512 JOURNAL OP" FORESTRY 



bility of accomplishing something in this way through private owners 

 should by no means be overlooked. 



Loiiglcaf-piue Region. — It is in this region that the State has the 

 heaviest responsibilities. The percentage of true forest soils is higher 

 than for any region for which even approximate data in this regard is 

 available, and large units of non-agricultural land here occur. Forest 

 fires in this region reach their most destructive frecjuency. Immense 

 holdings in private ownership, as in contrast to the dispersed owner- 

 ship in other regions, are the rule. In spite of the cleanness and de- 

 structiveness in late years of power logging (as it is commonly done, 

 though Hardtner has demonstrated that it can be conducted otherwise) 

 there are still great areas of cut-over lands amply supplied with seed 

 trees, which require little beyond fire protection to reseed satisfac- 

 torily. Locally hogs prohibit reproduction, but we are coming more 

 and more to realize that as an enemy of second-growth the hog does not 

 compare with fire. 



Before an audience of foresters it is hardly necessary to present any 

 arguments in favor of State acquisition and permanent ownership of 

 the 1,500,000 acres of true forest land in this region. Moreover, as it 

 happens that fires are most numerous and destructive in the longleaf- 

 pine region, it is plainly part of a rational forest policy to put our 

 greatest efforts in fire protection into this region, and within the region 

 to give the greatest measure of protection to the poorer lands, which 

 are unfitted for farming, and to such of the better lands as have suffi- 

 cient seed trees to reseed satisfactorily. At least one, and possibly 

 more, forest crops can be raised before much of even the better land 

 in this region is in real demand for farming, unless it has such advan- 

 tages as great accessibility and unusual or near-by markets. 



No special conditions exist which modify the desirability or necessity 

 of State ownership of the larger bodies of non-agricultural land in 

 Louisiana. If it is argued that this land is of value for stock-raising, 

 and should not therefore be considered true forest soil, in the sense 

 that it is of value only for forest production, the reply is twofold: 

 First, that if the entire acreage of non-cultivable soils (exclusive of 

 that in the two treeless types, which can scarcely be counted upon for 

 forest production were to be devoted to growing forest products to 

 satisfy Louisiana's own future needs, it could not be considered an 

 excessive per cent of the State's total acreage for this purpose — 3,181,- 

 000 acres, or 11.3 per cent. Second, it may very well be questioned if 

 the value of the land for range grazing begins to equal its value for 

 forest production. A grazing fee of 25 cents an acre is, I am reliably 



