The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 



Greetings 



Rouge, and therefore I am going toi claim the privilege of the chair- 

 man and, without further ceremony, will introduce myself to you 

 as the representative of the Honorable Ruffin G. Pleasant, Gov- 

 ernor of the State of Louisiana. (Applause.) 



Gentlemen, as the representative of the Governor of Louisiana 

 I wish to say to you that the Governor regrets exceedingly that he 

 was not able, owing to sickness, to be present here today and to 

 welcome this distinguished body of men from these various sec- 

 tions who have come together here tO' consider problems that mean 

 so much to the State of Louisiana as well as to the other sections. 

 The Governor appreciates fully the significance of this meeting. He 

 recognizes that any plan or set of plans which can be brought about 

 to further the development of these areas of cut-over lands that Governor 

 exist in the State of Louisiana, approximating something like five Pleasant, 

 or five and a half million acres at the present time, will be of great Louisiana, 

 good to this state and the people and that prosperity will follow ^fJlJ^^ 

 in the wake of this development; and I want to- say to you that it 

 is a question of great importance. There is no- more important 

 question which can be taken up at this particular time, for now, 

 at the time of the nation's crisis; now, at the time when we are 

 entering into the world war; now, at the time when we are going 

 to require the efforts of the sound-thinking men to bring about a 

 further development along agricultural lines and along the line of 

 raising foodstuflfs generally, and also live stock, this is a live ques- 

 tion and a question that concerns us all and we should give it serious 

 deliberation. 



Louisiana has something like twenty-nine million acres of land 

 and today there is less than five million acres of that land under 

 cultivation. Louisiana has the greatest body of alluvial lands that 

 exist in the world today, and still there are large tracts of this land 

 which still remain uncultivated. Louisiana has vast ptairies which 

 future development would make ideal stock farms. Louisiana has 

 had something like fourteen million acres of timber land, something developed 

 like nine or ten million acres of pine land, and today there exists Cut-Over 

 in the state over five million acres of cut-over pine land, and the 

 problem is, what are we going to do with it and what are we going 

 to make out of it ? About 80 per cent of it, as we see it, would be 

 susceptible for agricultural development. 



Louisiana has made a great deal of progress as to demonstrat- 

 ing what can be done with this cut-over land. Situated in some 



Louisiana's 

 5,000,000 

 Acres of Un- 



Lands 



