The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 19 



curs is in spite of the forest fires and other adverse agencies. 

 In short, the present resource is not being replaced by any other 

 that will equal it in value. The state is therefore suffering a net 

 loss every year. 



The question then arises whether the failure to settle up 

 the logged off lands is a temporary condition, and whether with 

 organized effort settlers cannot be induced to take up the lands 

 much more rapidly in the near future. 



The fact that the lands are level or moderately rolling, that 

 an analysis of the soil shows some crop raising possibilities, and 

 that the climate is favorable, has misled many persons regard- 

 ing the immediate development of these regions. While there 

 is a great deal of land of good quality, we must also recognize 

 the fact that there are in the aggregate immense areas that are ^^f^c/i of the 

 too jjoor ever to be used permanently for crop raising and other , y , '' 

 areas which can be made productive only by abundant fertilizers 

 and rather intensive methods of farming and which probably will 

 not be profitable to cultivate for a long time. Repeated ground 

 fires are making these lands even poorer, both for possible culti- 

 vation and for grazing. 



The problem in this region is not only to get the real agri- 

 cultural lands settled up, but to secure the productive use of the 

 balance. The combined use of the lands not of immediate agri- 

 cultural use for grazing and forestry is, in my opinion, the an- 

 swer to the question. 



It happens that in the Gulf States you have conditions for 

 forest production equaled only in portions of the north Pacific 

 region. Your pines grow with very astonishing rapidity, so that 

 in considering returns it is not necessary to think in terms of a 

 century or more, as in certain mountain regions. 



Within the regions suited to the growth of slash and long 

 leaf pine we have the possibility of producing turpentine on a 

 very practical basis. Studies by the Forest Service indicate that 

 slash pine in natural stands can be used for turpentine in twenty Ten Per Cent 

 to thirty years, and is capable of yielding as much as 500 cups per Profit Pos- 

 acre. These young stands are boxed now, but so severely treated ?* . . '" 

 that they are destroyed in three or four years. Under the French pgntine Trees 

 method the trees could be worked for from twenty-five to fifty 

 years. In much of the South the long leaf pine could not be 

 worked for turpentine quite as early, but in each case the pro- 



