1942: Forestry

Effects of War.

In the year 1942, American forests entered the war. In anticipation of defense requirements, it was estimated that the nation would need approximately 38,000,000,000 board feet of lumber as compared with 35,000,000,000 board feet in 1941. In the course of expanding production and military operations, however, this estimate was increased as the year progressed to considerably more than 40,000,000,000 board feet. Figures are not yet available that show whether these estimates were realized in actual production or whether they were exceeded. Like every other industry, lumbering suffered from priorities, shortages of equipment and replacements, shortage of shipping facilities, and ultimately a shortage of manpower as selective service withdrew its younger men for service with the armed forces, and as competing industries in lumbering areas enticed workers into more remunerative jobs. There is every indication, however, that the industry met most, if not all, of the increasing demands made upon it, producing despite deficiencies in every vital need from men to ships.

The military needs of the nation quickly took priority over civilian needs, and by the end of the year these war demands exceeded the capacities of certain of the lumbering districts to produce. Before the year closed, however, programs of stabilization, covering prices, wages and manpower, promised to provide a solution for the manifold problems which lumbermen were facing in a time of war and in a war of production.

Conservation of Forests.

Conservation of forests became entirely a secondary consideration, as it logically should in such a crisis. Yet, even under the pressure of the defense program that was under way in 1941, one of the more important steps toward conservation was initiated by the International Woodworkers of America, affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations. Representing a substantial number of the organized workers engaged in lumbering and sawmill operations, this group forwarded to Congress a series of recommendations and resolutions which, if shelved for the duration of the emergency, will undoubtedly come up again in the period of rehabilitation which must follow quickly on the heels of war. In reporting their views to Congress, the Woodworkers presented some thought-provoking data:

'Let no one believe that forest conservation will not be necessary for many years to come.... Of our 462,000,000 acres of commercial forest lands about 73,000,000 acres — an area almost as large as all of Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina — is now producing so little that it is practically worthless. About 174,000,000 acres — more than Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas — are, with few exceptions, alarmingly understocked, with many diseased and defective trees. Only about 215,000,000 acres now bear trees of saw timber size. This area includes our fast-diminishing virgin forests. It makes up about one third of all our forest land.

'Current growth of saw timber is calculated by the Federal Forest Survey at 363,000,000 board feet. Annual saw timber drain totals more than 2,000,000,000 board feet....

'Almost the entire Middle West or Lakes states bear mute testimony of the terrific cost of past and present methods practised by the majority of the timber land owners. The Lakes states in 1895 produced 35 per cent of the native lumber. Today these same states produce about 4 per cent.

'From the Middle West it was possible to move to the Far West.... Large cities have sprung up throughout the entire Northwest dependent on the continuation of the lumbering industry. But the industry has been built as it was in the Middle West, on the basis of short term rather than permanent stability ... the staff of the Regional Planning Commission of the Northwest was able to compile a list of 76 towns devoted to wood products that had completely disappeared, and a second list of 77 towns whose population had heavily declined because of the abandonment of lumber mills....

'Forests are part and parcel of national security.

'Depletion is no mere fantasy.'

The organized workers in the industry have obviously taken a serious long-range view of the forest problem, and there is no question but their attitude will have more weight and influence than all the conservationists who have no more than an academic interest in the matter. To these 290,000 men conservation is the assurance of livelihood; to Government officials it may be a source of tax revenues. But fundamentally, to the nation as a whole, the forests are not only 'part and parcel of national security,' but also an integral part of our national economy. Security is the pass word now, and the forests and lumbermen are playing an indispensable role. After the war, the problems of our national economy will be paramount, and a sane and healthy forest economy will unquestionably be one of the early objectives of Government men and labor. It is to be hoped that the owners of forest lands will play an equally important part in sound forest management.

Fire Prevention.

The vital role which forest products play in war make the care of woodlands and the prevention of fires a more critical activity now than ever before. As the year closed some 42 state foresters were pressing hard for an amendment to the Clarke-McNary Act of 1924 to enable Congress to appropriate up to $9,000,000 annually for cooperative forest protection, instead of the statutory $2,500,000. In some sections of the country Civilian Defense has proved an unexpected boon to conservation and fire control by creating a force of wardens who watch for sabotage and for accidentally set fires, and by increasing the fire-fighting equipment available for use in the forests.

Development of Processing Industries.

Although the war has brought an accelerated rate of depletion to the forests of America, our woodlands stand to benefit from the war in the long run. The stoppage of exports, the development of processing industries which were formerly carried on in foreign mills utilizing American lumber, additional protection, and a growing concern in governmental, industrial and labor circles about the wise management of this important natural resource are war developments which will undoubtedly extend into the postwar period. Perhaps the day is not far distant when the conservationist will no longer be a lone voice crying in a figurative wilderness.

1941: Forestry

Wartime Conditions.

In 1940 the European war cast its lengthening shadow upon the normal forest economy of America. The forest products of Scandinavia. Finland and Russia ceased to reach markets elsewhere in the world, and the pyramiding domestic and foreign demands on Canadian and United States woodlands were making themselves felt as 1941 began. During the past twelve months war needs became paramount, and in a review of forestry in 1941, with war setting the tempo, normal developments seem incidental, if not incongruous.

In a statement sent to its members on Dec. 1, 1941, the American Forestry Association tersely outlined the situation as follows: (1) Our defense effort has increased the drain upon our forests by 25 to 30 per cent over pre-war years; (2) in Europe the conflict is depleting forests and creating a shortage that will be measurable only by the duration of the war; (3) post-war needs for wood for reconstruction may well create pressure for forest products that will seriously deplete America's forest resources unless it is wisely dealt with; (4) post-war employment problems, involving the shift of 20,000,000 to 25,000,000 workers from war-time to peace-time pursuits may be partially solved by utilizing some of this labor for maintenance of productive forest lands, especially if intelligent planning is undertaken now.

With reference to the current drain upon our forests, the effects are increasingly evident. New uses for wood, starting with the commercial manufacture of rayon in 1921 and increasing each year as ingenuity extends the list of synthetic materials derived from wood, materially enhance the demands for forest products in a nation at war. For ordinary military use the National Defense Council estimates a need for 1,500 board feet of lumber per soldier — 3,000,000,000 feet for an army of 2,000,000 men. This amount would suffice for 150,000 ordinary houses. To meet its military needs Germany doubled its own forest-cutting as early as 1939, and it has virtually stripped Czechoslovakia and Poland. In the treaties which it imposed on Rumania and the other Balkan countries conquered in 1941, ruthless demands are made upon the forest resources.

Under these conditions it is not surprising that prices of lumber have risen sharply, especially under the stimulus of government war bids. And even the hurricane timber, stored in the lakes of New England and supposedly ample to last the Northeastern states until 1944, has practically disappeared during the past few months. Production of lumber has gone up rapidly, too rapidly to appraise its relation to natural growth; but the imperative need to conserve the forests as a war measure is too obvious for further comment.

Forest Fires.

During 1941 forest fires took on a new significance. There were 195,427 fires in 1940 as compared with 213,000 in 1939; and the acreage burned was 26,000,000 in comparison with 31,500,000 for the preceding year. As usual, about 88 per cent of the loss was incurred on privately owned lands for which no organized protection was provided. In April 1941, man and nature greatly strengthened the case for organized protection: A prolonged drought was followed by 7,000 fires in six Eastern states, and fire damage to property was especially severe in Massachusetts. Marshfield provided an object lesson when $1,200,000 worth of taxable property went up in flames because an economizing town government provided no protection against the fire hazard. The neighboring town of Duxbury used its fire-fighting equipment to good advantage and suffered minor losses. Central California was hard hit in November by fires of probable incendiary origin.

Ordinarily these fire losses would have been regarded with equanimity. They were not abnormal, although the April fires in the East were coincident with abnormal drought conditions. But they prompted thoughts of the damage which might be done by incendiarism either by saboteurs or by bombers; and in May and the months following, the commonwealth of Massachusetts, through the Massachusetts Committee on Public Safety, started to give serious thought to forest fire protection as a civilian defense measure. By December all the New England states were acutely conscious of this special hazard, and steps to meet it are being taken as rapidly as shortage of apparatus and limitations of manufacturing facilities will permit. In September John Clark Hunt painted the dangers in lurid language as they may affect California, Oregon and Washington (American Forests), and the outbreak of war has spurred those states which may be victims of incendiary bombing and of sabotage to prepare for the dry months in 1942. Whether or not incendiarism proves to be a serious war risk in America's forests, preparations to combat it are bound to be of lasting benefit. It seems probable that fire losses will be decreased: and as a practical example, the Congress in October appropriated $1,100,000 for emergency forest fire control around critical defense areas. Of this amount. $1,000,000 will be allotted to localities in the West Coast states, only $100,000 to East Coast districts.

The normal progress of forestry likewise called for additional protection against fire: On March 24, the Joint Congressional Committee on Forestry, which was appointed in 1938, reported to Congress, and among its recommendations it urged that annual appropriations for protection be increased from $2,500,000 to $10,000,000. Appropriate legislation was quietly introduced in Congress. Further, the use of radio and of airplanes as means of spotting fires and of directing fire-fighting was extended. Even the parachute has been effectively employed to get 'smoke-chasers' on the scene of action promptly, especially in localities where ground equipment can not readily be brought in. Obviously forest-fire fighting is being modernized, and the war is providing both stimulus and technique which will undoubtedly have lasting value.

Policies and Problems.

The usual run of forestry events seems tame in comparison with the war issues which have been briefly discussed. March marked the fiftieth anniversary of our national forest policy, which stems from a sentence in an Act passed by Congress in 1891 to repeal the Timber Culture Act. It enabled the President to 'set apart and reserve in any state or territory having public lands bearing forests' any part of such lands as forest reservations. A few months later the first forest reserve was created in Wyoming, in what is now the Teton National Forest and Teton National Park. Since March 3, 1891, 160 national forests containing 176,600,000 acres have been created in 42 states and two territories.

Also in March the Joint Congressional Committee on Forestry concluded three years of study and deliberation on forestry policy and problems. The report was an anti-climactic compromise which pleased no one, save in its recommendations of more fire protection at Federal expense. It advocated a forest economy properly integrated with farm and range economies, primarily to increase rural employment and income. No new methods of implementing forestry policies were proposed; it was merely urged that several existing laws be extended. Shortly after the report was submitted, a 'Forest Practices Act' was introduced into both houses of Congress, proposing a measure of Federal control for privately owned forest lands by monetary grants to states which institute forest practices that conform with Federal standards.

It may be questioned whether such a mild proposal will meet the needs of the war economy which has descended upon the country during the past few weeks. It can merely be hoped that any emergency measure which may be enacted will embody as many sound principles of conservation as are consonant with a strenuous war effort.

1940: Forestry

The year 1940 was one of uncertainty in American Forestry. On Dec. 20, 1939, F. A. Silcox, chief of the United States Forest Service since 1933, died suddenly at his home in Alexandria, Virginia. Widely recognized for his energy and ability in promoting forest conservation, his death was deemed 'a blow to the whole American movement for conservation of human and natural resources' (Henry A. Wallace).

Although it was generally acknowledged that Mr. Silcox's place would be difficult to fill, the forestry profession was scarcely prepared to see the position remain vacant during the whole of 1940. Inaction of this kind on the part of the administration inevitably led to rumor and surmise, neither of which has been beneficial to service morale. The Secretary of the Interior has been trying for several years to effect the transfer of the Forest Service to the Department of the Interior, and in February 1940, it was reported that the transfer would be authorized by the President in one of his Reorganization Orders. But in orders issued in March and April, the Forest Service remained in the Department of Agriculture, and interest in Mr. Silcox's successor was intensified. In September News Week reported that the post was to be offered to Rexford Guy Tugwell, but a month later the Secretary of Agriculture, Claude R. Wickard, blandly announced that the Acting Chief Forester had been performing the duties of office so satisfactorily, the Department of Agriculture 'does not consider that there is a vacancy for the position at this time.' Needless to say, the profession did not find the secretary's statement at all reassuring, and the atmosphere is still heavy with surmise.

State Forestry.

Meanwhile the routine functions of the Forest Service have been carried on competently, but new developments have originated elsewhere. The movement to expand state forests and to establish community forests gained considerable momentum during the year, and a review of the status of forestry in the states is illuminating. There are duly constituted forestry organizations in 39 states, and in three additional commonwealths forestry activities are carried on officially by representatives of agricultural colleges. More than 75 per cent of the forest land in the United States comes under the surveillance of the state foresters, and most of it is privately owned. For this reason state forestry organizations perform the important function of extending sound principles of conservation and economic utilization of forest products from publicly administered to privately owned lands. Inevitably the progress which has been made in the several states is uneven, for there are wide discrepancies in state budgets, personnel, total acreage requiring administration, ratios of publicly and privately owned land, and allotments of federal funds. It is natural, therefore, that impatience should be felt with the situation in certain circles, and there is recurrent agitation for legislation which will give virtual control of all forest lands to Federal agencies.

In view of the fact that state forestry is a scant twenty years old, it seems premature to brand it as a failure; and within the past five years, the rapid development of community forests suggests that better forest management is likely to be achieved through community ownership and administration than through nationalization. Figures for 1940 are not yet available, but in 1939 a total of 81,000 acres were added to the community forests of the country. The 67 municipalities which created forests during this calendar year brought the total to 1,500, of which 620 are in New York State. Greatest interest in town forests is manifest in the states east of the Rocky Mountains, but the largest city-owned tract is the 66,000-acre Cedar River Watershed, purchased and efficiently managed by the city of Seattle, Washington. Seattle has demonstrated that a well managed community forest is an economic, sanitary, and recreational asset of the first importance. Originally designed to protect the city's water supply, the forest has supplied 422,000,000 board feet of lumber which sold for $885,000, and the forester in charge estimates that an annual cut of 48,000,000 board feet is available on a ninety-year rotation, with an annual net return of $150,000. Similar, if more modest, results have been achieved by other cities, but the community forest has exerted a more profound influence: Created for the practical purposes of watershed and reservoir protection and for recreation, it has given citizens practical lessons in forest administration, a pride in local ownership, and an appreciation of conservational problems, in addition to a tangible return on their tax investment.

It must be confessed that practical education of this kind penetrates the public consciousness of the nation as a whole rather slowly, and a question of immediate and urgent importance is whether the nation can afford to wait for slow but highly salutary education. As Secretary Wallace pointed out to the Joint Congressional Committee on Forestry, 'Annual growth in usable sawtimber forests is one-half less than the annual drain from them. . . . We are far from being on a maintenance basis. . . . Public regulation of cutting practices on privately owned land is essential. This regulation might well be a joint State-Federal undertaking, with the Federal Government retaining the right of direct action if such became essential. . . . Just how much additional forest land should come into public ownership depends partly on how rapidly progress toward conservational management is made on privately owned lands.'

Effects of War.

As 1940 ends, disrupted international trade and problems of national defense are seen to have direct bearing upon prospective nationalization of privately owned forests. The war has severed the commerce in forest products which moved from Scandinavia, Finland, and Russia to countries bordering the Atlantic. Among them was the United States, which drew heavily upon Sweden, Norway, and Finland for supplies of craft and sulphite. Now this country must look to its own forests and to those in Canada for these products, and at the same time users in other countries are bidding for Canadian and American forest products to replace the materials that formerly came from northern Europe. Rising prices are bound to stimulate excessive cutting on private lands.

On the other hand, Government officials are citing the recent German statement that 'to be without wood in time of war is almost as bad as to be without bread.' Cellulose, turpentine, and rosin are basic in explosives and other modern missiles; special and ordinary woods are indispensable in gun stocks, gun carriages, pontoon bridges, cantonments, timber posts, gas masks, and training planes. Competition for forest products is obviously destined to be keen, and essential war needs will undoubtedly compel the federal Government to assume control over the entire forest industry and over all forests. How quickly this step will be taken depends upon the role which we assume in the war during 1941. Whether the step will be for the duration of the emergency or for an indefinite period, only a prophet can foretell. See also CONSERVATION.

1939: Forestry

Historic Review.

The attitude of the American nation toward its forests has been slowly reaching maturity. The initial outlook of the settler was simple and practical: the forest was an unmitigated nuisance, which offered minor compensations by supplying wood for construction and for fuel. Destruction was undertaken resolutely as the only means of converting a wilderness into habitable and civilized farmland. The attitude regularly reappeared as the frontier was pushed into new forest lands, and the last to succumb to the settler's ax was the Pacific Northwest.

Steady improvement and extension of transportation systems, coupled with a rapidly growing population, revealed economic possibilities in American timber, and the economic interest quickly caught up with the motif of settlement. The conquest of our wooded frontiers witnessed in both settler and lumberman a singleness of purpose — the annihilation of the forest — which, for a time, was sufficiently admirable to foster a sturdy literature and a virile legend, through which Paul Bunyon stalked as a destroyer of timber. Greatest of the traditions established in the frontier epoch of development was the limitless supply of wood for houses, wagons, boats, boxes, railroad ties, railroad cars, mine-timber — in short, all necessities of the Age of Wood, which overlapped the modern Age of Steel. It was not until the closing decades of the nineteenth century that the disappearing woodlands caused serious alarm, and there ensued the inevitable struggle between the self-seeking lumberman and the fanatic conservationist.

For more than a generation the battle of conservation was fought on a high moral plane, with the shortsighted lumber interests playing the role of villain. The combatants went through a complete industrial revolution without a single concession: Steel with its strength replaced wood in many structural uses; but the demand for wood products scarcely slackened as the lumber industry geared itself to supply the increasing demand for newsprint and other paper products. A new villain, far more menacing than the old, crept into the forests almost unnoticed — the American public, traveling, hunting, camping, smoking. Suddenly both the commercial lumberman and the conservationist realized that the new enemy was a common one, which was destroying more good timber than the ax. And from this belated realization, hastened somewhat by the segregation of many acres of forest land in national and state forests and by the dwindling reserves of virgin timber, has come a sanity of viewpoint which is just beginning to achieve results.

Forest Service Survey.

As evidence of this maturing viewpoint is the survey which, for the past eight years, has been conducted by the United States Forest Service under authority given it by the McSweeney-McNary Act of 1928. Its purpose is to take stock of the country's forest resources and potentialities; and when completed, it will involve a field examination of nearly one-third of the nation's land area. Already the survey has covered three of the important forest regions — the South, the Lake States, and the Pacific Northwest; and the preliminary report issued by Raymond D. Garver, Director of the Forest Survey, is an illuminating document on the current status of American forestry.

In the Lower South, which includes Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and the commercial pine belts of Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, about 95 per cent of the 213,000,000 acres of actual or potential forest land is privately owned. After a century of land use, 57 per cent (122,000,000 acres) of the acreage remains forest land, in which the survey disclosed 254,500,000 board feet of saw timber available. A little more than half the total is pine; the balance hardwoods. Although the commercial drain on the supply varies from district to district, the saw timber is overcut 1,000,000,000 feet for the region as a whole, in an annual commercial production of 14,000,000,000 board feet — a quarter of the nation's wood supply. In this entire region prospects for the future are good. As cotton acreage decreases, forest acreage is bound to rise, and it should not take long for growth to balance cutting; and the cut can be increased by utilizing lower grade timber without affecting the balance. Half the present cut leaves the South for other national or foreign markets; and the South may, by increasing its forest growth, and by further processing and refining the wood products, anticipate an expanding industry and increased employment, even without much Federal or state supervision.

In the Lake States, about half the original timbered area, or 52,000,000 acres, is now commercial forest land, but only 7,000,900 acres contain saw timber of first quality. Here the reserve is but 20 per cent of that in the South, and to keep 1,000 miles operating and 50,000 workers employed, saw timber is being overcut 30 per cent. There is little hope of keeping these mills operating indefinitely, but the future of this region is not as black as it might appear. Better fire protection, vigorous progress to effect more intelligent land use, conversion of marginal lands from farm to forest — all are treads which may make for forest restoration; but it will require a generation to restore the Lakes States timber to a significant place in the Nation's forest reserves.

In the Pacific Northwest, four-fifths of the region is forest land, about equally divided between public and private ownership. This comparatively small section of the country contains 600,000,000,000 board feet of timber, or approximately one-third the total supply in the United States. But even this region with its vast reserves is suffering depletion at a rate that exceeds growth by two to one, for it is being called on to supply 30 per cent of the nation's timber, 23 per cent of its pulpwood, and 90 per cent of its shingles. Contributing to the annihilation of the Northwest's greatest natural resource is the heavy export of Douglas fir to Japan, Germany, Italy, and even British Columbia. The timber is shipped in the raw state as peeler logs for conversion into plywood, and one of the laments of the industry is the fact that every $100 worth of raw timber can, by conversion to plywood, be given a value of $1,200. It has actually been imported and resold in the United States at this figure. A bill (S. 1108) to restrict the exportation of Douglas fir peeler logs and Port Orford cedar logs passed the Senate in July but died in the House. Such an obvious source of income and employment is likely to linger in Congressional minds, and the bill may be re-introduced during the next regular session of Congress.

The Garver Forest Survey is only half finished. Field work and office analyses must still be done in California, the Southern Rocky Mountains, Montana, the Ohio Valley, and the entire Northeast. But even at this stage the survey should dispel the myth of an impending timber famine as surely as it should focus the nation's attention on the need for better protection of forest lands from fire, insects, and disease; for improved practices in woods and mills; for more intelligent and effective marketing; for further substitutions for wood in industry; and for a more comprehensive planting and reforestation program. The survey breaks with the sentimental conservationist by regarding our forests as a renewable natural resource, in which there is not merely the basis of vast and profitable commercial utilization but also the means of conserving soils from destruction and of saving lands from floods. Although it supplies no background for complacency and optimism, it demonstrates that we still possess timber and can still preserve it as a vital resource.

Causes of Forest Fires.

If United States forests are to be farmed as a commercial crop, the delicate balance between growth and cutting must not be impaired by such destruction as fire, insects, and disease wreck upon them. Of these three scourges fire is probably the worst; and because of the potentialities for control, it is receiving the earnest attention of foresters. A review of the fire hazard by Roy Headley, Chief of the Division of Fire Control in the Forest Service, reveals the astounding fact that there are 172,000 forest fires a year. And of this staggering total, 156,000 are caused by man. It is an occasion for alarm to realize that 42,000 fires are deliberately set, and that incendiarism accounts for 13,000,000, out of the 36,000,000 acres burned annually in fires.

Although man is the big offender in the national forests, nature plays more than four times as large a rôle in starting fires than she plays in private and public forest lands combined. And the relatively small number of fires in public forests as compared with privately owned forests is out of all proportion to the respective acreages involved. In terms of acreage, the area of national forest burned annually is now less than 0.2 per cent; the area of private and state forests protected by cooperative state and federal supervision is 1.0 per cent; whereas, the area of unprotected woodland burned annually reaches 16.4 per cent. True, the striking record achieved in the national forests has been bought at a price, for more than $6,000,000 a year is expended for the prevention and suppression of fires; but even so, measured merely in terms of the value of the timber, $6,000,000 is a low insurance premium to pay for protection. And such an evaluation ignores completely the other practical services which the forests perform.

Forest Fires of 1939.

Fires struck hard in several localities during 1939. More than 1,000,000 acres burned in the Florida Everglades late in March. Five lives were lost in the Toiyabe National Forest in central Nevada, where lightning started a fire late in July. On August 1, fire again struck the Tillamook district in northwestern Oregon, and after it raged 24 days, little that was left from the 1933 holocaust remained.

The year's danger spot was New England, for the hurricane of Sept. 21, 1938, left in its path through Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire hundreds of thousands of felled trees. Inflammable pine boughs constituted a fire hazard such as no section of the country had ever faced before, and the menace was dealt with effectively. Thanks to a winter of relatively light snow, the woods were accessible, and emergency timber crews cleared the more inflammable brush, especially in localities where human occupation increased the fire hazard. An exceptionally dry spring caused several anxious weeks in which small fires were numerous, but all were rapidly brought under control. The herculean task of cleaning has continued through the summer and fall, and winter comes again with the menace materially reduced, though by no means eliminated.

Timber Salvage in the Northeast.

A still greater problem faced New England as an aftermath of the hurricane — that of salvaging the timber felled by the wind. The problem was especially serious, for salvaging was a grim race with the insects which went into action in the spring. Speedy organization of the Northeast Timber Salvage Administration was followed by the posting of prices which the Federal Government would pay for logs delivered at designated points. Lakes and rivers were utilized for storage, and deliveries began before the winter was far advanced. Prices ranged from $12 to $18 per 1,000 board feet, with 80 per cent of the payment made upon delivery, and 20 per cent following sale of the logs. Although inadequate to enable land owners to make a profit, Government payments stimulated salvage work and cleaning, and they at least enabled New England farmers to realize something on what would otherwise have been total loss. The Northeast has taken stock of seriously depleted timber reserves with a growing appreciation of the need of reforestation, and it is probably more than wishful thinking to believe that this section of the country may emerge from the 1938 disaster with a more progressive forestry program than any yet adopted in other parts of the country.

Privately Owned Forest Lands.

But the nation as a whole is ripe for a progressive plan, as is demonstrated by a bill introduced into Congress (H.R. 7271 and S. 2927) during the last days of the session. In brief, the bill provides for Federal-state management and administration of privately owned forest lands on the basis of voluntary leases or agreements with the Secretary of Agriculture. The owner retains title to the land but must repay the Government for all advances to cover taxes and expenditures involved in the Government management. With power to foreclose vested in the Secretary of Agriculture, who may act if the terms of the voluntary agreement are not met, the bill will virtually give the Federal Forest Service absolute control over private forestry in the United States. Private owners, the states, and the public in general may well ask whether this is the price that must be paid for the restoration of the nation's forests to the position of a primary natural resource. Whether conservation will win in a struggle against states' rights and rugged individualism is a highly speculative question. See also CONSERVATION.