38 MISC. PUBLICATION 162, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
are authorized to grow and sell planting stock to farmers for the 
purpose of establishing windbreaks and farm woodlands upon de- 
nuded or nonforested lands. The Forest Service is also ready to 
give information to those interested in tree planting. 
The vast extent of its forests has helped to make the United States 
the great industrial Nation it is today, but improvident and unregu- 
lated exploitation has made inroads upon this source of prosperity. 
We still cut our forest trees faster than we grow them. If this 
continues indefinitely, it will mean that eventually there will be a 
shortage of wood and other forest products. As forests will always 
be necessary to both the economic and social life of this country, they 
can never cease to play an important part in the American picture, 
because no other agent can replace them as sources of industrial 
wealth, conservators of water and soil, as recreation grounds, and the 
home of wildlife and game. It will, therefore, always be essential 
that the people of the United States maintain a forest growth sufficient 
to meet the demands of the various forms of forest use. To do this, 
our remaining forests must be used wisely; we must have adequate 
fire control for forest lands, and wherever necessary, denuded lands 
must be planted to trees. Only in this way may we expect to preserve 
for all time an adequate portion of that forest wealth which has had 
such a vital influence in shaping the destiny of the Nation. 
