Most of the soils of the area in need of reforestation, however, are 
sandy or loamy and often also rocky or gravelly. Many soil types 
have been recognized in the soil surveys, but in more detail than is 
necessary in discussing forest planting on the basis of experience to 
date. The different types may be found so close together in any part 
of the region that their differences serve rather as the basis for local 
distinctions than for broad treatment, as between north and south 
or east and west. Broad distinctions will be made, however, be- 
tween the dry, sandy soils occupied naturally by jack pine or oaks, 
at one extreme, and the loamy soils at the other with their better 
conditions of moisture and fertility. The heavier soils are or have 
been characterized by natural growth of northern white pine, sugar 
maple, basswood, yellow birch, beech, eastern hemlock, white spruce, 
or aspen. The swamps, with their natural growth of black spruce, 
tamarack, northern white cedar, and other species, form a separate 
soil division of the region ; but as little or no planting has been done 
in the swamps, they offer no foundation for a discussion of planting. 
Soil distinctions are important considerations in any reforestation 
policy for two reasons. They not only influence the success or 
failure of the trees which are planted, and often determine the kinds 
of trees which should be selected for planting, but they also deter- 
mine primarily to what uses the land will be put. Forest planting 
and growth is a form of land use just as much as the growing of any 
other crop and is subject to the same economic principles. Much of 
the 20,000,000 acres of unproductive land in the Lake States is so 
sandy, stony, or rough that it is difficult or impossible to grow 
agricultural crops upon it. Those portions which might produce 
inferior agricultural crops will not be needed for that purpose for 
many years, or until the large areas of land better suited for agri- 
cultural crops have been utilized. Meanwhile they can be used 
profitably for growing a crop of timber. When the timber crop is 
harvested, they may be converted into agricultural use if the demand 
at that time justifies it, but it is at least an open question whether 
such lands may not always be more profitable for timber growing. 
THE ESSENTIALS OF A PLANTING POLICY 
The fact that the present reforestation programs are inadequate 
to make productive in any reasonable period of time the 20,000,000 
acres of denuded forest land in the Lake States is sufficient evidence 
of the need of planting and of a reforestation policy for these lands. 
(PI. 1, A.) The area as a whole, or even the area in each State, is 
so large that no one agency, be it State, Federal, or private, can solve 
the problem alone. Any successful policy must provide for action 
individually and cooperatively by all three agencies. 
The essentials of a planting policy are: (1) A survey of lands 
in need of planting to determine area, location, ownership, condition, 
and value for planting; (2) effective fire protection for lands to be 
planted; (3) the planting of publicly owned lands by public agencies; 
(4) the expansion of public-planting programs, including the acquisi- 
tion of additional lands to be planted; and (5) encouragement of 
counties, towns, and private agencies in forest planting by the 
Federal and State Governments, through advice to owners, the dis- 
tribution of planting stock, possible modification of taxes on land 
