THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



by the agents of the Bureau. A working 

 plan has also been completed for 100,000 

 acres of pine lands in Arkansas, belonging 

 to the Sawyer & Austin Lumber Company, 

 of Pine Bluff. Another interesting piece 

 of work just completed by the Bureau is 

 a working plan for a tract of 60,000 acres 

 in southeastern Missouri, belonging to the 

 Deering Harvesting Co. of Chicago. 



Curing the summer the agents of the 

 Bureau of Forestry nave been at work col- 

 lecting the necessary data for a working 

 plan for 85,000 acres in Polk and Monroe 

 counties. East Tennessee. This tract is 

 the property of U. S. Senator George 

 Peabody Wetmore, of Rhode Island, and 

 the timber consists of a wide range of 

 hardwoods. A working plan has also 

 been made during the past field season for 

 a tract of 60,000 acres in the Cumberland 

 Mountains of Tennessee. 



In October, 1898, the U. S. Department 

 of Agriculture, through its Division of 

 Forestry, first offered to give practical 

 assistance to farmers, lumbermen and 

 others, in the handling of their forest 

 lands. The response to this offer was im- 

 mediate, and in three years private owners 

 of over 4,000,000 acres of woodland have 

 availed themselves of the opportunity. 



In no part of the country is \\ider in- 

 terest being shown in conservative forest 

 management by private owners, than in 

 the Southern states. Up to date the 

 amount of private lands in the South for 

 which advice in handling has been asked 

 of the Bureau, is 1,534,000 acres, and a 

 very large part of the work which will be 

 done by the Bureau for private owners in 

 the immediate future will be in that sec- 

 tion. 



The industrial development of the South 

 on all sides during the last ten years has 

 been remarkable, but no single industry 

 has made greater strides than the lumber 

 business. This is not surprising when it 

 is considered that tho Southern states 

 . contain a greater percentage of forest area 



than any other section of the United States, 

 The South has become a very important 

 factor in the lumber markets of the world, 

 not only through its 1 wealth of forests, but 

 from the fact that it has unusually good 

 transportation facilities. In reaching the 

 home markets Southern lumbermen have 

 the advantage of a number of excellent 

 railroad systems to handle their products 

 and such important seaports as Norfolk, 

 Charleston, Savannah, Mobile, Tampa, 

 New Orleans and Galveston, provide ex- 

 cellent outlets through which to reach the 

 foreign markets. 



Within recent years many lumbermen 

 from the North have been attracted to the 

 southern field ; the forests of Pennsylvania, 

 Michigan and Wisconsin having been al- 

 most exhausted, many of the leading 

 woodmen of those states are now' engaged 

 in cutting timber in the South. The for- 

 ests of the three states just mentioned 

 were once considered inexhaustible, but 

 once lumbering begins in earnest no forest 

 area is inexhaustible. The present condi- 

 tion of the forests in many northern and 

 eastern states is sufficient evidence on this 

 point. 



The South now has a great army of lum- 

 bermen cutting away its forests, and in 

 spite of their great extent, unless the cut- 

 ting is done on conservative lines, the day 

 is not far distant when the conditions now 

 existing in the North and East will be 

 found there also. For this reason it is en- 

 couraging to see the interest in practical 

 forestry displayed by the owners of private 

 timberlands. This tendency to cut timber 

 conservatively, looking to the future value 

 of the forests as well as to present profits, 

 must be the safeguard. Conservative 

 methods are now being taken up in the 

 North when almost too late, and it will be 

 greatly to the credit of southern lumber- 

 men if they begin the protection of their 

 forest in time ; taking to heart the sad ex- 

 perience of people in other sections. 



In addition to more than a million and 



