SOME APPROACHES TO A BETTER FOREST SITUATION 



53 



In most of the State, the law makes each stock raiser 

 responsible for fencing in his own animals. However, 

 in the counties of south Mississippi, where protection 

 is needed most, the forest landowner enjoys no such 

 benefit. Not many landowners, even those firmly per- 

 suaded of the worth of good management practice, 

 can be expected to assume the burden of excluding 

 other people's stock from their properties. 



Prospects Under Better Forestry 



The basic measures in forestry called for above — im- 

 proved utilization, improved cutting practice, fire con- 

 trol, and protection from grazing — hold the key to 



Mississippi's forestry future. Instead of the present 

 prospect for continued declines in the forest resource, 

 with its corollary of curtailed industry, improved for- 

 estry would offer the prospect of a reversal in the trend 

 of Mississippi's forests and an approach to timber 

 abundance. Moderate but widespread improvements 

 in utilization, cutting practice, and the control of fire 

 and grazing could eventually raise the current annual 

 growth of 1.8 billion board feet by two-thirds and the 

 current growth of 529 million cubic feet by one-half. 

 It would result in much more income and employment 

 in timber-products industries than the State now en- 

 joys, and permit the State to help meet the long-range 

 needs of the Nation for timber. 



