roduction of lands adapted for forestry which previously have
been idle.

The United States of the future will not be a desert, tree-less
country. However, immediate measures to save our remaining trees
must be developed. The greater part of our virgin timber has
already been felled. The aftermath forests, which succeed the
virgin stand, generally are inferior. Our supplies of ash, black
walnut and hickory, once abundant, are now seriously limited.
Formerly, these mixed forests covered vast stretches of country
which today support only a scant crop of young trees which will
not be ready for market for many years. These second-growth
stands will never approach in value or quality the original
forests. Over large areas, poplar, white birch, and Jack pine
trees now predominate on lands which formerly bore dense stands
of white pine. In many places, scrubby underbrush and stunted
trees occupy lands which heretofore have been heavy producers of
marketable timber trees.

Generally speaking, farm lands should not be used for forestry
purposes. On the other hand, some forest lands can be profitably
cleared and used for agriculture. For example, settlers are
felling trees and fighting stumps in northern Wisconsin,
Michigan, and Minnesota. Some of these virgin lands are valuable
for farming purposes, others are not. It is preferable that they
should produce farm crops instead of tree crops if the land is
best adapted to agricultural use. It is an economic necessity
that all lands in this country best suited for farming purposes
should be tilled. Our ever-increasing population demands that
every acre of land useful for growing crops should be cleared and
devoted to farming. Under such conditions, the settlers should
reserve sufficient woodlands for their home needs, carefully
distinguishing between the land that is best for agricultural
purposes and the land that is best for forestry purposes, and
thus doubling their resources.

Thoughtless lumbermen have pillaged millions of acres of our most
productive forests. The early lumbermen wasted our woodland
resources. They made the same mistakes as everyone else in the
care and protection of our original forests. The greatest blame
for the wasting of our lumber resources rests with the State and
Federal authorities who permitted the depletion. Many of our
lumbermen now appreciate the need of preserving and protecting
our forests for future generations. Some of them have changed