312 



TIMBER RESOURCES FOR AMERICA'S FUTTJEE 



holdings accounted for 12 percent of the total 

 forest area. 



With regard to age distribution, in the New 

 England study 32 percent of the owners were more 

 than 60 j^ears of age. These older owners were 

 concentrated in the retired and housewife groups. 

 The age class of 40 to 60 years accounted for 55 

 percent of the owners. Those less than 40 years 

 of age made up only 13 percent of all owners. 



Both farm and other private owners obtain 

 possession of forest lands chiefl}^ by pm'chase. 

 In the New England study, for example, 77 per- 

 cent of the farm and 74 percent of other private 

 owners acquired their lands by pm^chase, 24 

 percent by inheritance, and 1 percent by other 

 means, chiefly foreclosures by banks and financial 

 institutions. Inheritance and gifts were of especial 

 importance in the case of housewives. 



"Other" private ownerships thus include a wide 

 variety of individual and corporate owners with 

 widely differing characteristics. A more or less 

 typical owner might be represented, for example, 

 by a businessman who resides in a small city near 

 a forest property that he purchased about 12 

 years ago for a combination of occasional timber 

 income and recreational use. 



Productivity of Farm and "Other" 

 Private Forests Relatively Low 



As a class, farm forests ranked lower than 

 "other" private forests in productivity of re- 

 cently cut lands. Ratings of 41 percent in the 

 upper class, 37 percent in tlie medium class, and 

 22 percent in the lower class were, in fact, the 

 lowest ratings of all the major types of owners, 

 public or private (table 173, p. 303). 



There were important regional differences in 

 productivity of farm forests. Conditions fol- 

 lowing cutting were best on lands in the North, for 

 example, and poorest in the South (table 178). 



The proportion of recently cut lands in "other" 

 private forests qualifying for the upper produc- 

 tivity class was greater than for farm forests, 

 but still well below the average ratings for all 

 public and forest industry holdings (table 173). 

 Some 52 percent of the recently cut "other" 

 private land was found to be in the upper produc- 

 tivity class, in contrast to 41 percent for farm 

 holdings and 65 percent for all holdings. The 

 proportion of area in the upper productivity 

 class was highest in New England and California, 

 lowest in the West Gulf, Southeast, Central, and 

 Middle Atlantic Regions (table 178). 



Productivity of farm and "other" private forests 

 is in general related to size of holding. The rela- 

 tively low productivity for these classes of owaier- 

 ship appears to be primarily attributable to the 

 concentration of those lands in small and medium 

 holdings. The "small" holdings of less than 5,000 



acres show significantly smaller proportions of 

 recently cut lands in the upper productivity class 

 than the medium holdings, and these in turn show 

 smaller proportions than the large holdings; 



Ownership and size of holding (acres) 

 Farm: 



Small (less than 5,000) __ 

 Medium (5,000 to 50,000) 

 Large (over 50,000) 



All holdings 



Other private: 



Small (less than 5,000) __ 

 Medium (5,000 to 50,000) 

 Large (over 50,000) 



All holdings 52 



Proportion of recently cut land in 

 productivity class 



Upper 

 (percent) 



Medium 

 (percent) 



Lower 

 (percent) 



40 

 55 

 84 



38 

 29 

 16 



22 

 16 



41 



37 



22 



40 

 56 

 69 



32 

 31 

 21 



28 

 13 

 10 



28 



20 



The conclusion that cutting of farm and other 

 private forests generally results in low productiv- 

 ity is supported by evidence from some of the 

 earlier surveys (table 177). In Arkansas, Louisi- 

 ana, and Mississippi, for example, it was found 

 that "current cutting practices have so depleted 

 the forest capital on nonindustrial lands that they 

 are producing only about one-third of their poten- 

 tial capacity." A study in the Tennessee Valley 

 showed that only 2 percent of the farm forest land 

 in that area was well managed. 



Forestry Efforts by Farm and 

 "Other" Private Owners Limited 



In general, farm and "other" private forest 

 owners are making no substantial investments in 

 stand improvement on forest lands other than 

 those recently cut. In the period 1947-53, only 2 

 percent of these owners were supplementing com- 

 mercial logging by such measures as girdling or 

 poisoning cull trees on such lands. 



The level of fire protection achieved on many 

 farm and "other" private holdings is considerably 

 below the level reached on public holdings and 

 forest industiy lands. Although progress under 

 the State-Federal cooperative fire control program 

 in extending protection to private lands has been 

 impressive in recent years, there remains an ex- 

 tensive acreage where fire protection is inadequate 

 or where there is no organized protection at all. 

 This is particularly the case in parts of the South 

 and in the Central States where farm and other 

 private ownerships include the bulk of the forest 

 acreage. 



Progress by farm and other private owTiers also 

 has been made in connection with tree planting. 

 In 1953, for example, more than 350,000 acres of 

 farm and "other" private lands were planted. 

 This was about half the acreage planted by all 



