2l8 



Yearbook^ of Agriculture 1949 



in 75 percent of all plantings under 

 the Federal-State cooperative program. 



Mrs. A. M. E. Brown, of Columbia 

 County, Fla., was 56 years old in 1930 

 when she planted her first pine trees. 

 Her 42-acre field had failed repeatedly 

 when it was planted to the usual crops 

 of cotton and corn. The county agent 

 suggested she try a tree crop, and the 

 forester from the State forester's office 

 recommended slash pine, native to her 

 farm. When Mrs. Brown reached 70 

 years of age and the trees were 14 years 

 old, she had one-third of them cut for 

 pulpwood. The trees had grown at the 

 rate of 2 cords an acre a year. Receipts 

 from the sale of pulpwood repaid all 

 expenditures on the plantation and 

 gave her a net return of $900. The 

 plantation is ready for a second thin- 

 ning in 1949, with an expected yield of 

 another 10 cords an acre. 



Mrs. Brown and her 42 acres of 

 planted woodland are important be- 

 cause they are representative of 1,600,- 

 000 woodland owners throughout the 

 South and the 122,000,000 acres that 

 they own; their average holding is 74 

 acres of woodland. Among these small 

 ownerships are some 20 million acres 

 in need of planting, or roughly 1 1 per- 

 cent of the total commercial forest area. 



Another example is James Fowler, a 

 farmer in Treutlen County, Ga., who 

 has "culled" his farm lands for more 

 than 20 years. As parts of his fields 

 failed to produce satisfactory crops 

 under cultivation, he planted them to 

 trees. He had 5,200 acres in planted 

 stands in 1949. He began turpentining 

 in 1937, when his earliest planted trees 

 were 11 years old. Those trees, with 

 the first turpentine faces worked out, 

 now have the second or back face in 

 operation. He has 150,000 planted pine 

 trees that are being worked for turpen- 

 tine and 300,000 more of proper size. 



Distribution of planting stock to 

 small owners by State forest nurseries 

 has increased from 630,000 seedlings 

 in 1926 to 96 million in 1947. A grand 

 total of approximately 800,000 acres 

 has been successfully planted by south- 

 ern small-woodland owners in the past 



two decades. Many thousands of own- 

 ers have proved to themselves and their 

 neighbors that tree planting is prac- 

 tical and profitable. Many more land- 

 owners are interested and ready to 

 plant when the seedlings are available. 

 The two State forest-tree nurseries in 

 Georgia grew 18 million trees in 1947; 

 the landowners applied for 34 million 

 seedlings. 



The South is making but little actual 

 headway on its goal of replanting the 

 millions of acres in small private wood- 

 lands that need replanting. In 1947, 

 some 40,000 acres in farm and other 

 small holdings were planted. At any 

 such rate, hundreds of years will be 

 required to plant the idle or partially 

 restocked potentially productive forest 

 land of the South. As a matter of fact, 

 to the area that needs replanting, many 

 thousand acres are added each year 

 through erosion and soil depletion in 

 crop and pasture lands and through 

 overcutting and fire in forest lands. 



Congress recognized the importance 

 of the problem when it passed the 

 Clarke-McNary Act and the Norris- 

 Doxey Act, which provide for Federal 

 assistance to State forestry agencies in 

 the production and distribution to 

 farm-woodland owners of forest-tree 

 planting stock. All Southern States co- 

 operate in this work with the Federal 

 Government. The total annual Fed- 

 eral appropriation to twelve Southern 

 States under the two acts for produc- 

 tion and distribution of planting stock 

 amounts to $33,600. The program is 

 supervised in each State by the State 

 forest service. The States produce seed- 

 lings and sell them to woodland owners 

 at the approximate cost of production. 

 State workers also furnish advice on 

 planting. While the Federal participa- 

 tion is limited to farmers, the States 

 serve farm and nonfarm, large and 

 small owner alike, assuming the extra 

 cost for nonfarmers from State funds. 



W. R. HINE is in charge of the Divi- 

 sion of Information and Education of 

 the Southern Region of the Forest 

 Service. 



