106 



TIMBER RESOURCES FOR AMERICA'S FUTURE 



than statistics indicate. Although fire accounted 

 for only 6 percent of sawtimber mortahty in 1952 

 and 17 percent of growth impact, it is a primary 

 causative agent which often prepares the way for 

 attacks by insects and disease. Furthermore, fire 

 was the first of the serious destructive agents 

 aggressively attacked by cooperative efforts of 

 public and private forest landowners. Much 

 progress has been made, but still only 15 percent 

 of the area is adequately protected in the worst 

 fire years. 



If protection from fire could continue to be 

 strengthened, and especially if the toll of disease 

 and insects could be similarly lessened by forest 

 management practices and direct control, a large 

 contribution would have been made toward the 

 growth needed to meet potential future demands. 



14. Fifty-two million acres need planting. 

 Although planting rates have increased great!}' 



in recent years, and forest plantations in the 

 United States cover about 5 million acres, there is 

 a big job of planting ahead, mainly in the East and 

 mainly on private lands. About 52 million acres, 

 or 11 percent of all commercial forest land in the 

 Nation, need planting if they are to become pro- 

 ductive within a reasonable time. This estimate 

 is conservative in that it does not include areas 

 where it is possible to improve stocking by inter- 

 planting or where, by planting promptly after 

 cutting without waiting for natural regeneration, 

 it is possible to reduce the time that lands lie idle. 

 If adequately reforested, the area in need of plant- 

 ing might eventually add about 8 billion board- 

 feet annually to timber supplies. 



Planting during the next 25 to 30 years is ex- 

 pected to more than double the 1950-52 rate of 

 nearly 400 thousand acres of acceptable planta- 

 tions annually, so that by 1985 possibly an addi- 

 tional 25 million acres will have been successfully 

 planted. Output of nursery stock will need to 

 be double the 1952 rate. 



15. Forest productivity poorest on small farm and 



"other" private ownerships, especially in the 

 South. 



There is conclusive evidence that the produc- 

 tivity of recently cut lands is poorest on the farm 

 and "other" private ownerships. The latter 

 means private ownerships, generally small in size, 

 that are not farm and not forest industry. The 

 two groups of forest holdings involve nearly 4.5 

 million private ownerships and account for 60 per- 

 cent of the Nation's total commercial forest land. 

 For the country as a whole, about 40 percent of the 

 farm and 50 percent of the "other" private owner- 

 ships qualified their recently cut lands for the 

 upper productivity class. 



Small private holdings, regardless of kind of 

 ownership, clearly showed poorer productivity 

 than large and medium-sized properties. Geo- 

 graphically, productivity of recently cut lands is 



considerably lower in the South than in other parts 

 of the country, and the farm and "other" private 

 ownerships also show poorer ratings for the South 

 than for other sections. 



Considering location as well as kind and size of 

 ownership, the small private ownerships of the 

 South are conspicuously below the rest of the 

 country in productivity of recently cut lands. 

 These holdings, numbering 1.8 million, are owned 

 mainly by farmers and the miscellaneous group 

 that makes up the "other" private category; and 

 they comprise 128 million acres, or one-fourth of 

 all commercial forest land. Two-thirds of the 

 recently cut lands in the small private ownerships 

 in the South fail to approximate productivity 

 standards reasonably attainable under average 

 current conditions. 



16. Forest productivity best on public and forest 



industry ownerships. 



In contrast to farm and "other" private owner- 

 ships, about three-fourths of the recently cut lands 

 owned by public agencies and the forest industries 

 qualified for the upper productivity class. Such 

 lands are within at least 30 percent of the standard 

 that is being attained currently on the better 

 managed lands. Two-thirds of the land owned b}- 

 forest industry is in large holdings. There was 

 little difference between public ownerships as a 

 group and forest industries as a group. However, 

 there were appreciable variations between different 

 parts of the countrj^ different forest industries, 

 and different public ownerships. The pulp indus- 

 try with 84 percent of its recently cut lands 

 quahfying for the upper productivity class ex- 

 ceeded the national forests with 81 percent and the 

 lumber industry with 73 percent. 



These findings show that there is little distinc- 

 tion between productivity of recently cut lands in 

 public ownership and those owned by forest 

 industry. The contrast is between public and 

 forest industry ownerships on the one hand, which 

 comprise about 40 percent of the Nation's com- 

 mercial forest land and have 75 to 80 percent of 

 recently cut lands in the upper productivity class, 

 and the farm and "other" private ownerships on 

 the other hand, which make up 60 percent of the 

 commercial forest land and have about 46 percent 

 of such lands in the upper class. 



17. Inadequate stocking is the most significant factor 



in reducing productivity of recently cut land. 



If existing stocking were the only criterion of 

 productivity, over half of the land on which cut- 

 ting has occurred since 1947 would have failed to 

 qualify in the upper productivity class. A con- 

 siderable portion of this area which was deficient 

 in existing stocking qualified for the upper class 

 because of reasonable prospects of stocking. 

 The fact remains that understocking, both exist- 

 ing and prospective, is the most important cause 



