The bill recommended by 
the committee was adopted 
on March 6, 1926, and the 
commission appointed Roy 
L. Hogue as State Forester 
on June 1. The limited funds 
were devoted initially to 
education, but by 1928 a 
number of large landowners 
had agreed to pay 4 cents 
per acre on 400,000 acres 
for fire protection, thus 
providing necessary 
matching funds for receipt of 
the full Clarke-McNary 
allocation and the opportunity 
to build a fire-control 
organization (Mississippi 
Forestry Commission 1984 
unpubl.) 
Florida 
In Florida, 1923 was an 
important year: the Florida 
Forestry Association was 
formed and began its work 
to have a State forestry 
department established. The 
association was unsuccessful 
on its first try, but on June 6, 
1927, the legislature enacted 
a law that created the Florida 
Board of Forestry. Harry Lee 
Baker was appointed State 
Forester on February 23, 
1928. 
Despite the usual problem of 
finances to start a program, 
things got under way with 
the development of a 
fire-protection system. It was 
based on the formation of 
“group units" (similar to timber 
protective organizations), 
where owners of large blocks 
of woodland banded together 
and shared protection costs 
with the State. Florida also 
gave educational efforts high 
priority, and soon a nursery 
was in operation to provide 
seedlings for reforestation 
(Coulter 1958 unpubl.). 
South Carolina 
In cooperation with the South 
Carolina Department of 
Agriculture, Commerce, and 
Industries, the USDA Forest 
Service issued a report in 
1910 on forest conditions in 
South Carolina. This led to 
the introduction of a bill in 
the 1912 legislature, but it 
had no particular support 
and was not considered. 
There was no organized 
activity for several years. 
Finally efforts began to move 
in 1922 to build support for 
a State forestry organization. 
An attempt to get a forestry 
law was made in 1923 with 
23 
