FORESTRY, LIVESTOCK AND CUT -OVER 

 LANDS OF THE SOUTH 



BY THOMAS P. IVY 



THE shortage of wood pulp and the high cost of 

 building materials prove without the aid of statis- 

 tics that we have cut and destroyed our forests far 

 below the margin of national safety. The price of beef 

 and shoes is a sure sign that our cattle grazing lands in 

 the West have been so encroached upon by agriculture 

 that other sections must make up the deficiency in 

 western pasturage if the supply of livestock is to keep 

 pace with the increase in population. 



In casting about in search of a solution of the future 

 supply of cattle and timber the Southern States have 



COUNTY ROAD THROUGH PINE FOREST 



This stand in Irwin County, Georgia, shows the kind of timber which 

 can be grown on cut over lands in the South. 



attracted attention on account of the vast area of cut-over 

 lands there that has within it possibilities of the widest 

 and highest value to the people of the whole United 

 States. That portion of the Southern States known as 

 the Coastal Plain has conditions which are most favorable 

 for the development of the cattle industry in conjunction 

 with reforestation, provided there is applied to the prob- 

 lem a well defined national policy that will enable the 

 owners of these lands through Governmental financial 

 aid to develop their holdings in accordance with their 

 best possibilities. 



The Coastal Plain extends from Norfolk, Virginia, to 

 Galveston, Texas. If we, except southern Florida, which 



is largely prairie with here and there clumps of Cyprus 

 and cabbage palmetto, and the Mississippi delta in Louisi- 

 ana, the soil, flora, the rainfall and other climatic con- 

 ditions are quite uniform throughout this area. Origi- 

 nally it contained enormous forests of pine, of which 

 the two leading species were longleaf and slash pine. 

 These forests because of the cheapness of logging and 

 lumbering the year round and the high value of the 

 timber for all construction purposes have sustained a 

 vigorous attack from the lumbermen for the past twenty- 

 five years. Only remnants of that great forest are now 

 to be seen, mainly in Florida, Louisiana and Texas. 

 According to a bulletin recently published by the Interior 

 Department, the several coastal states have in them the 

 following acreage of cut-over lands : 



State Cut-over lands Area of State 



Texas 12,000,000 acres 167,000,000 acres 



South Carolina 9,500,000 acres 19,516,000 acres 



North Carolina 13,000,000 acres 31,200,000 acres 



Mississippi 13,500,000 acres 29,675,000 acres 



Louisiana 12,000,000 acres 29,062,000 acres 



Florida 12,500,000 acres 35,100,000 acres 



Georgia 21,000,000 acres 37,584,000 acres 



Alabama 15,000,000 acres 33,000,000 acres 



Total 108,500,000 acres 382,137,000 acres 



According to these statistics nearly 30 per cent of the 

 total area of these states, or an acreage greater than the 



CATTLE GRAZING AND FORESTRY 



In this longleaf pine forest in Baker County, Florida, cattle are raised 

 at a proht in addition to that secured from the forest. 



combined acreage of Alabama, Florida and Georgia, is 

 cut-over land. Most of this acreage is held in large 

 tracts by lumber companies, one corporation owning, in 

 western Florida, more than 300,000 acres. In this un- 

 productive acreage is locked up probably the most im- 

 portant economic problem that now confronts the people 



