2 Bulletin 827, V. S. Depl. of Agriculture. 



Later, the station was transferred from Collins to McNeill, Miss., 

 where the work is to be conducted on a broader scale than was 

 possible at Collins. 



EXTENT OF THE CUT-OVER LANDS. 



The cut-over pine lands of the South lie within the area known 

 as the Coastal Plain. This section is spoken of locally as the " Piney 

 Woods." It includes the southeastern portion of South Carolina, 

 most of Florida, the southern parts of Georgia, Alabama, and 

 Mississippi, the central and northern parts of Louisiana, and parts 

 of southeastern Texas and of southern Arkansas. At present the 

 total area is estimated at 100,000,000 acres and is being increased 

 about 10,000,000 acres annually, as additional land is cut over. One 

 company alone in Louisiana requires a cut of 80 acres daily to supply 

 its mills. It is estimated that ultimately the area of the cut-over 

 lands will reach 250,000,000 acres. 



A bare statement of figures does not readily present the vastness 

 of such an area. When comparisons are made the cut-over lands 

 appear as a veritable empire. The area represents an acreage more 

 than half that of the State of Texas, or equal to the combined acreage 

 of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. Much of all this great area 

 is unused and unproductive. 



The sandy soil of sedimentary origin which constitutes the Coastal 

 Plain is the natural habitat of the long-leaf yellow pine {Pinus palus- 

 tris) , which once covered the territory with a heavy growth to the 

 exclusion of practically all other timber, except on the alluvial land 

 along streams, which is forested with hardwood trees. This species 

 of pine is of first importance to the naval-stores industry, as it is 

 the main species in the United States that is tapped for turpentine. 



Long-leaf pine also makes a very high grade of lumber, and since 

 the late nineties lumbering has superseded all other industries in the 

 section mentioned. In 1909 the cut of southern yellow pine was 36.6 

 per cent and in 1913 it was 38.7 per cent of the entire cut of all 

 species of the country. 1 



Because of the immense scale of lumbering operations the land has 

 been rapidly denuded of the timber, and as practically all timbered 

 lands were in the hands of lumbermen whose interest was in the 

 timber, the lands remained as the woods crews left them — covered 

 with stumps and strewn with crowns, unmerchantable logs, and small 

 timber. Little thought was given to their future development as 

 agricultural or grazing lands. In other words, the cut-over con- 

 dition of the lands is a by-product of lumbering. With the end 



1 Bureau of Crop Estimates and Forest Service, U. S. Department of. Agriculture. 



