FOKEST PEOBLEMS OF THE STATE. 35 



tracts which allow the purchaser 10, 20, and 25 years in which to re- 

 move the timber are almost invariably disadvantageous to the owner. 

 The prospective value of a well-managed woodlot in Louisiana is 

 considerable. The trees grow rapidly, particularly on abandoned 

 fields, where loblolly and shortleaf pine will often average 15,000 

 feet per acre in 30 years. Telephone poles may be grown in 25 years 

 and saw timber in from 40 to 50 years. Oak, ash, gum, and pine are 

 usually the best species for the woodlot. 



PLANTING. 



Where fire is kept out abundant reproduction will usually come in 

 on cut-over pine land without the aid of planting. In some cases, 

 however, large areas have been completely stripped of timber, leav- 

 ing no trees to furnish seed. Similar conditions may occur where 

 turpentine operations have destroyed all seed trees left after logging. 



On badly eroded land, such as that in portions of the bluff region 

 and the uplands of the State, planting would be of great benefit. 

 Large areas between the Mississippi River and its levees should be 

 planted to cottonwood and willow, in order to protect the levees 

 from erosion during high water. This work might well be under- 

 taken by the State. In the prairies and in other parts of the State 

 where good fence-post material is not plentiful, black locust could 

 be grown with profit to supply this demand. Experiments with 

 catalpa for railroad ties and fence posts being carried on in the 

 alluvial region promise to meet with success, even on land with 

 little value for other purposes. Some attention has recently been 

 given in Louisiana to the planting of eucalyptus. While these trees 

 have an exceedingly rapid growth and the wood of some species is 

 very valuable they are not frost hardy. As yet eucalypts have been 

 grown commercially only in southern California, but they have been 

 planted for ornament in southern Texas, Arizona, and Florida, 

 where the temperature rarely falls below 22° above zero. In 

 Louisiana the planting range for eucalyptus is probably confined 

 to a narrow strip along the Mississippi below New Orleans. It is 

 possible, however, that the hardier species could be grown in other 

 places along the Gulf of Mexico. 



MANAGEMENT OF STATE LANDS. 



Had the millions of acres of alluvial land, once the property of the 

 State, been classified, and the portions chiefly valuable for timber 

 reserved, Louisiana would now be in possession of the finest bodies 

 of hardwood timber in the country. These lands were sold, often 

 for a few cents an acre, and the only benefit received by the State 

 has been the annual tax paid by the owners. The wisest policy in 



