TIMBER GROWING IE" THE LODGEPOLE PINE REGION 3 
details of forestry, like the details of agriculture or engineering, call 
for expert study in working out the plans and methods best adapted 
to a particular tract of land or a particular business. 
It is of course not practicable to draw a hard and fast line between 
the first steps that will maintain some degree of productiveness on 
forest land and the more complete measures that will bring the 
quantity and quality of wood produced up more nearly to ideal 
results. The two general types of forest practice grade into each 
other in a common-sense and practical resume of the various steps 
in timber growing that will be most helpful to the man in the woods. 
Mr. Thompson's bulletin has been written primarily for the men to 
whom timber growing is a concrete business and logging problem. 
At the same time it will have value for the everyday reader who is 
interested in forestry as an important phase of land use in the United 
States and in the public policies designed to bring forestry about. 
The Forest Service has tremendous faith in the commercial promise 
of timber growing to American landowners. The law of supply and 
demand is working steadily to create timber values which in large 
portions of the United States will pay fair returns on forestry as a 
business. The economic history of other countries which have passed 
through a cycle of virgin-forest depletion similar to that which the 
United States is now traversing points to the same conclusion. The 
time is approaching when forestry, and forestry alone, will supply 
the enormous quantities of wood demanded by American markets. 
The fundamental laws of business must in the nature of things so 
operate as to enable the markets for forest products to be supplied 
at a profit to the grower of timber. The returns being obtained 
from this form of land employment at many points in the United 
States show that this relationship between the value of timber and 
the cost of producing it is already coming about. 
To the men who own forest-producing land in the United States 
or who are engaged in industries which require timber as raw mate- 
rial, forestry now offers a commercial opportunity. Satisfactory 
returns from forestry can not be promised in sweeping terms any 
more than returns from the manufacture of lumber or paper, or from 
running a railroad or operating a mine. But the opportunity for 
profitable employment of capital and business talent in the growing 
of timber merits the same consideration and the same expert guidance 
as any other industrial opportunity. This applies with special force 
to the commercial institutions in the United States which have made 
large capital investments in manufacturing plants and distributing 
organizations, dependent for their maintenance upon a future supply 
of forest-grown material. It applies no less to the owners of land, 
in large tracts or farm wood lots, the earning capacity of which lies 
chiefly in growing trees and which, without tree growth, will become 
either a doubtful asset or an outright liability. The Forest Service 
earnestly asks the forest landowners of the United States to deter- 
mine for themselves, with the same care with which they would 
approach any other business problem, whether timber growing does 
not offer a commercial opportunity which they should grasp. 
On the other hand, the general public has a vital interest in keep- 
ing the forest lands of the United States productive. The loss of 
forest growing areas in the Rocky Mountain region not only saps 
