24 WOOD-TJSIXG INDUSTRIES OF ARKANSAS. 



There is little or no Cuban pine in Arkansas, but it may spread into 

 the State from the south. It grows quickly, sheds seeds abundantly, 

 and near the Gulf Coast is restocking some of the cut-over lands; but 

 no certain prediction can be made for it in Arkansas. It is simply 

 a possibility. 



Loblolly pine has a fair foothold in the State and is a vigorous 

 species. In North Carolina and Virginia it has restocked large 

 areas of abandoned land and comparatively young stands yield 

 much lumber. It may do as well in Arkansas, but it has not yet 

 done so. 



These four — longleaf, shortleaf, loblolly, and Cuban — are the only 

 pines which give promise of bringing on timber in Arkansas to supply 

 future needs, and the present outlook is not encouraging. With 

 protection for seedlings, however, pines will come back in many 

 places where the original forests have been or may be cut. 



With hardwoods the prospect for a future supply is a little better. 

 More than 20 well-known species, and twice that many more not 

 so well known, may be drawn upon. Fires which kill all growth 

 above ground may not destroy hardwoods as it does pines, for roots 

 of the former send up sprouts which may become a new forest and 

 in time produce timber. Nevertheless, tire is harmful to any kind 

 of trees and if often repeated will finally destroy all woody growth 

 and change a region to grass or weeds or to bare rock or sands. 



As a rule, in future forests will not be permitted to occupy good 

 agricultural lands, but rather swamps, steep slopes, rocky tracts, 

 and poor soils. After half of Arkansas is under farm cultivation 

 (it is not one-fourth in farms now) there will still be immense areas 

 left for timber. Some will lie in tracts too wet for cultivation, even 

 when many swamps have been drained ; others will occupy ridges and 

 mountains ; others rocky regions, and others poor soils where farming 

 will not pay. There are kinds of trees suited to all these situations, 

 and when the growing of timber becomes as much a business as the 

 raising of fruit, rice, corn, and cotton is now, the tree grower will as 

 carefully choose his kinds as the intelligent farmer selects the sort 

 of crop best suited to his land. 



Real forestry has been practiced, often unknowingly, by the 

 farmers who set apart a corner of the farm for a woodlot to grow fuel, 

 posts, poles, fence material, and sawlogs. They usually do no more 

 than keep fires out or protect the woodland from excessive tramping 

 by stock, and let the trees plant their own seeds and grow in their 

 own way. Occasionally a farmer may want a particular wood for 

 some purposes, and he thins the growth of other species to give that 

 one a better chance, or he may plant the kind he wants, as locust, 

 catalpa, or osage orange for posts. In doing so he is putting the 

 principles of forestry into practice. 



