FORESTRY WORK AT SOUTHERN COMMERCIAL CONGRESS :5o! 



tending to maintain the regularity of 

 stream flow. A great deal of confusion 

 has been prevalent regarding these 

 functions of the forest. Many persons 

 point to great floods like those we are 

 now having and insist that forests have 

 nothing whatever to do with the con- 

 trol of water. This is as absurd as 

 would be a statement that forests abso- 

 lutely prevent large floods. My time 

 does not suffice to enter on this subject 

 in detail, but I wish to say this in re- 

 gard to the influence of forests on run- 

 off of water : There are many factors 

 controlling run-off, of which the vege- 

 tative cover is one. Forests do exer- 

 cise a powerful influence on the distri- 

 bution of water after it falls, and do 

 tend to regulate the flow of rivers. This 

 is, however, only one factor and may be 

 and often is entirely overbalanced' by 

 other factors like long continued rain- 

 fall or sudden thawing of snow in the 

 mountains. The Geological Survey is 

 developing some very important and in- 

 teresting facts regarding the influence 

 of forests on erosion in the South, 

 which I hope may be brought out in 

 this meeting. 



"\Ye have, then, in the South vast 

 forest resources; they are being ex- 

 ploited rapidly and their products are 

 contributing enormously to the produc- 

 tion of wealth in many parts of the na- 

 tion. Our problem touches the method 

 of handling these great resources. Are 

 the forests being developed in a way to 

 benefit the South permanently? 



"The bulk of what is put on the mar- 

 ket is from timber 150 years old and 

 upwards. That is, we are still drawing 

 mainly on the original supply and only 

 locally from second growth timber, lii 

 the main no effort is being made to re- 

 place the old stock as it is cut. The 

 cutting takes place without reference to 

 a new crop of trees and we still have 

 that greatest enemy of the forest, fire, 

 which not only damages standing tim- 

 ber to a greater extent than is common- 

 ly believed, but also kills the young tim- 

 ber and prevents the establishment of 

 new growth. At present the supply of 

 timber in the South is rapidly being 

 diminished without replacement. More- 

 over, the forest fires are primarily re- 



sponsible for the damage resulting from 

 erosion and disturbance of stream-flow 

 in the mountains. This then is the 

 situation : That the forests will not 

 continue to serve the South as they are 

 now serving it and could under better 

 conditions be made to serve it perpetu- 

 ally. Unless there is a correction of 

 these conditions the supply of products 

 will not be maintained, local industries 

 will decline, or vanish, land values will 

 be permanently reduced, and the bene- 



i 



LARGE W T HITE OAK ix A HOLLOW 



BELOW A CLIFFWINO COVE, 

 JACKSON COUXT\, KY. 



fits arising from the mere existence of 

 well managed forests wiH be lost, with 

 unfortunate results. 



FOREST PROBLEM EASY 



"On the other hand, there is an 

 enormous area of land suited onlv for 



