Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 129, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 May 1920 — URGES BUYING FOREST LANDS [ARTICLE]

URGES BUYING FOREST LANDS

Forest Reservation Commission Plans to Relieve Shortage of Timber. SPRUCE SUPPLY EXHAUSTED Millions of Acres of Land Unsuited for Agriculture Could Be Used for Growing Timber—More Money is Needed. 'Washington.—Further purchases by the government of forest lands in the southern Appalachian and White mountains, to relieve the present shortage of timber in those regions, are advocated by the national forest reservation commission in a report just issued, entitled “Progress of Purchase of Eastern National Forests." This commission is the body authorized to pass on timber land purchases made under the Weeks law, and is composed of the secretaries of agriculture, Interior and war, and four members of the congress. “The supply of spruce in the eastern United States available for paper stock is nearly exhausted,” the publication states. “Eastern building material is no longer adequate fully tb meet Iniustrial demands, the future supply ofi hardwoods is threatened and will not be sufficient unless prompt measures are taken for maintaining the productivity of the hardwood forests.” The situation can be helped materially, says the report, by arranging that lands not suitable for agriculture —of which there are 30,000,000 acres in the sastem mountains —shall be used for growing timber. _Of this 30,000,000 acres approximately 1,800 * acres have been purchased-by-the

ment finder the provisions of. the Weeks law, which authorizes the acquisition of lands on the head waters of navigable streams for .inclusion within national forests. Appropriations totaling $11,600,000 have already been made under the Weeks law, and the expenditure of all but about $300,000 of the amount available for purchasing lands has been authorized by the commission. Twen-ty-one purchase areas, with a total area of approximately 7,000,000 acres, have been designated in nine states in the important hardwood and spruce regions of the Appalachian and White mountains. In 17 of these, purchases have been made. Since the purchase program was developed other states, including Kentucky, have enacted legislation authorizing the acquisition of lands for national forest purposes. To carry out the purchase program as outlined by the commission an appropriation of $2,000,000 per year for a period of five years, beginning with the fiscal year 1921, has been recommended by the commission. Th a average price of the 1,841.934

acres whose acquisition has been authorized by the commission Is $5.26 per acre. All of the lands bought are capable of producing valuable crops of timber. During the fiscal year 1919 receipts for timber sold from the area then acquired—l,347,66o acres—amounted to $71,942 under the conservative method of cutting practiced by the government. The timber that was sold was very largely salvage and it is expected that the returns from timber sales will steadily increase.