CONTENTS 



Page 



Introduction 289 



The influence of public land policies 289 



Origin of the public domain 289 



Lands transferred to private and State ownership. 289 



Public domain reserved for national values 290 



Large areas of vacant public domain remain 290 



Some land reacquired by Federal Government. _ 290 



State and local public land policies vary 290 



The present pattern of commercial forest land 



ownership 291 



Nearly three-fourths of forest land is privately 



owned 291 



Private lands chiefly in small holdings 292 



Small holdings concentrated in East 293 



Farm holdings largest class of ownership 293 



Most private lands support young-growth stands 294 

 Sawtimber about equally distributed between 



private and public ownerships 297 



Over half the softwood sawtimber on public 



lands 299 



Problems relate to both tj'pe and size of owner- 

 ship 299 



Forest industry ownerships 299 



Holdings of lumber manufacturers predominate. _ 299 

 Industrial lands chiefly in large and medium- 

 sized holdings 299 



Industrial holdings concentrated in the South 299 



Area of industrial holdings shows moderate in- 



increase 30 1 



Productivity of forest industrj' holdings relativelj' 



high 301 



Management programs adopted by forest indus- 

 try 303 



Several factors favor industrial forestry 301 



Farm and other private ownerships 305 



Farm and other private ownerships include three- 

 fifths of commercial forest land 305 



288 



Page 

 Farm and other private ownerships — Continued 



Farm and other private holdings mostly small- _ 305 



Holdings of less than 100 acres predominate.- 307 

 ■ Half the farm and "other" private ownerships 



include 6 percent of commercial forest land. - 309 

 Farm forests support relatively low timber 



volumes 309 



Private ownerships are heterogeneous 310 



Other private ownerships represent many oc- 

 cupations 310 



Occupations of most private owners not con- 

 nected with forestry 311 



Length of tenure of forest land varies widely- - 311 

 Farmers mostly resident owners: many other 



owners absentee 311 



Individual ownerships predominate 311 



Productivity of farm and "other" private forests 



relatively low 312 



Forestry efforts by farm and "other" private 



owners limited 312 



Various reasons given for poor management 313 



Farm and "other" private forests of major im- 

 portance 314 



Federal ownerships 314 



National forests established largely from public 



domain 314 



National-forest management for multiple use 315 



National forests include 37 percent of sawtimber 



volume 316 



National forests of major importance in West 317 



Management of national forests becoming more 



intensive 317 



Adjustments in national-forest areas 318 



Other Federal lands contribute to timber supply. 318 



Management of Federal lands relatively good 318 



State and local public ownerships 319 



Present timber volumes relatively low 319 



Management and protection efforts increasing 320 



State and other public holdings important locally. 320 



Key problems of ownership 321 



