OUTSTANDING INSTANCES OF THE PRACTICE OF
COMMERCIAL FORESTRY
Despite the difficulties which beset the practice of forestry to-
day, there are many instances where a surprising start has been
made, not only in publicly owned forests, but on privately owned
lands. On an area basis, the practice of forestry leads on publicly
owned lands. The national forests are being handled, generally,
upon a sustained yield basis which calls for a balancing of cutting
against growth for a steady, permanent yield.
In the states the situation is somewhat different. Most states
have found it necessary to purchase land for state forests. These
purchases have been confined, and rightly so, to cut-over lands where
reforestation by planting is the only possible method of obtaining a
second crop within a reasonable time. Large purchases of such
land have been made by the states of Pennsylvania, New York,
Massachusetts, and others. Reforestation on these lands is pro-
gressing as rapidly as funds permit. The reforestation of the state
forests in Michigan is particularly noteworthy.
The aroused interest in forest management of privately owned
lands is due largely to greater appreciation of the value of second-
growth timber. For years, second-growth timber, for the most part
accidental, i. e., it grew despite fires and lack of care, has been a real
influence in the lumber markets of the East. North Carolina Pine
(a term applied to several species of pine), over go per cent
second-growth, has supplied a relatively large share of the lumber
needs of the Atlantic seaboard. Second-growth white pine in New
Fngland has found a special use for shipping containers, in which
it has met no competition until recently. Second-growth hardwoods
in the Central States have entered the hardwood markets and hard-
wood-using industries in a commanding way.
Furthermore, virgin forest owners have come to realize that it
is not easy to sell their cut-over lands for agricultural purposes.
For the time being general extension of the area of improved farm
land has stopped and an actual decrease of 26 million acres was
reported in the last ten years. The idea of reforesting these lands
is growing, especially since it has been found that often relatively
inexpensive changes in logging practice will accomplish forest re-
generation.
Many private owners are observing the gradual shifting of
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