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Yearbook of Agriculture 1949 



quate on the rest; cutting practices 

 were good on 2 percent, only fair on 24 

 percent, and poor on 74 percent. 



Although large holdings as a rule are 

 more exposed to fire and the fires that 

 start there are not so easily controlled, 

 the owners of large holdings are doing 

 about as well as the owners of small 

 holdings in controlling fires. Large 

 holdings likewise show a substantially 

 better job in harvesting practices than 

 the small private holdings. 



Less than 25 years ago, thousands of 

 forest fires annually burned millions of 

 acres in the South. The risk of losing 

 the accumulated growth of many years 

 through a single fire kept prudent men 

 from attempting to practice forest 

 management. But with Federal and 

 State help, under the Weeks Law and 

 later under the Clarke-McNary Law, 

 protection of the forest lands became 

 feasible, and gradually the larger hold- 

 ings were placed under organized pro- 

 tection under State supervision. Today 

 80 percent of the larger holdings are 

 under organized protection, although 

 as yet not all are adequately protected. 

 Many of the larger owners, recognizing 

 the need for more intensive protection, 

 have supplemented the States' efforts 

 with extra men, tools, tractors, plows. 



Seventeen million acres of large pri- 

 vate holdings were rated in 1944 as 

 receiving adequate protection from 

 forest fires. For areas in the loblolly- 

 shortleaf-hardwood type, that means a 

 burn of less than 1 percent annually 

 over a 5-year period. While forest fires 

 remain an ever-present threat, and 

 continue to take a toll in wasted timber 

 growth running into millions of dollars 

 annually, the fire problem has been 

 solved to the point where a large owner 

 is reasonably sure that he can grow a 

 paying forest crop, provided he pays 

 the cost of protection, 5 to 10 cents an 

 acre annually, and carries out the 

 practices now recommended. 



One-third of the larger owners fol- 

 lowed good cutting practices in 1944 

 meaning that the owner selected the 

 trees to be cut from his woods and left 

 trees in adequate number to assure 



reasonable stocking and improved suc- 

 ceeding stands. More than 3 million 

 acres on large ownerships showed a 

 high order of forest-management prac- 

 tice. 



The Grossett Lumber Co., of Cros- 

 sett, Ark., illustrates how many owner- 

 ships follow sound cutting practices. 

 The company is now cooperating with 

 the Arkansas Forestry Commission in 

 organized protection of its 500,000 

 acres under the Clarke-McNary Law. 

 Besides the fire crews and equipment 

 available throughout the regular State 

 organization, the company provides 

 extra crews and equipment, as needed, 

 to the State's chief of fire control. The 

 trees cut from the forest are closely 

 utilized in an integrated set of plants 

 that produce lumber, pulp, chemicals, 

 and lesser products. Nonmerchantable 

 trees are destroyed by girdling or poi- 

 soning. Bare and nonrestocking lands 

 are replanted to trees. Foresters direct 

 all woods operations; a forester is in 

 charge of each block of 50,000 acres. 



The more than 5 million acres that 

 the pulp companies own in the South 

 are under organized fire control ; more 

 than three-fourths are being cut ac- 

 cording to good or better cutting prac- 

 tices, and the rest is cut so as to assure 

 continuous crops of pulpwood. 



THE PULP AND PAPER INDUSTRY USCS 



less than 10 percent of the timber taken 

 from the southern forests ; the demand 

 for wood has already brought the sev- 

 eral pulp companies in competition 

 with each other and with other seg- 

 ments of the forest industry. In order 

 to assure adequate supplies of wood, all 

 pulp companies have acquired a sub- 

 stantial portion of the necessary forest 

 acreage. Some are undoubtedly in a 

 position to grow their needs ; others are 

 not, and the pulp industry as a whole 

 is not. Prices of forest lands have risen 

 materially, and the remaining large 

 blocks of forest land are strongly held. 

 A large part of the forest land, par- 

 ticularly that included in the 61 mil- 

 lion acres of farm ownership, is not 

 available for purchase. 



