742 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



?? 



WE HAVE DESTROYED OUR FORESTS FAR 







IMPORTANCE of putting the idle 

 - acres of the country to work grow- 

 ing trees continues to be one of the 

 foremost topics for editorials by the 

 newspapers and more and more the 

 co-operation of the editors with the 

 American Forestry Association is be- 

 coming felt throughout the country. 

 The need of a national forest policy 

 and for better fire protection has 

 been taken up by publications for 

 the first time in many instances now 

 that the Association has put it before 

 the editors as a business proposition 

 not alone for themselves but for the 

 country. Some of the editorial com- 

 ment follows: 



Kansas City Journal: It probably has not 

 occurred to many persons that the forests 

 of this country influence the price of shoes 

 and the cost of roast beef for the family 

 dinner. Yet, according to a statement by 

 the American Forestry Association, this is 

 the case. The situation is outlined tersely 

 in the form of these questions : 



"Do you know forest conditions of this 

 country have a direct bearing on the price 

 of your roast beef and the cost of your 

 shoes ? 



"Do you know that other sections than 

 the West must make up the deficiency in 

 Western pasturage if the supply of live 

 stock is to keep up with the increase in 

 population? 



"Do you know that the greatest economic 

 problem that now confronts the United 

 States is locked up in eight Southern 

 States, including Texas? 



"Do you know that 10,850,000 head of 

 cattle can be pastured on idle land in the 

 South within easy shipping distance of the 

 manufacturing centers of population?" 



With this as the basis, a plan is pre- 

 sented that it is believed will unlock that 

 problem of the Southern States. The three 

 solutions to the problem presented are live- 

 stock ranches, reforestation and livestock 

 farms. In the matter of ranching on a 

 large scale, it appears that there has al- 

 ready been a good start in the coastal 

 plain in Florida, but elsewhere there is 

 little doing. It ought to be explained that 

 the big cattle ranches of inland Texas are 

 included in the present West where there 

 is a deficiency in grazing pasturage. What 

 is considered is the coastal plain along 

 the Gulf and the Atlantic shores. 



But the problem would not be really 

 solved even if the big ranches in that 

 region were multiplied many times. If the 

 forests are all cut off and not replaced in 

 part, that fate following all such failures 

 to provide for conservation of moisture and 

 control of the rainfall, severe drouths and 



eventual relapse into something resembling 

 a desert will follow. 



So the combination of the other two 

 plans, reforestation and livestock farming, 

 seems to be the real solution that must be 

 sought. Details are given of how this 

 might be brought about, but it is made 

 plain that the basis must be a systematic 

 plan, and that there is urgent need of gov- 

 ernment aid and control in the matter. 

 Briefly put, the problem is one that affects 

 the nation as a whole, and the solution 

 must be a matter of national co-operation. 



More and more it is made clear that the 

 fundamental problem of practically all ex- 

 isting national complications is that of 

 forestry in some form; and reforestation 

 on a nation-wide and scientific scale would 

 go farther toward solving much of the 

 present vexation than almost any other one 

 thing that might be mentioned. With this 

 plan well under way, the unraveling of the 

 tangle would be well started. Rochester 

 Democrat Chronicle. 



Florida Times Union: In the May 

 number of the American Forestry Maga- 

 zine, Thomas P. Ivy, gives his conclusions 

 drawn from a study of certain economic 

 conditions and these conclusions are in- 

 teresting to the South. They are in line 

 with the words of D. F. Houston, on one 

 of his reports when he was the head of 

 the agricultural department, on the greater 

 share this section would bear in the econ- 

 omic progress and prosperity of the country 

 in the future. 



We believe that Mr. Ivy states a truth 

 when he says that the shortage of paper, 

 consequent upon the smaller supply of 

 pulpwood, and the high cost of building 

 material proves that we have cut and de- 

 stroyed our forests far below the margin of 

 national security. The traditional belief 

 that our national resources are inexhausti- 

 ble has resulted in a reckless waste of 

 those resources and the effects now seen 

 are waking many out of that dream. The 

 present prices of shoes and beef are a sign, 

 Mr. Ivy reminds us, that other sections 

 must make up the deficiency caused by the 

 encroachments of agriculture upon the 

 Western grazing lands if the supply of 

 live stock is to keep pace with the increase 

 in population. This is a position also sup- 

 ported by the figures given out from time 

 to time by the United States Department of 

 Agriculture. To quote Mr. Ivy : 



"In casting about in search of a solution 

 of the future supply of cattle and timber, 

 the Southern States have attracted atten- 

 tion on account of the vast area of cut- 

 over lands thete that has within it possi- 

 bilities of the widest and highest value to 



the people of the whole United States be- 

 cause near the center of population. That 

 part 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 refor- 

 estation, provided there is applied to the 

 problem a well defined national policy that 

 will enable the owners of these lands 

 through governmental financial aid to dev- 

 elop their holdings in accordance with their 

 best possibilities." 



The area of cutover lands in the coastal 

 plain extending from Texas to North Caro- 

 lina, and inclusive of those states, is about 

 108,500,000 acres. This is more than the 

 combined area of Florida, Georgia and 

 Alabama. On the lowest estimate, the 

 writer computes, this area would pasture 

 annually 10,850,000 head of cattle. Three- 

 fifths of it could be made to grow timber 

 at the rate of ten thousand board feet per 

 acre at the end of a timber rotation of 

 fifty years, in the meantime being avail- 

 able for turpentine operations. 



On the basis of ten acres per head of 

 cattle, it might be possible to profitably 

 reforest this great area and also use it for 

 grazing purposes, but our Southern forests 

 do not grow grass profusely. But these 

 cutover lands could and will, in the future, 

 support great droves of the finest cattle 

 the world ever saw when the cattle tick 

 is finally eradicated. Out of all the econ- 

 omic disturbances of the present the South 

 will rise to an eminence as a provider for 

 the world beyond the dreams of its oldest 

 citizens. Producing cattle, cotton, sugar, 

 oil, phosphates, naval stores and other 

 valuable products beyond the measure of 

 other sections, the South's wealth in the 

 not very distant future will be enormous. 



Atlanta Journal: In eight Southern 

 states, Georgia included, there is locked 

 up what the American Forestry Association 

 considers the richest economic opportunity 

 in America, an opportunity which if turned 

 duly to account will solve some of the irk- 

 somest problems of the day. The coastal 

 country from Texas to North Carolina 

 contains 108,500,000 acres of cutover lands 

 nearly thirty per cent of the area of 

 this entire region. Imagine the territory of 

 Georgia, Florida and Alabama stripped of 

 farms, orchards, cities and other improve- 

 ments, and left to idleness. That is vir- 

 tually the situation with this vast acreage 

 of deforested lands. Capable in latent 

 treasure of maintaining a population of 

 many millions, it is now to all practical 

 intents no better than the lost Atlantis. 



National welfare no less than Southern 

 interests, says the Forestry Association, 



