Table 4. — Ownership of forest land 



Ownership 



Private: 



Farm woodland (1935) 



Industrial owner (1938)-.- 

 Investment owners (1938) 



Power companies ' 



Hunting preserves ' 



Undetermined 



Total 



Public: 

 (1941) 



National forests 



National parks 



Military reservations 



Indian reservation 



Wildlife refuges 



State forests . 



State parks 



State game refuge 



University forests 



Municipal watersheds 



Total 



All forest land 



1 Estimated. 



Distribution of 



forest area 



Acres 



Percent 



10, 094, 700 



54.9 



1, 077, 200 



5.8 



893. 000 



4.9 



200, 0C0 



1.1 



100, 000 



.5 



4. 277, 500 



23.2 



16, 642, 400 



90.4 



952, 700 



5.2 



240, 400 



1.3 



187, 500 



1.0 



35, 000 



_ o 



13,500 



.1 



40,000 



. 2 



17,200 



.1 



130, 000 



.7 



93. 000 



. 5 



48, 100 



3 



1. 760. 000 



9.6 



IS, 399, 800 



100.0 



4). The ownership of 47 percent or the farms, operated 

 by tenants, rests with townspeople, local bankers, and 

 insurance companies. Nearly one-half of the industrial 

 forest land was owned in tracts of more than 50,000 acres, 

 located in the Coastal Plain, and owned to a considerable and 

 increasing extent by pulp and paper companies. Of the 

 forest land held simply as an investment, two-thirds 

 was in two parcels in the Coastal Plain owned by a railroad 

 and an insurance company. Nonoperating lumber and 

 mineral companies in the mountain region own most of 

 the remainder. Power companies own forest land near 

 their dams in the piedmont and mountains, the total 

 being conservatively estimated at 200,000 acres. The 

 acreage in hunting clubs is undoubtedly larger than that 

 recorded. 



Of private forest land of undetermined ownership about 

 3.8 million acres lie in the Coastal Plain and along the 

 rivers extending up into the piedmont. A large proportion 

 is bottom-land and swamp hardwoods. Very little is in 

 active industrial ownership; rather it is held by heirs of 

 defunct lumber companies, by banks, investment interests, 

 drainage promotional interests, and estates. The remain- 



Figure 12. — The Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests comprise nearly 300,000 acres of forested mountain land valuable for timber production, 



watershed protection, and recreation. 



*4 



