72 BULLETIN 1402, U. S. DEPAKTMEXT OF AGRICULTURE 
The indications are, at the very lowest estimate, that the com- 
monly assumed financial disadvantages of partial cutting, as on 
national forest land, are largely imaginary. It seems fair to con- 
clude that similar cutting on private lands, much as it may de- 
part from the current cutting practice, is not necessarily either costly 
or impractical. 
THE OPPORTUNITIES FOR PRIVATE FORESTRY 
The physical steps needed to produce full crops of timber are 
immediately practicable and are inexpensive. They can readily 
be taken as part of the logging operation on private lands as they 
already are on national forest cuttings. The real obstacle to adop- 
tion of the measures is neither their difficulty nor cost, but rather un- 
certainty concerning the future. 
"Whether or not the owner of forest land goes into the timber- 
growing business will depend on an answer to several questions. 
The first of these deals with the productive capacity of the land; 
the rate at which, under a given method of treatment, merchantable 
timber will grow. The second is concerned with the safety of the 
investment; the possibility of protecting the growing forest from 
fires, insects, and disease. Third, the potential grower of timber 
must estimate the cost of producing his crop ; the initial investment 
necessary and the carrying costs, particularly fire protection ex- 
penditures and taxes. Fourth, some estimate must be made of the 
value of timber at a time several decades in the future : the amount 
of increase in the value of stumpage, and the value of species now 
little prized but which in mixed stands will form a considerable part 
of the second cut. 
These are the elements of the problem that the potential gi*ower 
of timber faces. Though a mathematically precise answer to any 
of the questions is impossible to-day, an attempt to approximate 
the answer is far from hopeless. 
The productive capacity of forest lands has already been dis- 
cussed in a general wa}^. An accurate appraisal of the growth rate 
on a particular forest property of necessity involves a careful ex- 
amination of the lands, by qualified men and no general statement 
can possibly be substituted. Parts of the region produce wood 
slowly, particularly the poorer class of yellow pine lands of the 
east slope of the Sierras, but a very large part of the pine region 
can produce wood at or above the rate which is making the private 
growing of timber a profitable and attractive venture in the Xorth- 
east, in the South, and in other portions of the United States. 
Except in the coast redwood region and in the Douglas fir region, 
it is doubtful if the growth possibilities of the better lands in the 
California j^ine region are surpassed. 
The risk of serious damage to young forests by fire is still high, 
largely from an inadequate scale of protection and from improper 
disposal of logging slash. The cost of adequate protection is known, 
and can not be considered excessive. Proper coordination of Fed- 
eral, State, and private protection efforts can reduce the fire danger 
sufficiently to justify private growing of timber, though the hazard 
can never be eliminated. 
