THE CASE OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA 415 



In the early part of 1910 with the assistance of an appropriation of |250 

 from the office of the register of the state land office and ex officio commissioner 

 of forestry, the government sent J. H. Foster, assistant chief of cooperation 

 of the United States Forest Service, to look over the forestry resources of 

 Louisiana. Mr. Foster made an extensive report covering some 120 pages 

 to the ex-officio forester. 



After review of the timber resources of the state Mr. Foster proceeded 

 to state with great clearness the fallacy of over production. Thus : 



''The usual regulation of the supply to meet demand does not hold in the 

 yellow pine industry ; the production at present is at least two or three times 

 as great as the market normally requires. It would be a good thing for the 

 forests if all the mills could be run on half time until the present over-supply 

 was reduced and the prices of lumber advanced to a degree which would 

 yield a fair profit. 



The consequent effect on the forest of overproduction and low prices is 

 deplorable. Many companies are actually compelled to leave on the ground 

 to decay as much as 2,000 board feet per acre in tops and logs partially affected 

 with red heart, because there is no profit in manufacturing low grades into 

 lumber. The tendency is to haul to the mills only such portions of the trees 

 as will make high-grade material. The lumbermen believe they are in no 

 position to consider conservation methods of logging or to look forward to 

 a future cut of timber on the same land. It v xmld not be entirely just to the 

 lumbermen of Louisiana for the state to regulate or restrict the cutting of 

 timber and thereby increase the cost of logging, unless this increase is uniform 

 among all yellow pine states, and the lumbermen are able to increase the prices 

 of the manufactured product accordingly. 



It seems inevitable that the reckless exploitation must continue as long 

 as there is sufficient virgin timber to keep in operation the extensive establish- 

 ments of the present time. When the big mills have passed, as they are 

 rapidly doing in Alabama and Mississippi, small saw mill plants will be 

 organized on a more permanent basis. 



The lumbermen, however, are not without responsibility to the people 

 of the state. They have obtained their lands at low prices and have made 

 fortunes from the increase in the value of the timber. The chief asset 

 of the region is being removed, and the land usually left in a desolate con- 

 dition. The industry does not develop the country permanently and the 

 earnings are seldom invested where they are of any benefit to the community. 

 Local residents, attracted by work which furnishes them with regular wages, 

 leave the farms for the mills, and when the mills are abandoned, they are 

 too often not satisfied to return to the farm work, but follow the mills to 

 other sections not yet exploited." 



This report contained a gi'eat deal of valuable information on the basis 

 of which the conservation commission made its report to Governor J. Y. 

 Sanders early in June, 1910. The recommendations of the commission are 

 summarized as follows: 



(1) Protection from fire of cut-over pine lands. 



(2) Prevention of waste in logging, such as: injury to young growth, 

 use of valuable timber where inferior timber would answer the purpose, leaving 

 sound logs in the woods. 



(3) Establishment by gifts and purchase of a state forest reserve. 



(4) Establishment of correct system of forest taxation, viz: (a) ''Tax the 

 land without the timber according to its value annually;" (b) "Tax the timber 

 10 to 15 per cent when it is cut." 



T'pon the theory that the taxation of the lumbermen should be different 

 from that of all other enterprises, as the facts set forth in the accompanying 



