a 
a 
ie | 
SE a alles 
with a margin to spare, the present requirements of 
rry. In view of what is needed in the economic re- 
itation of the State, however, the present forest situa- 
tion cannot be accepted with complacency. To play its 
part, the forest should be developed to the fullest produc- 
ty that the soil, the species, and skillful, foresighted 
management can accomplish. There are strong indications 
that the forest lands of the State, if handled intelligently, 
are capable of producing at least twice the annual incre- 
ment they now yield. 
_ The forest industries rank high in the economy of the 
State. The survey in 1937 found a development impres- 
"sive both as to size and diversification. It included 1,607 
‘sa wmills, 603 turpentine stills, 2 large new pulp and paper 
mills, 3 wood-distillation plants, 25 veneer mills, 36 
cooperage plants, 6 wood-treating plants, and at least 
63 other forest-industrial plants. There is opportunity 
to expand forest industry still further if it can and will 
use fully the kind and quality of wood available. This is 
“particularly true in the three northern survey units, 
where the 1937 increment was in excess of drain by 3 
million cords. There is also, in the State as a whole, an 
accumulation of 36 million cords of sound, usable material 
of comparatively low quality in cull trees and in trees 
worked out for turpentine, the early removal of which 
would be a blessing to the forest stand. To this may be 
3 added a large but undetermined volume of wood, also 
_ of low quality, in trees of small size that should be removed 
as thinnings from dense stands, and in the top stems and 
larger limbs of sawlog trees. 
a Although expansion of utilization, locally adjusted to 
“sustained-yield capacity in each survey unit of the State, 
is both possible and desirable, perhaps the greatest good 
would come through a change in the pattern of the wood- 
using industry. For many years, the greater part of 
 Georgia’s forest resources has been converted simply 
into convenient shape for shipment and sold at a mini- 
‘mum figure for fabrication or processing elsewhere. The 
“same material processed in Georgia for sale in finished 
form would bring into the State many times the present 
returns and give opportunity for more workers, steadier 
~ employment, and higher wages. Then too, there should 
be more plants to utilize the large volume of hardwoods 
and of sound but low-grade material in other species, 
most of which is now being wasted. 
Only when stable, adequate, and diversified markets 
‘ 
are locally available for all the products of their forests, 
will private owners fully accept sustained-yield forest 
management as a sound and attractive business. South 
Georgia has made real progress in the last 15 years in 
the field of private forestry mainly because of the presence 
there of diversified markets for naval stores, lumber, 
pulpwood, poles, piles, and cross ties, and because of 
supplementary income from grazing and hunting pre- 
serves. In the three northern units of Georgia, on the 
other hand, private forestry has made but little headway, 
despite favorable natural conditions. The difficulty there 
has been that landowners have had to depend for their 
markets almost entirely upon the inadequate and inter- 
mittent requirements of small transient sawmills. In each 
of these three units, there are surpluses of growth over 
drain as well as noteworthy accumulations of sound 
material in undesirable trees, the latter crying for markets. 
The forest lands of Georgia are owned by thousands of 
individuals with many and widely differing objects of man- 
agement and an equal diversity of economic limitations. 
To bring about that widespread practice of essential for- 
estry measures needed to increase materially the volume, 
quality, and value of the forest resource of the State, many 
people must participate, and many problems must be stud- 
ied and solved. This is no small undertaking, nor one that 
can be accomplished easily in a short time; it will require 
years of weil planned action on the part of the forest land- 
owners themselves, with the full cooperation of public 
agencies and the wood-using industries. 
The objectives of such an effort should be: (1) To grow 
on each acre of forest land, at lowest cost and in greatest 
volume, the most valuable commodities the soil will pro- 
duce; (2) to protect forest properties and investments from 
preventable losses due to fire, insects, and disease; (3) to 
develop stable and diversified wood-using industries 
throughout the State that will provide profitable markets 
for all the products and byproducts of the forest; and (4) te 
remove those causes that threaten the stabilized land own- 
ership necessary for long-time forest management, such as 
unfair tax treatment, discriminating freight rates, hard 
credit terms, and unfavorable legislation. 
While the people primarily concerned in this program 
are the forest landowners of the State and their tenants 
and managers, at the same time the forest-using industries 
and the general public have a large stake in the program 
and must play their part. 
3 
a | 
¢ 
- 
