314 REPORT OF THE FORESTRY COMMITTEE 



(8) In many cases the owner plans to sell off his cut-over land to settlers as 

 rapidly as possible, and his only efforts are to secure purchasers for this land at 

 remunerative prices. However, a large part of the cut-over pine lands will not 

 be needed for agricultural purposes and cannot be sold for many years to come. 



It seems a business proposition to encourage second growth so that a second 

 crop of timber might be secured while a market for the land is developing. The 

 opinion is too prevalent among timber-land owners that reforestation means 

 " planting, and that it is an entirely separate and' subsequent operation to lumbering. 

 This is possibly the attitude of Mr. George K. Smith, who courteously answered 

 the inquiry sent to him. He says : 



"In my judgment, the indifference shown by timberland owners and 

 lumbermen in the South to the prevention of fire in the forest is on account 

 of the fact that no systematic or definite effort has been made for reforesta- 

 tion. Until the time arrives when an attempt is made to reforest the cut- 

 over lands, no one is particularly interested in the question of fire. As long 

 as fires do not damage the standing timber of merchantable growth it will 

 be very difficult to arouse general interest in fire prevention." 



Perhaps the most important, as well as one of the most difficult, problems 

 before the advocates of fire protection in the South today is that of enlisting the 

 active support of the lumbermen. In the Northwest, where associations of lum- 

 bermen are cooperating with the State and Federal authorities in fire prevention, 

 the safety of the mature timber is at stake. In the South, on the other hand, the 

 mature timber is comparatively resistant, but the young forest, the supply of the 

 future, is menaced. Over nearly the whole of this region natural regeneration is 

 practically assured if hogs are excluded, seed trees provided for (either before or 

 after cutting) and fires are prevented. How can the landowners, farmers as 

 well as lumbermen, be convinced that fire will pay them? 



PRESENT STATUS 



EFFORTS have been and are being made along the lines of education and 

 legislation in most of the States, though in most cases they have been 

 lamentably feeble and ineffective. The number of professional foresters 

 employed by the Southern States is not over five or six. 



Education: Some elementary forestry courses are given in a few of the 

 State institutions of learning, but they are incidental to other courses and are in 

 a very few cases adequate to the needs, only Maryland, Georgia and, possibly, 

 Missouri, having such courses in charge of technically trained men. Several of 

 the States have issued one or more publications on forestry subjects, in most 

 cases based on work done in cooperation with the Federal Forest Service. The 

 F'ederal Government has also done much to bring the question of forestry before 

 the people of the various States through lectures and exhibits, and by making 

 examinations of woodland properties for the owners. The results accomplished 

 by this and other educational and propaganda work of the Government would be 

 hard to overestimate. 



