458 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



AH this in face of the tact that the forest industries of 

 Georgia rank third in importance among the manufac- 

 turing industries of the State. They represent an in- 

 vested capital of some $41,000,000; they employ 31,000 

 people ; and they turn out $66,000,000 worth of products 

 annually. Are you going to let your forest industries 

 decline still further for want of a supply of raw material? 

 Are you going to forego the tax revenue which they 

 bring into your State 

 and local treasuries? 



The only satisfac- 

 tory answer to these 

 questions is to grow 

 more wood. Of all the 

 regions in this country 

 there is none that can 

 compare with the 

 South in the climatic 

 and soil conditions for 

 producing readily and 

 quickly timber supplies 

 of great value. This is 

 not realized in this 

 State by many. You 

 do not appreciate the 

 possibilities and value 

 of the young, fast- 

 growing trees with 

 which this region is 

 favored. If you did, 

 you would not permit 

 fires to run through the 

 State from one end to 

 the other and burn up 

 millions of these little 

 trees every year. 



In this State in the 

 six years from 1916 to 

 1921, inclusive, there 

 were reported to the 

 Forest Service 23,000 

 forest fires, nearly 

 double the number re- 

 ported in any other 

 State. Ninety-two per 

 cent of these fires re- 

 sulted from careless- 

 ness or from design ; 8 

 per cent from light- 



SECOND GROWTH LONG-LEAF PINE 



This was reproduced naturally and protected from fire. Age : 40 years 

 Height: 70-80 ft. Diameter (breast high): 10-14 inches. Yield per acre: 

 ning, the only agency About 15.000 board feet of lumber, or about 50 cords of pulpwood, in addition East Texas 

 fh-if >>onnnf Ko ,-,.' ' f*" ^^ '^ 200 turpentine cups. This illustrates what young growth will t -xr ^ u- 



:. ? S <5o " protected. Its value is steadily increasing. Louisiana. Yet a big 



gain is being made in 



500,000. These figures are conservative; they are in- 

 complete, because of the difficulty of securing statistics 

 of this character where no protective organization ex- 

 ists in the State which could collect them. If to these 

 direct losses are added the losses which cannot very well 

 be measured in dollars and cents, such for example as the 

 destruction of small trees, the killing of game, the dry- 

 ing up of fishing streams, the burning up of soil fertility, 



the removing of the 

 ground cover from 

 mountain lands, which 

 makes it possible for 

 erosion to follow and 

 silt to be deposited in 

 your river channels 

 and the rendering and 

 kee])ing idle an area es- 

 timated to be 5,000,000 

 acres of forest land in 

 this State, you can 

 readily see that the to- 

 tal damage reaches a 

 staggering fi g u r e. 

 Rome is burning, 

 ladies and gentlemen, 

 as you of this State sit 

 by and fiddle. 



Obviously the thing 

 to do, the thing which 

 a number of other 

 States have done, is to 

 put a stop to the prac- 

 tice of promiscuous 

 and broadcast burning 

 of the woods. Some 

 people say that it can- 

 not be done, that it is 

 a part of the very 

 life of the people, is 

 in fact regarded by 

 many as an inalienable 

 right, and that it is 

 inevitable. But it can 

 be done, because it is 

 already being done. I 

 would hate to think 

 that the situation in 

 Georgia is any worse 

 than it used to be in 

 and 



trolled. Twenty - six 



per cent were of incendiary origin, 21 per cent from 

 causes unknown, 16 per cent from brush burning, and 

 the remainder were caused chiefly by campers, lumbering 

 and railroads. 



These fires burned over about 6,000,000 acres, or al- 

 most a third of the State's forest land area, and caused 

 a money loss to timber and improvements alone of $5,- 



the progress of stopping forest fires in those States. Let 

 Georgia take its cue not only from these two States, but 

 as well from North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West 

 Virginia, Maryland and others, from the no less than 27 

 States all told which have seen the practical value of 

 stamping out the forest fire menace. All of these have 

 recognized their responsibility to aid in providing tim- 



