January 1, 1912.] 



THE LUMBER TRADE JOURNAL 



5,400,000 feet. That is about twenty times the 

 average cut of the mills in the state of New York. 

 Owing to the fact that statistics for poles, hewed 

 ties, and wood distillation are not in form for use 

 in state reports, the total of Louisiana's forest 

 products cannot 'be given. Table 31 gives all avail- 

 able figures showing amounts. Though in cut of 

 lumber, the latest statistics show Washington, a 

 little ahead of Louisiana, the grouping of all known 

 data for each state shows that Louisiana's forests 

 yield more wood than those of any other state. 

 Whether an apportionment of hewed ties, poles, and 

 wood distillation to the states where they belong 

 would change the relative rank of these two states 

 cannot be told with certainty, but it would probably 

 leave Louisiana still two hundred million feet ahead 

 of any other state in total output. That may be 

 proper subject for congratulation by the business 

 men of Louisiana, but it calls up a question of a seri- 

 ous kind: How long will the state's forests hold 

 out with a drain of five billion feet a year, and what 

 is being done in the way of providing a future sup- 

 ply? It is a fact apparent to all who travel through 

 the state that the forests are not reproducing any- 

 thing like they do in some other regions. 



'Young cypress trees are almost unknown, and 

 when the present stand has been cut, the end of 

 cypress lumbering in that region will come. Even 

 if young cypresses were coming on, it takes two 

 hundred years for one sawlog to grow. Longleaf 

 pine is in nearly the same situation. Occasionally 

 vigorous stands of seedlings are seen, but the areas 



are usually small and far apart. The end of the 

 longleaf lumbering will come about as soon as the 

 end of the cypress. Longleaf pine seedlings have 

 bark so thin that a moderate fire kills them even 

 when they have reached sapling size and fires are 

 frequent in Louisiana. They do not attract as much 

 attention as the fires in the Northwestern states, 

 which frequently become spectacular conflagrations; 

 but as destroyers of future forests, it is not im- 

 probable that the slow, easy-going fires of Louisiana 

 do as much damage as those of Idaho or Wash- 

 ington. 



There is a little more hope for the shortleaf, 

 loblolly, and Cuban pine in Louisiana, for they seem 

 to possess more vigor, reproduce better, and grow 



faster, but unless those species are given some en- 

 couragement, they cannot supply sawlogs in quan- 

 tity sufficient to keep future lumber yards stocked. 

 In some parts of Virginia and North Carolina lob- 

 lolly pine overran abandoned plantations in past 

 years, and grew so rapidly that large lumber oper- 

 ations are now carried on in old cotton and tobacco 

 fields. The same pine would probably repeat the 

 process in Louisiana and solve part of the problem 

 of supply, if the chance were given; but the Louisi- 

 anans are showing no disposition to abandon their 

 plantations. Therefore, the future sawlogs must 

 come from elsewhere than from old fields. The 

 state has broad stretches of as fertile land as can be 

 found anywhere; but it has much other soil that 

 is thin, and it is the thin soil which must produce 



the lumber, for the rich land is and will be in too 

 much demand for cultivation for much of It to be 

 spared for trees, except along swamp edges and 

 estuaries where willow and cottonwood will repay 

 well those who give them a chance to grow. 



The people of the state might assure an ade- 

 quate supply of lumber by keeping the poor lands 

 growing pines, and the wet lands in willow, cotton- 

 wood, willow oak, white oak, and other oaks, red 

 gum, and a few others; but those things will not 

 come about of their own accord; and the present for- 

 ests are going at a rate never seen elsewhere in the 

 United States as the following table shows. 



Table 31. 



Summary of Louisiana's Forest Products. 



Annual Output 

 Products. Peet B. M. 



Sawed Lumber 3,551,918,000 



Shingles 194,141,000 



Lath 105,756,000 



Tight cooperage 20,055,000 



Slack cooperage 14,474,000 



Veneer 3,164,000 



Fuel *1,285,862,000 



Total 5,175,370,000 



This number is calculated on the basis of 600 feet 

 board measure to the cord of wood. The number of cords. 

 2,143,104, is taki-n from Forest Service Circular 181, "Con- 

 sumption of Firewood in the United Stall's. 



