resource is developed, public agencies must look 

 forward to carrying a large part of these lands per- 

 manently and should be prepared to supply such 

 management as their potentialities justify. 



Timberland owners in this section have had little, 

 if any, experience in the raising of sticcessive timber 

 crops on their lands, and an intensive extension 

 effort will be required to give them a general con- 

 cept of the possibilities and opportunities of long- 

 time forest management and an understanding of 

 the technique involved. The State forest services 

 and the Extension Service, with other cooperating 

 Federal agencies, should greatly increase their edu- 

 cational and promotional activities. The trade 

 associations of the major forest industries should 

 employ foresters to work with and advise their 

 members. In some instances large individual tim- 

 berland owners can profitably engage the services 

 of technical foresters. 



Notwithstanding the importance of hardwoods in 

 industry and the need of perpetuating and improv- 

 ing hardwood forests in the lower South, very little 

 scientific research to this end has been carried on. 

 Although sufficient knowledge is available to en- 

 able timber owners to inaugurate a program of 

 improvement, much of the detailed information 

 required for intensive hardwood-forest manage- 

 ment must be developed through research in silvi- 

 culture and economics. Studies to determine rates 

 of timber growth, methods of logging and utiliza- 

 tion, regulation of cut, and methods of stand im- 

 provement should be started without further 

 delay. Demonstration areas illustrating the re- 

 sults of these studies should be established. Forest 

 products research on a large scale also is needed in 

 order that the present and prospective timber sup- 

 ply may be effectively utilized in industry. 



Some form of cheap long-term financing is neces- 

 sary in order to stabilize forest ownership, to 

 facilitate continuity of management policy, to assist 

 private timberland owners during the early stages 

 of developing sustained yieid, and to encourage the 

 continued investment in growing stock thereafter. 



To this end, measures such as the extension of the 

 credit facilities of the Reconstruction Finance 

 Corporation to industrial concerns and those of 

 the Farm Credit Administration to farmers are 

 suggested. 



Growth calculations indicate that in 1934 both 

 the board-foot and cubic-foot drain exceeded the 

 corresponding growth; but, beyond this, all 

 evidence points to the fact that both the quality and 

 the quantity of the annual increment of the forest in 

 this unit are considerably below its producing 

 capacity. With selective cutting designed to con- 

 serve and improve the growing stock in the com- 

 mercial area, with sanitation cuttings and good care 

 of the huge area of noncommercial forest now in 

 reserve for future cuts, and with widespread and 

 effective protection from fire, the annual increment 

 available for utilization can be doubled easily 

 within two or three decades. Thus, an ultimate 

 continuous timber production in excess of the 1934 

 cut is possible, even though the area devoted at 

 present to the growth of timber may be somewhat 

 reduced by an agricultural expansion, the extent 

 and imminence of which cannot be estimated at 

 this time. Present trends in industrial require- 

 ments for hardwood forest products indicate that 

 the industries will be in a position to use the class 

 of material which will be available when the pres- 

 ent merchantable timber in this unit has been 

 exhausted. 



With its rich soil, abundant growing stock, and 

 proximity to the center of wood consumption of the 

 country, the north-Louisiana delta can continue to 

 be a very important source of hardwood timber. 

 Although the forest industries are at present poorly 

 adjusted to the growing stock, this condition does 

 not need to persist. Through wise handling of 

 forest land, through adaptation of type of products 

 manufactured to timber supply, and through 

 adjustments in manufacturing and marketing 

 practices, the forest industries in the unit can be put 

 upon a permanent and expanding basis. 



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