FORESTRY WORK AT SOUTHERN COMMERICAL 



CONGRESS 



^^=:;'WO forestry problems were 

 1^ handled at the Southern Com- 

 ^^^ mercial Congress recently held in 

 Nashville. One involved the ciueslion 

 of the management of large holdings of 

 forest lands, and was considered at a 

 conference with lumbermen. The other 

 considered the farm forest and its rela- 

 tion to the farm and farmer. The lum- 

 bermen's conference was presided over 

 by Mr. H. S. Graves, Forester of the 

 U. S. Department of Agriculture. In 

 addition to many of the largest lumber- 

 men from some of the Southern States, 

 there were present the State foresters 

 of Wisconsin and New Jersey. 



The dominant subject considered at 

 the conference was the protection of 

 forest lands, and especially of cut-over 

 forest lands, from fire. The systems in 

 use in several of the Northeastern and 

 Lake States were discussed, and their 

 applicability to Southern conditions ; 

 the cost of forest-fire protection; the 

 relation of land owners, the local com- 

 munity, and the State to protection, and 

 the distribution of the cost were all con- 

 sidered. It was shown that if protec- 

 tion could be secured, cut-over forest 

 lands could be made a profitable invest- 

 ment for the production of timber. A 

 great portion of the cut-over land is 

 suitable for farming. It is possible, 

 however, to produce a merchantable 

 crop of young timber upon it before the 

 labor conditions will permit its utiliza- 

 tion for farming purposes. 



Resolutions were adopted which 

 called attention to the importance of the 

 forest industries of the South. These 

 industries, with their dependent indus- 

 tries, give employment to more than 

 400,000 men and yield annual products 

 which amount to one billion dollars. 

 The permanency of these industries is 

 threatened on account of the unpro- 

 ductivity of the cut-over land which is 

 largely the result of fires. The legis- 

 latures of the several Southern States 



were requested to appoint legislative 

 committees to investigate the forest con- 

 ditions and problems and to confer with 

 committees of other States relative to 

 desirable and uniform legislation hav- 

 ing for its object the protection of for- 

 est lands from fire, the reduction of 

 waste, and the adoption of methods of 

 increasing the earning capacity of for- 

 est land. It was further urged that the 

 States should make provision both for 

 popular and technical education of 

 farmers and other land owners in the 

 methods of protecting and developing 

 their forest land. 



The farm forest meeting, which was 

 conducted under the auspices of the 

 U. S. Forest Service, was participated 

 in by W. W. Ashe, Forest Service ; 

 Prof. Alfred Akerman, of Athens, Ga. ; 

 and Prof. I. A. Ferguson, of Columbia, 

 Mo. 



Planting forest trees on waste farm 

 land was discussed by Prof. Akerman. 

 He laid special stress on the choice of a 

 species adapted to the site and the re- 

 turns which can be expected from such 

 plantations. 



The management of old timber was 

 discussed by Prof. Ferguson. He took 

 up the necessity for making improve- 

 ment cuttings in old stands, as well as 

 liberation cuttings and reproduction cut- 

 tings, and the great opportunity that 

 the farmer has for carrying on such 

 work. 



W. W. Ashe discussed methods of 

 increasing the earning value of timber 

 lands. With fire protection assured so 

 as to preserve the fertility of the forest 

 soil, the greatest returns must be ex- 

 pected from the management of young 

 timber. As a rule the growth of stands 

 of old timber is slow% or the stands are 

 even stationary. Young stands respond 

 to thinnings by making greatly ac- 

 celerated growth. These thinnings 

 should be so made as to concentrate the 

 vigor of the soil in a comparatively few 



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