8 MISC. PUBLICATION 247, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



may not increase local rainfall, but it will help conserve what does 

 fall. It will not prevent the bitter winds of winter nor the hot drying 

 ones of summer, but locally it will reduce their surface velocities and 

 the damage they do. In all this, it will aid in preserving soil moisture 

 and in water conservation. It will also provide recreational areas, 

 form havens and refuges for upland game and other wildlife, and add 

 variety and beauty to the landscape. Protective tree planting will, 

 in short, make a Plains area of some 70,000,000 acres, including more 

 than 185,000 established farm units, a better place in which to live. 

 So great is the need in the Plains region, so large are the public 

 values involved, and so real the benefits which individual farmers 

 have received from successful forest plantations they have made over 

 the years, that more of them are bound to be established in the years 

 to come, despite the fact that the second session of the Seventy- 

 fourth Congress did not provide Federal funds for continuation of the 

 shelterbelt project (pi. 2). 



INTEGRATION OF AGRICULTURE WITH FOREST 

 RESOURCES 



Of the 615,000,000 acres of forest lands in the continental United 

 States, approximately 495,000,000 acres are classed as capable of 

 producing timber fit for commercial use. This vast forest acreage 

 also directly affects the economic security of individuals, communities, 

 and the Nation. In some regions, for example, successful agriculture 

 can continue only if forest management and utilization create and 

 maintain nearby markets for farm crops. In other regions farm 

 population depends on forest work to produce cash incomes, while 

 farm work produces the bulk of the family food (pi. 2). Then, too, 

 permanent agriculture depends, in many places, on irrigation. This, 

 in turn, depends on maintenance of plant cover on adjacent moun- 

 tains from which water supplies come ; in turn, this depends on forest 

 and range conservation. In still other parts of the country, the 

 Nation now faces the huge task of replacing agricultural production 

 on worn-out or abandoned farm lands with forest production. Forms 

 and amounts of land use must also be changed so that human effort 

 devoted to agriculture may not destroy the land and waste itself. 



A more specific illustration of the close relationship that exists 

 between forest resources, agriculture, and human welfare may be 

 found in the longleaf-slash pine region of South Carolina, Georgia, 

 and north Florida (pi. 2). This is an area of approximately 30,000,- 

 000 acres, 70 percent of which is devoted to the growth of forest 

 stands. In it, agriculture is declining, and neither mining, manu- 

 factures, oil, nor gas fields have developed to offset this decline. 

 The growing, 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 



