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AMERICAN FORESTRY 



of the United States. How shall that problem be solved 

 and how shall these lands be developed? 



The many schemes of colonization that have been 

 projected and failed would seem to eliminate that possi- 

 bility. In the light of the experience of what has been 

 accomplished in the past decade there appear to be three 

 solutions of this great problem being worked out by 

 different men or corporations in different localities or 

 states without any general concert of plan and purpose. 

 The three solutions thus in process of development might 

 be classified as follows : Livestock ranches, reforesta- 

 tion and livestock farms. 



In cattle raising it has been found that one thousand 

 head is as small a number as will permit of the highest 

 economy in management and one hundred thousand head 

 is regarded as the largest number in Texas that ought 

 to be under one management on one ranch. As yet 

 nowhere on the Coastal Plain are there any cattle ranches* 

 except on the everglades 

 and prairie lands of south- 

 ern Florida. There the in- 

 dustry has assumed con- 

 siderable proportions and 

 so far as can be learned 

 from observation has prov- 

 ed profitable. Perhaps one 

 of the largest herds, about 

 30,000, is owned by the 

 Consolidated Company of 

 Jacksonville. In southern 

 Florida ten acres per head 

 is allotted as ample pastur- 

 age, and on that acreage 

 cattle thrive the year round. 

 All the management has to 

 do is to protect the herd 

 against diseases and ticks 

 and to cross-breed with 

 strains that will give a 

 vigorous and large type even in that climate. Of course, 

 if for the two months of the year when the pasture is 

 leanest these cattle were fed a pound of cotton seed meal 

 or other grain per day, it is beneficial. 



In regard to the second solution, reforestation in con- 

 junction with cattle raising, opinion is divided in the 

 bureaus of the Department of Agriculture where the 

 subject has been investigated. In a general way it ap- 

 pears that the livestock and forestry experts believe the 

 plan practical, but some of the plant specialists are 

 doubtful whether grass can be grown sufficiently un- 

 der trees to furnish pasturage. And yet tradition 

 says that in these primeval forests on the Coastal Plain 

 grasses grew so high that cattle could not be seen when 

 grazing. So far no experiments have been conducted 

 that would justify a conclusion for either side, but the 

 facts in the situation present an interesting study. In 

 the first place the proper handling of this enterprise 

 would require a man who was both an expert forester, 

 lumberman, and livestock man. In many instances lum- 



A DIPPING VAT 

 A necessary treatment by which cattle are protected against ticks. 



bermen have herds on their cut-over lands but here the 

 cattle industry is entirely secondary to that of lumbering, 

 is given no expert management, and so furnishes no data 

 that would be reliable. In working out this problem no 

 rules and regulations of general application can be laid 

 down. Each area must be treated in accordance with 

 the conditions found on it. We can approximate in a 

 general way what should be the results. 



As a starting point, grant that one thousand head of 

 cattle is the unit of economy. For grazing purposes, 

 allotting ten acres per head, a tract of ten thousand acres 

 would be required. Such a tract located anywhere on 

 the Coastal Plain would consist of flat wood lands, high 

 pine lands, muck, hummock, scrub, swamp and, if in 

 southern Florida, prairie lands. The first two will con- 

 stitute the area for reforestation in pine and would prob- 

 ably amount to three-fifths of the entire tract. The 

 remaining two-fifths would be made up of one or more 



or all of the other descrip- 

 tions. These four thousand 

 acres should be treated not 

 as forest lands primarily,/ 

 but as pasture lands. 

 Shrubs that cattle browse 

 and canes for winter ever- 

 greens should be introduced 

 to take the place of growth 

 not useful on pastures. 



By adopting such a policy 

 the pasture value of these 

 four thousand acres could 

 be vastly enhanced. 



We have six thousand 

 acres suitable for refores- 

 tation. How shall that be 

 done and this area used for 

 grazing? That is the un- 

 tried and debatable experi- 

 ment. For reforestation of 

 this area we can use longleaf pine and slash pine, one or 

 both. Since it is a serious drawback to the practice of 

 forestry in this country that the financial returns are so 

 long in coming, we should choose* other things being 

 equal, species that bring the quickest financial returns. 

 With that principle as a guide we should reforest this 

 six thousand acres with slash pine on account of the 

 rapidity of its growth, its greater rosin product and the 

 further fact that it is almost equal in timber qualities to 

 longleaf pine. Tables furnished by the Forest Service 

 show slash pine yields in cords of pealed pulp wood per 

 acre: 12 cords when 13 years old, 25 cords when 19 

 years old, 34 cords when 21 years old and 40 cords at 

 the age of 27 years. 



If we should decide upon a pulp wood rotation of 

 twenty-one years we would have in value per acre from 

 pulp wood, taking two dollars per cord as the price, 

 sixty-eight dollars. From this same stumpage three years 

 before cutting we could take a value in turpentine and 



