LONG-BELL EXPERIMENTAL FARM 



669 



profit may be expected. It is this kind 

 of definite practical information that 

 will eventually transform these thou- 

 sands of acres of blackened stumps and 

 tree tops into profitable farms and or- 

 chards. 



WHY THE EXPERIMENT FARM WAS 

 NEEDED. 



To know what made necessary all 

 this work of experimenting and figur- 

 ing, this planting and re-planting of 

 the same ground with different species 

 and varieties of fruit trees and shrubs, 

 one must know the present day condi- 

 tions as well as those who come into 

 actual contact with them. 



Over fifty years ago, the denuding 

 of the land covered with vast pine for- 

 ests began at Lake Charles when Capt. 

 Goos' steam sawmill, the first in this 

 section of Louisiana, began to eat its 

 way into the yellow pine belt. For 

 years, sawing was on such a small scale 

 that little impression was made upon 

 the tree-covered area. Thirty years 

 ago, sawmills of greater capacity were 

 put into commission, logs being floated 

 to the pioneer mills by means of the 

 numerous streams. 



Then came the building of railroads 

 into the pine forests, and the extension 

 of transportation facilities. The num- 

 ber of mills multiplied and their capacity 

 for sawing was greatly increased. 

 When the Long-Bell Lumber Company 

 began to acquire timberlands in Cal- 

 casieu and its subsidiary organizations 

 began to erect milling plants, the pine 

 forests were disappearing at the rate of 

 upwards of a hundred acres a day. At 

 the present time fifty sawmilling plants 

 are in operation in Calcasieu parish and 

 ninety thousand acres a year are being 

 turned into stump land. 



Roughly speaking, eighty per cent of 

 Calcasieu's surface was originally 

 wooded. Nearly half of the standing 

 pine timber has been cut since the first 

 mill was started. About 700,000 acres 

 of its area is classed as "denuded pine 

 land." Up to ten years ago, everybody 

 agreed that no one could raise crops on 

 denuded pine land. It might pasture 

 a few sheep, they admitted, and raise a 



patch of corn or cotton, here and there, 

 but anything like making it all farm 

 lands was out of the question. Even 

 the millmen, the owners of the land 

 themselves, concurred in this opinion. 

 They would have sold their denuded 

 lands for a song, but nobody wanted 

 to sing. Some of them even talked of 

 surrendering their denuded lands to the 

 State rather than pay the few cents per 

 acre annually demanded as taxes. 



This was a gloomy outlook for the 

 hundreds of people who came to work 

 in the mills, hoping to find a permanent 

 home here, and for the busy, energetic, 

 little communities that had sprung up 

 around these centers of activity. Luck- 

 ily the Long-Bell Lumber Company 

 never accepts say-so and theoretical 

 evidence as final. It was not willing 

 to admit that this land was designed by 

 Providence to grow pine trees and noth- 

 ing else. So, after its milling plants 

 had been set to work, it sent over to 

 Texas for T. S. Cranberry, a practical 

 horticulturist and agriculturist, who 

 came originally from Georgia, and vir- 

 tually said to him, though not in those 

 words : 



"You see before you, stretching from 

 Bon Ami nearly to DeRidder, approxi- 

 mately 460 acres of land, covered with 

 stumps and tree tops and fallen logs. 

 People around here say that it cannot 

 be put into shape for fruit and vege- 

 tables and other crops, and that if it 

 could be cleared it wouldn't raise any- 

 thing, anyhow. We don't believe it. 

 Go ahead and see what you can do with 

 it and call upon us for the money." 



That was six years ago. To give 

 some idea of what Mr. Cranberry has 

 achieved is the purpose of this article ; 

 but it may be said in advance that there 

 has been no more talk in Calcasieu of 

 turning denuded pine laud back to the 

 State for taxes. All the return the 

 Long-Bell Lumber Co. bus had so far 

 from its expenditure on the Experiment 

 farm has been the sale of its products. 

 It has not sold any of the denuded pine 

 land, because the contain- was deter- 

 mined first to demonstrate to its own 

 satisfaction the agricultural value of 

 such lands. Then it will go after in- 



