434 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



saying that history repeats itself. There can be no doubt 

 but that the history of lumbering in New York, Penn- 

 sylvania and the Lake States is now repeating itself 

 in the South. The industry has passed its crest and is 

 breaking canip, so to speak. There are ample evidences. 

 The fact that in the South the cut of saw timber is now 

 more than five times the annual growth carries some idea 

 of the rate at which virgin stumpage is disappearing. Your 

 original pine forests covered some 125 million acres 

 and contained close to 650 billion feet. 



Four-fifths of the original yellow pine forests of the 

 South have now been cut. The remaining fifth is going 

 rapidly. 



It has been the history of other timbered regions that, 

 beginning with small and scattered exploitation, the 

 lumber cut increased steadily to a point where the in- 

 dutry was fully developed and then- as exhaustion of 

 stumpage set in, decreased gradually until production 

 became a small factor in the industrial life of the region. 

 For example, the State of Michigan, which led all States 

 in lumber production from 1870 to 1895, today supplies 

 a lumber cut less than one-half that of the State of Massa- 

 chusetts. The South is now passing through such an 

 era. The production curves of the Southern States are 

 falling rapidly. Since 1909, the cut of southern pine 

 has declined 31 per cent. 



Census figures for 1920 show that in that year the 

 South yielded its lead in lumber production to the West. 

 They show that the number of southern mills cutting 

 over one million feet a year decreased by 490 or 20 per 

 cent in 1920 as compared with 1919. It is highly signifi 

 cant that during that same period the number of mills 

 on the Pacific Coast showed a gain of 27 per cent. These 

 figures go to confirm testimony given before a Congress- 

 ional committee by a representative of the Southern Pine 

 Association to the effect that a survey of 5,400 southern 

 mills, representing over 50 per cent of southern pine pro- 

 duction indicated that by the end of December, 1923, 

 81 per cent of these mills will have exhausted their timber 

 and ceased production. 



Let us examine for a moment into what the lumber 

 business means in the commercial life of a southern 

 State. Take Mississippi, as an example. According to 

 the last census, the forest industries of that State rank 

 first in importance ; they employ 70 per cent of the 

 State's wage earners and the manufactured value of 

 their products amounts to $300,000,000 annually or 60 

 per cent of the value of all manufactures in the State. 

 Will it be asserted that the decline of that industry is 

 of no moment in the commercial welfare of the State? 



These things are mentioned merely to emphasize that 

 you are today face to face with a great industrial problem 

 nere in the South. That problem is to make permanent 

 your forest industries. You have before you as examples 

 of inaction the north central group of States which have 

 passed from lumber exporting to lumber importing 

 St.itc^. They are paying a tribute ot $300,000,000 an- 

 nually to im]x>rt lumber from the South and the West, 



and the freight haul is adding from 50 to 150 per cent to 

 the prices. 



Contrast with that situation the South with its remain- 

 ing forest reserve. Instead of $300,000,000 leaving your 

 .States every year in exchange for imported wood, your 

 forests are bringing into your southland a third of a 

 billion dollars annually. But, gentlemen, if you would 

 preserve that balance in your favor the time for action 

 is at hand. A further shrinkage in your pine industry 

 is inevitable. It has been estimated that within 15 years 

 the South will not be producing enough lumber to meet 

 its own local demands and will, therefore, be forced to 

 import lumber from the Pacific Coast. There is nowhere 

 else for it to come from. Imported lumber means higher 

 priced lumber for the home builder no less than for the 

 citrus grov/er or the furniture manufacturer. 



But, it will be asked, what can the South do about it? 

 With four-fifths of its virgin timber gone, how can it 

 provide permanency for its forest industries? The an- 

 swer to that question is by the application of forest man- 

 agement to its forest lands. Here in the South you 

 maintain a cotton industry by keeping a certain area 

 seeded to cotton, grov/ing cotton, producing cotton. 



Apply that same principle to your forests and your 

 forest lands, and the permanency of your forest industries 

 will, before many years, be as solid and as deeply rooted 

 as your cotton industry. 



It is idle and unproductive forest land that today is 

 undermining your forest industries. So long as your 

 area of vacant cut-over land continues to increase and 

 your area of growing forests to decrease, there can be 

 but one answer to the existence of your forest industries. 

 It is a significant thing first because it shows the pro- 

 ductive power of your cut-over lands and second because 

 it indicates the shrinkage of your old growth stumpage 

 that a quarter of the pine cut of the South today comes 

 from second growth forests, v/hich Nature has brought 

 back on some of these cut-over lands, despite their mis- 

 use and neglect. Your second growth pine is today 

 being cut at the rate of 11/ million acres a year, and the 

 Forest Service is authority for the assertion that under 

 present methods of cutting and protection, large areas 

 of this new growth land will not come back to pine. 



The question will probably arise in some minds as to 

 the value of this cut-over pine land for other uses. It 

 is true that much of it is agricultural land but much of it 

 is not. The forester does not advocate raising forests 

 on good farm lands. His dictum is, raise forests on 

 lands chiefly valuable for forest growth. If the South 

 will do that, it 'will maintain in perpetuity its present 

 forest industries and in the course of time gradually 

 expand them. According to the land classification of 

 the United States Department of Agriculture, ^tlhene 

 are in the pine belt of the southern coastal plain region 

 alone, 36 million acres better suited to growing forests 

 than to farming. For the entire South, the area is much 

 larger. Stripped of their timber, these lands have been 

 abandoned to unrestricted fires, confiscatory taxation 



