PROSPECTS OF PRIVATE MANAGEMENT. 37 



timber hinds in the State, controlling perhaps 80 per cent of the 

 virgin longleaf pine forest, besides much cut-over land, is preparing 

 to introduce conservative forest management. The success of this plan 

 will be nothing short of revolutionary in its effect upon the Texas 

 lumber industry. AVhen it can be shown to the private owner that it 

 pays better to utilize the forest as a permanent source of supply than 

 to destroy it, the public and the private interest in the forest become 

 identical, and the future of the lumber industry is assured. 



THE PROSPECTS OF PRIVATE MANAGEMENT IN TEXAS. 



Two facts stand out in a consideration of the forest resources of 

 Texas and the forces now in operation which affect them: (1) That at 

 present the forests are being rapidly and dangerously diminished; and 

 (2) that there is a good opening to check their exhaustion, if the 

 proper steps are taken to that end. 



The main hope of forest preservation lies in private management. 

 Ninety-five per cent of the timberland of the State is alread}^ private 

 property. The possibilities of private management are along the lines 

 (1) of commercial forests to supply the market, and (2) of woodlots on 

 farms to supply local needs and (to some extent) protection. 



CONSERVATIVE LUMBERING ON VIRGIN TRACTS OF VALUABLE 

 COMMERCIAL TIMBER. 



The forests which supply commercially valuable timber are the long- 

 leaf, shortleaf, and loblolly pine forests, and the mixed hardwood 

 forests of alluvial bottoms, embracing the best of the east Texas timber 

 region. 



CONSERVATIVE LUMBERING IN THE LONGLEAF PINE FOREST. 



The longleaf pine forests now furnish four-fifths of all the pine 

 which reaches the Texas market. Yet the longleaf pine area is rela- 

 tive^ veiy small, and is rapidly diminishing. It was estimated by 

 Doctor Mohr a to have been originally 5,000 square miles approxi- 

 mately 3,000,000 acres with a stand of presumably some 30 billion 

 board feet of lumber. But lumbering has been going on for twenty- 

 five years, and on a large scale for fifteen years. The yearly cut has 

 exceded half a billion board feet since 1895; in 1900 it was at least 

 three-quarters of a billion feet. Probably half the area has been cut 

 over; fifteen years more of virgin timber cutting at a rate of a billion 

 feet a year would complete the harvest. There would then be left 

 only what has matured since cutting began. As a matter of fact some 

 tracts are already being cut a second time. This is possible because in 



ft Timber Pines of the Southern United States. 



