TIMBER GROWING AND LOGGING PRACTICE IN CALIFORNIA 9 
(6) To keep going an existing operation, AYith a heavy invest- 
ment in plant, transportation, and equipment and with established 
markets, a new crop of timber must be grown on the lands now be- 
ing logged. The condition of cut-over lands is then equally im- 
portant whether this grower of forests is the private owner or the 
j^ublic, for the physical things necessary to produce a forest are 
identical in either case. The permanence of the oj)erator's timber 
supply depends largely on whether he adopts steps that will pro- 
duce timber crops on his cut-over land. No mere shift in owner- 
ship of land can possibly offset the long-continued effects of de- 
structive lumbering. 
Fig. 2. 
-DESTRUCTION OF YOUNG GROWTH TURNS FOREST INTO WASTE 
LAND 
Only a single severe summer fire in tlie slash left from logging was needed to 
reduce this forest land to an unproductive waste one step removed from desert. 
Centuries will perhaps be required to reestablish a complete forest cover by nat- 
ural means. 
(7) The public has declared its interest in the fate of cut-over 
lands by substantial contributions of cash for protection against 
fire, and obviously expects similar action from timber owners. 
These make the real " economic problems " that confront the 
forest owner. They overshadow the commonly recognized and 
highly important tax and carrying charge questions, and any busi- 
nesslike consideration of the future of his timber operations must 
start with them. 
Thus the owner of forest land in considering the first steps in 
growing timber as an integral part of his business, requires answers 
to several definite and practical questions : 
What steps in logging, slash disposal, and fire protection are 
essential to leaving cut-over lands reasonably productive? 
Are these steps practical, and what is their cost above the usual 
measures now taken on private lands? 
74722°— 26 2 
