8 MISC. PUBLICATION 24, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



At the end of 20 years the investment has reached about $1,000,000, 

 or $20 per acre. From now on to the fortieth year there should be 

 enough sales of wood products to pay taxes and cost of supervision. 

 At 40 years the cost of the venture would be $4,000,000, or $80 per 

 acre. 



We can reasonably expect a minimum yield of 15,000 feet per acre 

 or 750,000,000 feet. The cost per thousand feet is about $5, to which 

 must be added a severance or yield tax of at least 10 per cent when 

 the timber is cut, as the State and counties are entitled to a reason- 

 able tax on the timber grown, and based on a stumpage value of $10 

 per thousand the severance tax would be $1 per thousand feet, or $15 

 per acre. Thus the cost of growing timber is $6 per thousand feet. 

 Ten dollars stumpage means a profit of $4 per thousand feet, or $60 

 per acre. Cattle raising in connection with the venture will yield a 

 profit and is recommended. 



(Note. — Mr. Hardtner expects 8 per cent compound interest on 

 his money invested and expended in growing timber as a crop, and 

 in addition $4 a thousand feet clear profit.) 



EIGHTEEN THOUSAND ACRES PLANTED WITH PINES 



By J. K. Johnson, Forester, Great Southern Lumber Co., Bogalusa, La. 



The Great Southern Lumber Co. at Bogalusa, La., has faith in the 

 profitableness of growing pine trees as a land crop. It is carrying out 

 a policy of protection of all of its lands from fire, leaving sufficient 

 seed trees to restock naturally the cut-over land, and utilizing the 

 entire tree from the ground to the top. The company has reforested 

 about 18,000 acres by setting out small nursery-grown pine trees, 

 about 1,000 per acre. Altogether, it has some 140,000 acres of land, 

 mostly well stocked with a young pine forest. Recently (1925-1927) 

 the company purchased some 80,000 acres in Louisiana of well- 

 stocked second-growth timberlands which will within a period of 

 10 to 20 years provide a sawmill cut in quantity comparable to good 

 virgin woods to-day. 



We can see pictured for the future in the South reconstructed 

 forests on sound business administration supporting permanent and 

 prosperous industries. The sawmills, paper mills, creosote plants, 

 naval-stores production, and woodworking factories of every descrip- 

 tion, as permanent, lasting business enterprises, have already begun 

 to take the place of the old method of speeding the cut and then 

 moving away. 



A great many of the largest lumbering enterprices in the South 

 are rapidlv coordinating methods of forest management and^ manu- 

 facture, bringing about more complete utilization and providing for 

 permanent operation. The size of dividends may be temporally 

 reduced, but what of it when they will come back heaped up, running 

 over, and last forever! The attainment of the ideal requires the 

 sympathetic good will of everyone, and it can come about only by 

 education, information, and publicity. 



In this tree-farming business there is pleasant, profitable employ- 

 ment for every day in the month and every month in the year and 

 throughout the years to come. The support of wild life, fish, game, 

 and fur-bearing animals, through land protection and management; 



