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The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 



membered that there are no soil conditions, rich or poor, high 

 or low, wet or dry, but they will grow some sort of trees useful 

 to mankind. Agriculture is our great basic industry, but next 

 to it is the great business of forestry and its dependent indus- 

 tries. 



Three centuries of agricultural history in this country has 

 given us a clear definition of agriculture and its many phases of 

 stock raising, dairying, marketing, etc. Likewise has three cen- 

 turies of forestry in Europe given equally as broad a definition 

 for forestry and its dependent industries. There both forestry 

 and agriculture are considered as land problems and forestry is 

 co-ordinate with agriculture. Likewise must we also come to 

 consider broadly forestry with agriculture in the solution of our 

 land problems — hand in hand they must go ; both are products 

 of the soil, one an annual, the other a periodic crop. 



In German states, where conditions are not so favorable for 

 forest growth as they are with us, forest lands are made to pay 

 Where Forest from $2.C0 to $7.00 per acre per annum, with all the land devoted 

 Growth Has either to agriculture or to forests. Now, assuming Louisiana to 

 be representative of the Southern cut-over pine lands, and that 

 soil and other conditions are not very dissimilar, let me con- 

 sider more directly the problem of their development and the 

 principles of action that should guide in the solution. 



According to the State Conservation Commission, there are 

 five and one-half million acres of cut-over pine lands in Louis- 

 iana alone, and I understand some 8,000,000 acres of such land 

 is owned by members of the Southern Pine Association. There 

 are other millions not credited, aggregating a total of 76,000,000 

 acres. These are waste lands, producing nothing other than 

 taxes, yielding no revenue, paying no interest on invested cap- 

 ital. They are idle lands and should be put to some sort of use. 

 Shall they find their best use in timber production or in some 

 form of agricultural production? 



Undoubtedly a large percentage, 75 or 80 per cent, is fit for 

 some sort of farming. The remaining 20 or 25 per cent is cer- 

 tainly fit only for some kind of forest growth. Moreover, with 

 the most favorable colonization schemes in operation, it will be 

 a generation or more before all the agricultural lands will be 

 occupied, and in the meantime why should they not be growing 

 timber? 



Been Made 

 Profitable 



