PEODUCTIVITY OF RECENTLY CUT LANDS 



239 



The ownerships of medium and large size together 

 contain 93 million acres or 26 percent of the 

 private forest land and 19 percent of all commercial 

 forest area. 



Thus, small private ownerships comprise three- 

 fourths of all private land and the productivity 

 of recently cut areas on this large area was found 

 to be much lower than that of the larger owner- 

 ships. This is the major reason why productivity 

 of recently cut areas is lower for all private land 

 than for public ownership. 



Public and Forest Industry Lands 

 Rank Highest 



Results of the survey showed that type of 

 ownership is also very important. Lands owned 

 by pulp-manufacturing industries have the great- 

 est proportion — 84 percent — of recently cut lands 

 in the upper productivity class, followed closely 

 by national forests, other public, and lumber 

 industry and other forest industry, with the latter 

 two showing almost identical situations (fig. 81). 

 Although substantial improvement can still be 

 made, these types of ownership — public and 

 forest industries — form a group where condition 

 of recently cut areas is more favorable for current 

 and future growth than is the case for other types 

 of ownership. While there are variations within 

 the group, the differences are not large and they 

 all appear to be at about the same general level 

 of productivity. 



The combined ownership of the forest industries 

 amounts to slightly under 13 percent of all com- 

 mercial forest land, and the public lands comprise 

 about 27 percent. Together these types of owner- 

 ship, which are characterized by high proportions 

 of recently cut lands in the upper productivity 

 class, make up only 39 percent of all commercial 

 forest land. 



In contrast to the forest industry and public 

 forest lands, only 41 percent of the recently cut 

 lands on farm ownerships was found to be in the 

 upper productivity class. On "other" private 

 lands, the comparable figure is 52 percent. 



For both farm and "other" private ownei'ships, 

 the primary interest of land ownership is generally 

 something other than production of forest prod- 

 ucts. Farm owners, of course, are usually most 

 concerned with production of other farm crops, 

 with timber as a secondary interest at best. 

 "Other" private ownerships represent a wide 

 variety of interests. Although some land is held 



primarily for timber values, generally the interest 

 in forest products is secondary to mineral, power, 

 recreation, wildlife, or other values. Included in 

 the other private lands are both individual and 

 corporate holdings, but mostly they are small 

 ownerships as shown in table 137. 



Table 137. — Productivity oj recently cut private 

 lands ^ in continental United States, by type oj 

 owner and size class, 1953 



Type of owner 

 and size class ^ 



Commercial 

 forest area 



Proportion of oper- 

 ating area by pro- 

 ductivity class 





Total 



Oper- 

 ating ' 



Upper 



Medi- 

 um 



Lower 



Farm: 



Small -. -. 



Mil- 

 lion 

 acres 

 160 

 5 



5 

 11 

 19 



1 

 22 



3 

 1 



100 

 16 

 15 



Mil- 

 lion 

 acres 

 51 

 2 



3 



8 

 13 



1 

 16 



2 

 1 



20 

 10 

 12 



Per- 

 cent 

 40 

 59 



48 

 74 

 78 



74 

 84 



72 

 74 



41 

 56 

 69 



Per- 

 cent 

 38 

 27 



35 

 20 

 19 



17 

 15 



25 

 18 



31 

 31 

 21 



Per- 

 cent 

 22 



Medium and large. 

 Lumber manufac- 

 turing: 

 Small 



14 

 17 



Medium 



6 



Large 



3 



Pulp manufacturing: 

 Small and medium. 

 Large 



9 

 1 



Other wood manu- 

 facturing: 



Small and medium. 



Large 



Other private: 



Small 



Medium 



3 



8 



28 

 13 



Large 



10 



Total or aver- 

 age 



358 



139 



56 



29 



15 



' During period January 1, 1947, to date of examination 

 in 1953 or 1954. 



2 Size class based on the total commercial forest area in 

 the ownership. Small, 3-5,000 acres in the East, 10-5,000 

 acres in the West. Medium, 5,000-50,000 acres. Large, 

 50,000 acres or larger. Excludes 19,000 acres of private 

 forest land in Coastal Alaska. 



3 The operating area of an individual ownership is the 

 combined area of the forest types, within the ownership, 

 in which some recent cutting was done. The operating 

 area of any size class or type of ownership is the sum of 

 the operating areas on individual ownerships in that size 

 class or type of ownership. Excludes operating area on 

 some large private ownerships to which access was denied. 



Thirty-four percent of all commercial forest land 

 is on farms, and another 27 percent is on other 

 private lands. This makes a total of 61 percent 

 of all commercial forest area controlled by these 



