74 



TIMBER RESOURCES FOR AMERICA'S FUTURE 



PUBLIC 



FOREST 

 INDUS. 



90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 PERCENT 



27% 



41°/c 



52% 



FARM 



'OTHER" 

 PRIVATE 



10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 



34% 



includes Coastal Alaska 



Figure 36 



Table 46. — Productivity oj recently cut commercial 

 forest land in the United States and Coastal 

 Alaska, 1953 









Proportion of oper- 





Com- 





ating area bv pro- 





mercial 



Oper- 



ductivity class 



Type of ownership 



forest 

 land 



ating 

 area 



















Upper 



Me- 

 dium 



Lower 





Million 



Million 



Per- 



Per- 



Per- 





acres 



acres 



cent 



cent 



cent 



Forest industries. _ 



62 



I 44 



77 



19 



4 



Farm 



165 



53 



41 



37 



22 



Other private 



131 



42 



52 



28 



20 



Public 



131 



96 



80 



17 



3 



All ownerships- _ 



489 



235 



65 



24 



11 



' Excludes an unknown acreage of operating area on the 

 1.5 million acres of commercial forest land to which access 

 was denied. 



Farm and "Other" Private Ownerships in 

 Poorest Condition 



To the extent that the productivity indexes 

 truly reflect condition of recently cut lands there 

 is conclusive evidence that the farm and "other" 

 private (meaning private ownerships wliich are 

 not farm and not forest industry) ownerships are 

 most in need of improvement. For the country 

 as a whole, 41 percent of the operating area in farm 

 ownerships qualified for the upper class, and for the 

 "other" private ownei"ships, 52 percent so qualified 

 (table 47). Farm ownersiiip has a larger propor- 

 tion of operating area of medium productivity 

 than does "other" private ownership, and both 

 groups have about one-fifth of their operating area 

 in the lower class. When one recalls that a pro- 

 ductivity index of 100 refers onlj'- to a standard 

 that is reasonably attainable under average cur- 

 rent conditions, it is not reassuring that the pro- 

 ductivity index for more than half of the farm 



:3S££iM 



