30 



The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 



Varied Adap- 

 tability of 

 Cut-Over 

 Lands 



Forest Fire 

 Problem Must 

 Be Solved 



Experiment 



Stations 



'Seeded 



raising purposes A good deal of this land would be adapted to 

 raising sheep, cattle and hogs, which would not be at all adapted 

 to raising cotton, corn, sugar cane or soy beans, or any of the 

 other grain crops. The rest of the land, which is neither adapted 

 to agriculture in the shape of crops or agriculture in the shape 

 of live stock development, should then be set aside as a permanent 

 forest area and a permanent forestry policy worked out through 

 the co-operation of the Federal Department of Agriculture, or 

 the State Forestry Service, and the owners of the land. 



Perhaps the greatest single obstacle to a proper development 

 of any of these lines of activity — agriculture, live stock or for- 

 estry — is the forest fire ; the forest fire not only destroys a lot of 

 forest trees, but it destroys the humus in the soil and the 

 plant life on which the live stock subsist. Until you have worked 

 out a policy which will enable us, unitedly, to solve the problem 

 of forest fires, you have not taken your first step in the develop- 

 ment of the cut-Over areas of this or any other region. That is a 

 problem that will need the united attack. of the Federal Govern- 

 ment, the state government and the private owners of these lands. 

 When once you solve this problem and make your surveys, then 

 we are ready to' get to work on the subdivisions of the problem. 

 Then we should have established, in all the different sections 

 where these lands are located, experiment stations where we can 

 experiment on solutions for all the problems connected with the 

 agricultural and live stock industries in these regions. At the 

 present time there is a good deal that you do not know, that the 

 state bodies do not know, and that nobody knows with regard 

 to these problems. We have not yet worked out all the problems 

 connected with the matter of grasses on which to raise the 

 live stock. We have not worked out the problems connected 

 with the proper crops to be grown to best advantage on those 

 parts of these lands which are agricultural in their possibilities. 

 We have not yet worked on these problems sufficiently to know 

 what method of reforestation to adopt. If you were to take 

 this matter up with our Congressmen and Senators, the United 

 States Government undoubtedly would be willing to establish 

 experiment stations in the different sections of the South where 

 all these problems could' be worked out until a proper solution 

 for them was found. 



Now, in looking at this problem the fundamental principle 

 involved is an old one, and an old one that is today receiving a 



