BOYS^ REFORESTATION CLUBS 



By V. H. Sonderegger 



Superintendent of Forestry, Louisiana Department of Conservation 



WHEN the Conservation Department of Louisiana 

 began the establishment of Boys' Reforestation 

 Clubs in the fall of 1921, it started a work that promises 

 to do more for forestry in Louisiana than any of the otner 

 agencies it has inaugurated to that end. 



The idea of these clubs originated with Col. W. H. 

 Sullivan, of the Great Southern Company, and was the 

 outgrowth of the success of the boys' com and hog clubs, 

 which have been operated with eminent success in Louisi- 

 ana for several years. To make a success of the work 

 the Great Southern Lumber Company donated $500 to be 



THE PLOT OF MILLARD PARKS, WINNER OF THE SWEEP- 

 STAKE PRIZE OF EIGHTY DOLLARS FOR THE BEST PLOT IN 

 THE STATE, ALL CLASSES AT FOURTEEN YEARS OF AGE. 



given in prizes, and this sum was placed at the disposal 

 of Commissioner Alexander, of the Conservation Depart- 

 ment of Louisiana, who was given complete charge of the 

 work. Mr. Alexander placed the matter in the hands ol 

 the forestry division of the department, and the work ot 

 forming the clubs was at once begun. 



Though the movement was started late in the fall, 

 classes aggregating 664 boys were formed before ttie 

 close of the year, and in the closing months of 1921 all 

 of these boys received practical lessons in forestry. Each 

 of the boys secured a plot of land between one and three 

 acres, some of the plots being barren, while others bore a 

 second growth. The clubs were organized on much the 

 same lines as the boys' corn and hog clubs had been, 

 and the work has been as successful thus far as the clubs 

 organized along agricultural lines have been. Not only 

 have tlie boys received practical instruction in forestry, 

 '>n' the clubs have proved an eiTective way of arousing 



general interest in the subject, for in reaching the boy the 

 department has also reached his parents and other male 

 relatives and friends, and the neighborhood has received 

 an object lesson in forestry, the effect of which must be 

 far-reaching. 



The enrollment of 664 boys in the latter half of the 

 first year of the work was extremely gratifying to Com- 

 missioner Alexander and his agents have assured him 

 that during the present year much larger classes will be 

 organized. It was not until August, 1921, that H. J. Stahl 

 was selected by V. H. Sonderegger, superintendent of the 

 forestry division of the department, to take supervisory . 

 charge of the clubs, and he at once got in touch with 

 the forest rangers and began the work of enrollment of 

 the boys. The clubs being organized, the forest rangers 

 assisted them in securing plots of ground and the lesson 

 that was stressed in the instruction was fire prevention 

 and fire control. To impress the importance of this factor 

 in the protection of timber in the minds of the boys, they 

 were told that in the distribution of prizes 50 per cent 

 of the points in judging would be allowed for excellence 



PLOT OF ROBERT MAGEE, AGED THIRTEEN YEARS. WINNER 

 OF THE FIRST PRIZE OF THIRTY-FIVE DOLLARS, 6 TO 10 YEARS 

 OLD, LOBLOLLY IN AN OLD FIELD. 



in this work. The lads were taught to construct fire 

 lines around their plots as the first lesson in their work, 

 and they were next instructed in the proper thinning out 

 and cleaning of their plots. Some of the boys were quite 

 successful in this work, and the judges who examined 

 each of the plots at the beginning of this year pre- 

 liminary to the distribution of prizes, declared that some 

 of the plots they examined resembled United States For- 



