A FOREST POLICY FOR LOUISIANA 513 



informed, all that the members of a certain large lumber association 

 expect of their cut-over pine lands, and I doubt if such a fee can be 

 obtained under present conditions for the best lands, to say nothing of 

 the poorer. Certainly, the return per acre from such land if reforested, 

 when reduced to an annual basis, is very greatly in excess of this, and 

 under State ownership the necessity for an immediate annual return 

 no longer exists. Furthermore, the grazing value is not wholly lost 

 under reforestation, as a certain amount of forage will be produced in 

 the young stands from one to ten years old, and again from perhaps 

 the twentieth year on, when the crowns are high enough to admit some 

 light. As for the argument that, granted fire protection, continuous 

 forest production may be secure'd as well under private ownership as 

 public, because of the easy natural reproduction and the fast growth of 

 our commercial species, it falls down in the face of the undeniable fact 

 that the life of the average pine operation in Louisiana is between five 

 and ten years. It is ridiculous to expect that any lumber company will 

 voluntarily start now to grow timber for future manufacture which 

 will not mature until thirty or thirty-five years after its virgin timber 

 is exhausted and its mill has closed down for want of raw material. 

 Even if we could prove conclusively that the trees below, say eight inches, 

 are logged at a loss and should be left for seed, we could not expect 

 any private individual or corporation to long retain the land in forest 

 while taxes and interest are piling up without any current return, ex- 

 cept the small one from grazing, above referred to, and in the face of 

 alluring possibilities of sale at an agricultural valuation. The economic 

 pressure would be such as to force the cutting of any species before 

 maturity, but the temptation to turpentine longleaf and slash pine at an 

 early age would be irresistible. Conditions in portions of Florida beau- 

 tifully illustrate this truth. 



Far from there being any conditions modifying the necessity for 

 State ownership, there is one condition which particularly emphasizes 

 it. As in the Lake States, the non-agricultural character of the land is 

 not apparent from the topography or from a superficial examination of 

 the soil. x\lready the land speculator is abroad in the State. State 

 acquisition of our non-agricultural land is the only sure way of pre- 

 venting its sale to ignorant colonists, whose inevitable failure is bound 

 to injure the State's reputation as an agricultural one. 



Where and how to secure a continuous production of forest crops in 

 Louisiana may then be briefly answered in the enunciation of the fol- 

 lowing State forest policy. The Department of Conservation should — 



(i) Encourage and advise in the proper handling under private 



