Carolina Geological Survey. Pratt 

 was active in organizing the South for 

 forest-fire protection, along with R.D. 

 Forbes, long-time secretary of the 

 Southern Forestry Conference 

 (Maunder 1977). At that time only 5 

 of the 12 Southern States had a 

 forestry agency established by law. 

 The Southern Forestry Conference 

 was a loose-knit organization of 

 leaders in the South who were 

 interested in developing forestry State 

 by State. Henry Hardtner, of 

 Louisiana, was chairman of the 

 Southern Pine Association forestry 

 committee and also an active 

 participant in the Southern Forestry 

 Conference. Another leader was Tom 

 Wallace, editor of the Louisville 

 Courier-Journal. 



As lumber production continued to 

 rise in the South toward its peak in 

 1909, when it accounted for almost 

 half the Nation's production, the vast 

 acreage of cut-over land left as a 

 result was beginning to cause major 

 concerns. In 1917 the Southern Pine 

 Association joined with the Southern 

 Settlement and Development 

 Organization, a railroad and business 

 group, to call a conference to explore 

 what could be done with this vast 

 cut-over area. By the 1920's the area 

 included some 1 million devastated 

 acres (404,700 ha) in the coastal 

 plain from South Carolina to Texas, 

 with 156 million cut-over acres (63.1 

 million ha) in the South overall 

 (Fickle 1980). Conditions varied: 

 some tracts were selectively cut and 

 others totally denuded. In any event, 

 the large, mature timber was 

 basically gone. Almost no one saw 



prospects for further timber 

 production. Furthermore, the South 

 was largely out of the mainstream of 

 the developing interest in forest 

 conservation, which was centered in 

 the East at that time. 



In calling the Cut-Over Land 

 Conference in 1917, the Southern 

 Pine Association became the first 

 body to study this problem seriously. 

 From the conference a Cut-Over 

 Land Association was formed. Its 

 duties were to serve primarily as a 

 clearinghouse for information on cut- 

 over lands based on data from the 

 Southern Pine Association and State 

 and Federal agencies. In the context 

 of the times it is not surprising that 

 most attention was given to possible 

 agricultural uses for this land and 

 virtually none to renewed timber 

 production. The general public and 

 even the lumbermen of that day were 

 largely unconvinced of the economic 

 feasibility of regenerating timber on 

 the land. Much research and 

 educational effort remained before 

 reforestation could be attacked 

 successfully, and any large-scale 

 effort was to await the period 

 following World War II. 

 Nevertheless, the Southern Pine 

 Association and its forestry committee 

 should be recognized for making a 

 beginning in addressing this gigantic 

 problem. During this period, the 

 Southern Pine Association also 

 continued to be an important force in 

 promoting fire control, in 

 strengthening State forestry agencies, 

 and in working for effective forestry 

 legislation in the region. 



