264 Forestry Quarterly. 



"Louisiana has 18,000,000 acres of forest land, the hardwoods 

 being principally in the northern half, the softwoods in all parts. 

 More than 100 kinds of trees make up the forest, about one-half 

 of the species possessing commercial value, the others being too 

 small or too scarce to count for much. Six or seven softwoods — 

 the pines and cypresses — supply fourteen-fifteenths of the annual 

 lumber output of the state. At this time the softwood forests are 

 given much more attention than those of hardwoods ; but it may 

 be expected that a change will come in time, diversified manufac- 

 turing will increase, and the large sawmills will lessen in number 

 as the primeval stands of pine and cypress are cut out. Plants 

 which manufacture lumber into other commodities will take the 

 place of mills which now sell their output in the rough, or sell 

 it planed or surfaced. Diversified manufacture of wood pro- 

 ducts has not progressed nearly as far in Louisiana as in the 

 northern and eastern states. Many southern industries of that 

 kind are still in their infancy, and there is room for many others 

 which have not yet had a beginning. Development will come in 

 time, for the raw material is abundant. The least encouraging 

 phase in the outlook for Louisiana is found in the fact that it is 

 selling immense quantities of its logs and lumber in the rough, to 

 feed factories in other regions, and when the development of 

 home wood-working industries shall be undertaken in the future, 

 it may be found that the forests will be much depleted. It may 

 thus happen that its forest resources will never reach their best 

 development." 



"One of the constant purposes of the field work was to note 

 any new or little-used woods which were beginning to make their 

 appearances in the mills and shops, and to observe any properties 

 in them which seemed to command them for wider use. One of 

 the earliest discoveries made was that a number of woods were 

 going into the sawmills as one species and coming out as another. 

 This was not due to any purpose to palm off an inferior wood for 

 a better, but was owing to the fact that Louisiana has more than 

 a hundred species of forest trees, while the lumber yards recognize 

 scarcely a score of species of lumber. For instance, three maples 

 are cut as sawlogs, but all appear in the lumber yard as 'soft 

 maple.' Two species of ash are cut in the woods, and Sugar- 

 berry and Hackberry are loaded on the truck with them ; but in 



