ge ee ee 
TABLE 5.—Decrease of saw-timber stand between 
original survey and 1945 
Years of 
Region original Decrease 
survey 
Billion 
bd. ft. Percent 
ILEUS a re re Oe 1934-36 6.9 12 
South Atlantic 
(N. C. and S. C. 
Only) etre 1936-38 1.6 2 
Southeast? ............... 1932-36 22.0 15 
Wrest:Gulf? 1934-36 : 13.0 12 
Pacific Northwest °. 1933-36 112.3 15 
15 States.......... 1932-38 4 155.8 14 
\ 
1’Tennessee not included. 
? Northwestern Arkansas and northeastern Oklahoma not 
included. 
‘Volumes in original survey adjusted for subsequent shifts 
between commercial and noncommercial status. 
“Median year, 1934. 
lion board feet or 14 percent between the time of 
original survey and 1945—an average period of 11 
years. These States contain 60 percent of the saw 
timber in the United States and account for about 
three-fourths of the annual cut. 
Ownership of the Timber 
Ownership is an important aspect of the timber 
situation because rate of cutting and measures 
taken to insure desirable new growth are related to 
the intent of the timber owner, and the stability of 
his tenure. 
Up to the close of the last century the policy of 
this country was to turn the public domain over 
to private ownership in order to promote settle- 
ment and development. Not until practically all 
the land east of the Great Plains and much of the 
best and most accessible land of the West had passed 
into private ownership did concern for future tim- 
ber supply lead to the setting aside of the national 
forests. and a basic change in our policy of land 
disposal. 
As a result of rapid exploitation of private timber 
_ and of a conservative policy in opening up the 
national forests—both related to economic circum- 
stances—43 percent of the saw timber now stands 
on the 25 percent of the commercial forest land 
that is publicly owned (table 6. and fig. 6). 
The proportion differs greatly between East and 
West. In the West almost one-half is in the na- 
tional forests and 15 percent is in other public 
Forests and National Prosperity 
ownership; less than 40 percent is in private owner- 
ship. But the 397 billion board feet of western 
private timber, mostly in the Pacific Northwest and 
California, is generally more accessible and of 
better quality than the public timber. 
TABLE 6.—Ownership of saw timber, 1945 
ane =a : United 
Ownership class North South West States 
Public: $ Billton Billion Billion Billion 
National bd. ft. bd. ft. bd. ft. bd. ft. 
forest 8 14 496 518 
Other Federal 2 4 98 104 
State and local 10 3 52 65 
iEotale: ne P 20 21 646 687 
Private: 
Farm thine 76 134 34 244 
Other private. 124 183 363 670 
otal. a 200 317 397 914 
All owners......... 220 338 1,043 1,601 
In the East, although the acreage in public owner- 
ship has been increased as a result of inability of 
private owners to hold and restore cut-over lands 
or of their willingness to sell, 93 percent of the 
saw-timber volume is privately owned. Clearly, 
public forests in the East are not able to make a 
very large contribution to national timber needs. 
More than one-fourth of the private timber is on 
the farms. In the Central, Plains, and South At- 
lantic regions, farms contain more timber than 
do other private holdings. But in the Douglas-fir 
subregion of the Pacific Northwest, farms have only 
4 percent of the private timber because most of 
the forest land on the farms is cut-over. The farm 
timber resources, especially in the East, contribute 
a good deal to the national timber supply. Prop- 
erly managed, they can also be a more stable and 
better source of farm income. 
Private timber in other than farm holdings is 
the major source of raw material for the timber in- 
dustries at present. How much of the 670 billion 
board feet in this class of ownership is held by the 
industries themselves and how much is in the 
hands of other types of owners is not known. How- 
ever, the lumber and pulp companies own only 15 
percent of the private commercial forest land. 
Quite plainly, good management of the industrial 
timber holdings, although essential, will not of 
itself provide an adequate supply of timber prod- 
ucts for the Nation. 
