16 THE FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES: THEIR USE. 
cheaply and if properly distributed throughout the forest, and com- 
bined with a good trail system, will increase several times the area 
which can be effectually patrolled by one man. 
3. Build up a local sentiment against fires by making the damage 
they do plain to all. 
4, Cooperate in fire patrol with other forest owners. Above all 
cooperate with those who own tracts contiguous to your own. This 
will render your patrol and theirs not only cheaper but vastly more 
effective. 
FOREST PLANTING. 
Forest planting means the protection of denuded watersheds from 
erosion, and the protection of farm homes and crops from wind and 
cold. In many localities it means the production of timber near by 
instead of bringing it from a distance at much greater cost. 
The United States contains 65,000,000 acres of stripped land, suit- 
able only for the growing of trees, which will not bear a productive 
forest again except through the actual] planting of trees, or sowing of 
tree seeds. The West contains 16,000,000 acres of naturally treeless 
land which should be planted to trees in the interest of agriculture in 
the prairie region and on irrigated lands elsewhere. Thus far, we 
have planted in all less than 1,000,000 acres, of which probably less 
than one-half is successful, because we have planted, for the most 
part, without adequate knowledge of where, what, and how to plant. 
As regards the need for tree planting, the United States naturally 
falls into three regions—the eastern, the central, and the western. 
The eastern region lies east of the prairie States. In it the plant- 
ing of trees for the production of timber is of much more importance 
than for protection to stream flow or to crops. It contains lands of 
the following classes, which can be planted with profit to their 
owners: 
Cut-over lands not good to farm, upon which, usually as a result 
of repeated fires after logging, natural reproduction is not taking 
place. Lands suitable only for forest, but which have been cleared, 
farmed unsuccessfully, and then abandoned. Wood lots in which 
planting is necessary to supplement natural reproduction or to take 
its place. 
Cut-over and burned-over lands in need of planting aggregate 
3,500,000 acres, and occur mainly in the Adirondack region and in 
the northern portion of the lake States; abandoned farm lands occur 
mainly in New England and in the southern mountains; unproduc- 
tive wood lots are characteristic chiefly of the region west of the 
Appalachians and east of the prairies. 
The Southern States contain about 12,000,000 acres upon which 
natural reproduction is insufficient or lacking, but upon which ade- 
[Cir. 171] 
