PRIVATE FOEESTKY. 27 



In connection with all lumbering operations permanent logging roads 

 are built. These minimize the present cost of transportation, and 

 will greatly reduce the cost of marketing future crops. Thus the 

 extension of the roads is steadily adding to the investment value of 

 the forest. Moreover, they serve also as a network of fire lines. 

 Forest planting is practiced where fire will not threaten its success. 

 The experimental work in silviculture which is done at Biltmore is 

 certain to make important additions to the science and practice of 

 forestry. 



Since extensive forest planting is to be expected only when the 

 conditions surrounding forestry are far more stable and advantageous 

 than they are at present in most parts of the country, it is not sur- 

 prising that it has as yet scarcely been attempted by private owners. 

 What forest planting has been done on private lands is mainly the 

 result of artificial encouragement, by the Federal timber-culture 

 laws, now repealed, or by bounties or tax exemptions offered by the 

 States. The bounty and exemption laws are, as a rule, unsatisfac- 

 tory in their results, and the forest area of the country has not been 

 much extended by this means. The total area of planted forest 

 land does not exceed 965,000 acres. Yet the total area of land which 

 would yield its greatest returns from planted forest is more than 

 56,000,000 acres. 



In New England forest planting has been particularly successful, 

 and is now being done on an increasing scale. Not including old 

 plantations that have been cut, approximately 25,000 acres have 

 been planted, and it is estimated that 5,000,000 board feet of white 

 pine and 34,000 feet of hardwoods could be harvested to-day from 

 plantations in New England. From the trees that were planted in 

 1908 about 60,000,000 feet can be obtained when the plantations 

 become merchantable. 



Realizing the advantage of an assured future timber supply, 

 several railroads are adding to their forest holdings and managing 

 their forest properties for the production of a sustained yield of cross- 

 ties for their own roads. The success and economy of preservative 

 treatment now make it possible to use for cross-ties woods that are 

 cheaper and more abundant than the woods of longer life. By their 

 recent purchases of tracts of loblolly pine the railroads are showing 

 their appreciation of this fact. The practice of forestry by the rail- 

 roads is therefore especially significant, in that it includes, in addi- 

 tion to conservative management, the commercial utilization of tim- 

 bers of lower grade. In a number of cases planting is done, also 

 with a view to tie production, though such planting is usually a sub- 

 ordinate part of the forest policy. 



[Cir. 167] 



