were classified as 

 submarginal for agriculture. 



5. Tax-delinquent 

 commercial forest land in 

 eight Southern States 

 (Florida, Arkansas, 

 Louisiana, Mississippi, 

 Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, 

 and Georgia) during the 

 first 3 years of the 

 Depression amounted to 

 about 13.7 million acres. 



6. The South had more 

 than 100 million acres of 

 cutover pine land capable 

 of producing from one-half 

 to 1-1/2 cords of wood per 

 acre per year if given proper 

 forest management. This 

 would be a sufficient volume 

 to match the pulpwood 

 consumption of 1 933 five 

 or six times over. 



It is ironic that the 

 Depression directly 

 contributed to reclaiming 

 the South's cutover, 

 burned-out, and farmed-out 

 lands. President Franklin D. 

 Roosevelt's New Deal 

 anti-Depression measures 

 resulted in: (1) 

 unprecedented funding for 

 national forest land 

 acquisition, and (2) 

 unprecedented labor to 

 perform reforestation work 

 and suppress fire. 



According to National Forest 

 Reservation Commission 

 reports, appropriations for 



the years 1911 to 1932 

 ranged between $1 million 

 and $2 million, with the 

 exception of the year 1917 

 ($3 million) and the years 

 1923-25 (which averaged 

 about 1/2 million dollars). 

 Then in June 1933, the 

 President allotted $20 million 

 of New Deal funding for 

 purchase of forest lands. 

 Additional allotments 

 brought that total to $45.9 

 million by August of 1935! 



The Commission 

 established 15 new 

 purchase units in the South 

 the first year and 5 more 

 the following year. 



Only 2,132,387 acres had 

 been purchased in the 

 South between 1911 and 

 1933. With the allocation of 

 increased funds under the 

 New Deal, the total area 

 acquired or approved for 

 purchase as of January 1, 

 1936, was 6,474,294 acres. 



The Copeland Report's 

 recommended program for 

 the South suggested 

 purchase of cutover and 

 submarginal agricultural 

 land, leaving the better 

 lands to private ownership. 



According to a Forest 

 Service memorandum 

 (Girard 1936, unpubl.) dated 

 January 24, 1936, purchase 

 policy was to achieve the 

 following goals: 



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