430 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



without very satisfactory results. About a pound of seed 

 was scattered over each acre ; but Nature's own methods 

 are more lavish than man can afford, and it is probable 

 that as the seed was scattered at a time when other food 

 for the birds was scarce, the feathered flock which fol- 

 lowed the sowers probably profited most by the opera- 

 tion. On the other hand, 800 acres of fenced land were 

 roughly plowed and then about six-tenths of a pound per 

 icre of Long-tof, Loblolly and Slash Pine seed was 

 drilled into the soil. The results here are already evident, 

 and the ground is well covered with fine little seedling 

 trees of these species. Fair results have also been ob- 

 tained where 34,000 Loblolly seedlings found in the woods 

 under the mature trees were transplanted. These seed- 

 lings could not have lived under the shade of the dense 

 tops ; but about 70 per cent are now doing well on a 55- 

 acre cut-over area. When it is considered that 50 mature 

 trees to an acre constitute a fair stand, it is evident that 

 even if over half the remainder die the experiment will 

 still have proved a success. The labor of transplanting 

 represented a cost of only about six mills per seedling tree. 

 It is interesting to note that after advertising to buy pine 

 seed at one to two dollars a pound without success, the 

 company subsequently was able to collect its own see( 

 from the heavy 1920 crop at a cost as low as fifty cents 

 a pound. 



It should be kept in mind that all these methods of ar- 

 tificial reforestation have been purely experimental, and 

 the most practical ideas will be evolved through practice. 

 The keynote of the whole plan is not to assist Nature, 

 but so far as possible to remove the obstacles which man 

 has placed in her way. The Forestry Department oper- 

 ates well ahead of the logging crew, plowing out its fire 

 lines and watching to protect from enemies the millions 

 of tiny seedlings in the soil. When the logging crews be- 

 gin work, to be sure, more than half of these seedling? 

 will be destroyed by the skidding of the logs, etc. ; but 

 Nature has provided for that through her lavishness. In 

 case the seedlings already in the soil should not be suf- 

 ficient, the forester also selects groups of young healthy 

 seed trees, which he marks with a painted circle. These 

 the logging foreman must protect from all bruising or in- 

 jury. The seed tree idea is everywhere in its infancy, and 

 most attempts along this line have frankly failed, because 

 the forest tree is a community dweller. When left alone 

 by the cutting of its neighbors it usually has but a short 

 life, blown down by the first strong wind, or succumbing 

 to the attack of some insect which has multiplied in the 

 dead brush left behind by the loggers. The company thus 

 tried leaving single selected seed trees without much 

 success. The group idea is a comparatively new one, and 

 only the next year or two can testjfy as to the success of 

 the experiment. 



The most expert advice from both State and National 



sources has been obtained in the formulation of reforest- 

 ation policies. As an example of thoroughgoing faith in 

 the idea the company is now paying for an exhaustive 

 soil analysis and survey of their land holdings, to deter- 

 mine just what portions are more chiefly suitable for agri- 

 culture and what land can best be reforested. The results 

 of these earlier reforestation experiments will then be 

 applied to the many thousands of additional acres so se- 

 lected, and a really perpetual timber supply will be ob- 

 tained. The re-growth of the town site has already dem- 

 onstrated the practicability of this as far as the short- 

 leaf species go; but the plan looks ahead even as far as 

 40 years, when the first replanted long-leaf pine will 

 reach a merchantable size a plan so far-reaching and 

 revolutionary that it may in time succeed in changing the 

 entire character of the lumber industry. It certainly 

 reems worth a try. 



Although the problem of reforestation may be gener- 

 ally regarded as the foundation of forestry, it is far from 

 being the only question with which forestry dea!< Ef- 

 fective utilization of timber is at least equally important. 

 The ordinary lumber manufacturer uses only about 50 

 per cent of the tree. This company, with its subsidiary 

 paper and by-product plants, leaves behind in the woods 

 nothing but very low stumps and the smaller twigs and 

 branches. Top and limbs, amounting to about a cord to 

 every thousand feet of saw-logs, are separately collected, 

 loaded and shipped to the pulp mill where they are suc- 

 cessfully manufactured by the sulphate process into very 

 heavy brown paper for "packing container liner". The 

 present mill has a capacity of sixty tons of pulp a day. 

 Its fuel is entirely obtained from the saw and planing 

 mill refuse, chewed up by the "hog" into the consistency 

 of very coarse sawdust. The company estimates that the 

 cordwood obtained from tops and branches supplemented 

 by sawmill waste will be sufficient for the manufacture 

 of five hundred tons of pulp a day, over eight times the 

 present capacity, and new plants are to be built to take 

 care of this. One of the new finished products will be 

 high-grade white book paper. No by-product is wasted, 

 even the rosin and turps which rise to the surface of the 

 cookers is saved and sold. Other by-products of the en- 

 terprise include lath, shingles, barrel staves and heads, 

 boxes, railroad ties and turpentine. The conservation 

 idea pervades the entire process, and each new method of 

 utilizing waste has meant real profit to the owners. 



This company, the Great Southern Lumber Company, 

 of Bogalusa, Louisiana, is practically the pioneer of the 

 United States in reforestation and thoroughgoing conser- 

 vation methods. It has built for permanence through 

 faith in that experiment. When that faith is justified and 

 practical reforestation actually begins to pay dividends, 

 we may cease to fear the exhaustion of our timber re- 

 sources. 



