24 FOREST CONDITIONS IN LOUISIANA. 



The naval stores industry is less important in Louisiana than in 

 any other longleaf-pine State, except Texas. The increase in 1908 

 over 1907, however, was 50 per cent 



The amount of firewood used in Louisiana in 1908 is estimated at 

 2,524,819 cords. 



FOREST PROBLEMS OF THE STATE. 

 GENERAL. 



The yellow-pine operating companies which own extensive tracts 

 of virgin timber are not, as a rule, adding to their holdings. They 

 have, therefore, a fairly definite idea of the length of time their 

 mills can run. Large bodies of timber scattered throughout the 

 State are being purchased by capitalists, who intend to hold them 

 until the lands owned by the large mills have been cut over. Almost 

 invariably the holdings of the present operators are heavily bonded, 

 in some cases for as much as $2 on every thousand feet of lumber 

 manufactured. In consequence, to pay the interest on these bonds, 

 which usually runs from 6 to 8 per cent, it is necessary for the 

 manufacturers to cut their timber regardless of the market price of 

 lumber. Since the business depression of 1907 the net returns from 

 the manufacture of yellow-pine lumber have been small. The neces- 

 sity for paying interest on bonds, the loss of timber by hurricanes, 

 and the heavy fixed charges of operation, coupled with low prices for 

 lumber, have kept profits down. Small companies and individual 

 operators, free from debt, are able to manufacture at a fair profit and 

 can close their mills for short periods of the year, but the bonded 

 companies must often run night and day. At present the production 

 of yellow pine is far greater than the actual demand. 



The effect of overproduction and low prices can not be anything 

 else but bad. Because there is no profit in manufacturing low grades 

 into lumber, many companies are compelled to leave on the ground as 

 much as 2,000 board feet per acre in tops and logs partially affected 

 with red heart. As a rule, only such portions of the tree as will make 

 high-grade material are hauled to the mill. The lumbermen feel that 

 they are in no position to take up conservative methods of logging 

 or to make provision for a future cut of timber on the same land. 

 It seems inevitable, therefore, that present methods of exploitation 

 will continue as long as there is sufficient virgin timber to supply the 

 large mills. "When these have cut all of their timber and moved on, 

 smaller sawmill companies will be established on a more permanent 

 basis. 



After lumbering, the land is usually left in a desolate condition. 

 The industry, as a rule, does not work for permanent development 

 of the country, nor are its earnings invested in the community. Some 



