REFORESTATION TO PAY DIVIDENDS 155 



tions are more chiefly suitable for agriculture, and 

 what can best be reforested. The results of the 

 earlier reforestation experiments will then be 

 applied to many thousands of additional acres so 

 selected, and a really perpetual timber supply will 

 be obtained. The regrowth of the town site has 

 already demonstrated the practicability of this as 

 far as the Shortleaf species go; but the plan looks 

 ahead even as far as forty or fifty years when the 

 first replanted Longleaf pine will reach a merchant- 

 able size — a plan so far reaching and revolutionary 

 that it may in time succeed in changing the entire 

 character of the lumber industry. It certainly 

 seems worth a try. This company is one of several 

 which have been the pioneers of the United States 

 in large scale reforestation and thoroughgoing 

 conservation methods. They have built for perma- 

 nence through faith in that experiment. When that 

 faith is justified and practical reforestation actually 

 begins to pay dividends, we may cease to fear the 

 exhaustion of our timber resources. 



