548 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Arkansas, through the Gulf and Atlantic coastal States to Virginia 

 and including that part of the southern Appalachians within these 

 States. It is estimated that nearly 150 million acres (table 1) of the 

 217 million acres classed as forest land is grazed at least to some degree. 

 The commercial pine and hardwood forests have been largely cut over 

 and although they are now mainly in some degree of restocking to 

 forest growth, most of the area supports a good growth of grasses and 

 shrubs suitable for livestock grazing. A large part of the noncom- 

 mercial forest lands are grazed. 



Nearly 15 million cattle, 9 million sheep, and over 9K million hogs 

 (1930 census) in the region as a whole, are on farms, forest, improved 



Easture, and un timbered range lands. Texas and Oklahoma together 

 ave 8.7 million cattle, 7.2 million sheep, and 2.6 million hogs, a 

 part of which graze on forest lands in the eastern sections of these 

 States. A still larger proportion of the cattle, sheep, and hogs in the 

 rest of the South obtain feed from the forest range. The grazing of 

 livestock on native forage produced on forest lands furnishes a liveli- 

 hood or supplemental income to a substantial proportion of the rural 

 population and in some instances provides a current return to the land- 

 owner to meet carrying charges. Timber growing and adequately 

 controlled livestock grazing seem to represent a dual use which can 

 contribute substantially to economic use of forest lands. 



The " Forest Land the Basic Resource" section of this report shows 

 that approximately 98 percent of the forested area in the South is 

 privately owned. Nearly 70 million acres is in farm woodlands, of 

 which, according to the 1930 census, nearly 34 million acres, or almost 

 half, is pastured. It is estimated that about 112 million acres are 

 grazed of the 143 million acres in other types of private ownership, 

 chiefly large holdings of lumbermen and turpentine producers. Of 

 the area in public ownership, amounting to less than 4% million acres, 

 the largest part of which is in national forests in the southern Appa- 

 lachians, it is estimated that over 3.2 million acres are grazed. A 

 tax-delinquent situation has developed to such an extent during the 

 past decade that the forest lands reverting to the public for nonpay- 

 ment of taxes are reaching sizeable proportions. 



The forest lands in the South are largely unfenced and are for the 

 most part grazed by livestock of local residents, who seldom own very 

 much of the land they use for grazing their livestock. Furthermore, 

 the leasing of grazing rights on privately owned timberlands is not 

 common practice. In most States these unfenced forest lands are 

 generally considered public ranges, and in the southern pine type 

 commonly are burned annually or periodically by the local livestock 

 owners. The original timber has been largely cut off, so that the 

 peak of forest productivity has passed for the time at least. The 

 practice of annually burning over the grass and other ground cover 

 during the dormant period interferes with satisfactory forest restock- 

 ing on much commercial forest area. 



Much progress has been made in improving livestock-raising con- 

 ditions and methods in the South through cooperative efforts of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture and the various State 

 agencies. Perhaps the most outstanding accomplishment has been 

 the elimination of the Texas fever tick of cattle from most of the area. 

 As a result, pure-bred cattle have been brought in extensively to 

 improve the type and grade of native stock. The development of 



