FORESTRY AND PERMANENT PROSPERITY \) 



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; tomorrow will be too late. 



FOREST-LAND FORAGE 



Within the continental United States as a whole, some 334 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 has recently 

 been put under administration by the Department of the Interior 

 through the Taylor Grazing Act. 



NATIONAL-FOREST RANGES 



Western national-forest ranges are used annually by more than 

 1,400,000 cattle and 6,000,000 sheep plus their natural increase; the 

 forage produced on these ranges is vital, yearly, to some 26,000 

 individuals who own or control more than 4,500,000 acres of improved 

 farm land and 22,000,000 acres of privately owned grazing land 

 (pi. 2). These national-forest ranges in the West have been under 

 administration for more than 30 years. On them, drift fences, corrals, 

 and bridges have been built; water supplies developed; roads, trails, 

 and stock driveways constructed; and poisonous plants eradicated. 

 Always the effort has been to allow only the number of stock that the 

 amount and condition of the available forage justified. As a con- 

 sequence, and relatively speaking, western national-forest ranges 

 came through the drought years, even, in good shape. 



78732°— 36 2 



