In the relatively near future, cut-over forests must become the main source of saw timber in the United States. Whether these forests will prove equal to the demands placed on them depends on what is done now toward increasing their productivity. That only a small proportion of all cut-over stands, even where “selective logging” has been practiced, are in condition to produce timber crops commensurate with site capacity is too well known to require confirmation. This statement leaves devastated lands out of consideration; it refers to lands already restocked or in the process of restocking and bearing more or less commercial timber, national forest lands included.