2 MISC. PUBLICATION 2 4, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



as a producer of naval stores during the past few years testifies to 

 the immediate value and extent of this second-growth resource. The 

 Carolinas are now beginning to show the same kind of comeback. 

 In general, the naval-stores industry appears to be returning to its 

 old fields of activity. 



The South is, I believe, leading the country to-day in industrial 

 forestry, by which I mean that the lumber companies, paper com- 

 panies, and naval-stores operators of the South are showing the way 

 in the adoption of methods of land management that take advantage 

 of the timber-growing power of the soil. 



In the matter of farm forestry and an understanding of the 

 relation of timber growing to agriculture and in forest development 

 generally we stand on solid ground in the South to-day. Reforesta- 

 tion is now generally recognized as essential to the creation of wealth 

 from the soil and to healthy agriculture. 



The profitableness of reforestation in the South is becoming more 

 and more assured, largely because of an unusual combination of 

 industries using forest products as raw material ; namely, the lumber, 

 the paper, and the naval-stores industries. The utilization of pine 

 trees and their products by these industries, combined with the 

 advantages of soil and climate for rapid timber production, bids- 

 fair, in my judgment, to give timber growing an assured economic 

 footing such as it has rarely obtained anywhere in the world. 



It is very stimulating to me to note from year to year the remark- 

 able progress made by the pine-forestry interests of the South, under 

 enlightened and far-sighted industrial leadership. This progress 

 under such leadership is one of the finest chapters in the story of 

 forestry in North America. 



FORESTRY DEMONSTRATION BY THE SOUTHERN RAILWAY 



By J. C. Williams, Manager, Southern Railway Development Service 



When the South Carolina Railroad, now the Charleston division 

 of the Southern Railway, was built nearly a hundred years ago, it 

 acquired pine lands along its line to supply fuel for the wood- 

 burning locomotives then in use. 



These lands, now owned by the Southern Railway, could not be 

 farmed profitably without expensive drainage and were unsalable. 

 They would grow pine trees to perfection, and in January, 1925, 

 the Southern Railway management undertook to demonstrate that 

 by the application of scientific forestry methods on similar lands in 

 the southern coastal plain, trees could be made to pay better than 

 any other crop. 



The Southern Railway demonstration is being carried out on about 

 12,000 acres in the vicinity of Pregnall and Ridgeville, S. C. The 

 original forest was principally loblolly and long-leaf pine, probably 

 with loblolly predominating, with cypress and gum in the swamps, 

 and with scattering poplar, maple, and a few other hardwoods. 

 There were also a very few slash pines in several parts of the forest. 

 These lands had been cut over several times, but were never closely 

 cut. Not only was there an abundant stand of seed trees, but a 

 substantial amount of virgin timber had not been cut. The lands 

 were burned over more or less completely every year. As a conse- 



