PINE INVENTORY 



the necessity of producing paper under ceiling prices 

 are a big temptation to cut clean in order to cut costs. 

 After all, the cost of wood includes not only the wood 

 itself, but cutting and hauling. Wages have doubled, 

 while the haul has increased from five to, say, twenty 

 miles. But high prices tempt landowners, too. We try 

 to cut strictly according to their directions, and many, 

 many times they tell us to cut clean so as to clear the 

 land for cattle range. Sometimes that's just an excuse, 

 and the cattle never come in." 



Nowhere is the God- given advantage of Southern 

 climate more richly demonstrated than in the pine 

 woods. The long growing season and the generous rain- 

 fall of the coastal plain make not only for exceedingly 

 rapid growth but also for quick and easy reseeding. 

 This is very important, since replanting is costly and 

 risky; at least five dollars an acre, and at best, only sixty 

 per cent survival of the baby trees with always the 

 chance of destruction by even a light fire. Only in sec- 

 tions where the land has been stripped naked by ax and 

 flame is replanting necessary. In such areas, both the 

 lumber and paper companies are doing more and more 

 of this work and encouraging the farmers in the neigh- 

 borhood to follow their provident example. Ten million 

 seedlings a year are being distributed in this way. Each 

 tiny plant is an eloquent propagandist for better for- 

 estry. Any man who sets out a thousand seedlings, even 

 if he hires someone to do this backbreaking, fussy job, 



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