workers were thrown out of then jobs. Many, looking for work, 

 found it in prosperous times, but were forced to migrate in dull times. 

 Others, without the means to move, were more unfortunate, for 

 no longer was there any market for their labor or for the products 

 of local agriculture. In community after community, taxes became 

 delinquent. In one typical town, seven-room homes with steam heat 

 and plumbing went on the auction block at $35. There were no 

 buyers. 



In this way forest exploitation has laid its blight on individuals and 

 communities. It has been responsible for ghost towns and rural 

 slums throughout the Lake States, the South, and on the Pacific coast. 

 Indeed, its effects have eaten more deeply into the national fabric. 

 For with forests cleared from hillsides, rains have run off quickly and 

 floods have increased; topsoil has eroded from fertile acres (pi. 1); 

 streams, dams, and harbors have loaded up with silt; property has 

 been damaged and destroyed. 



FORESTRY IN THE UNITED STATES 



For more than a century this has been the history of forest-land 

 mismanagement in the United States. It is true that almost from 

 the earliest days of settlement on the eastern coast there were protests 

 against the unlimited use of the forest and the lack of organized 

 efforts to protect it from fire. But it was not until the close of the 

 latter half of the nineteenth century that the movement for forestry 

 really started. And in its modern phase, real progress has been made 

 largely since 1900. 



FORESTRY AS AN AID TO ECONOMIC RECOVERY 



The national-forest system — administered by the Forest Service 

 of the Department of Agriculture — has been a conspicuous effort 

 in the development of American forestry. Over a period of years it 

 has been a trial on a large scale of Federal administration of a great 

 natural resource in the public interest ; a radical departure from the 

 traditional national policy of private ownership of natural resources 

 and their exploitation for private profit. When the last depression 

 struck, these huge Federal properties, offering an opportunity for 

 emergency employment on a national scale, became a real factor in 

 the fight for recovery. In that fight, building firmly on the founda- 

 tions laid early in the present century, we have been putting our 

 forests in order. The task is a huge one; it cannot be accomplished 

 quickly. But already we have made a good start. 



Beginning with the Civilian Conservation Corps, emergency forest 

 work early expanded through public works, civil works, transient 



