The cutover pine lands support an abundant stand of native 

 grasses, and range livestock grazing is an important industry. The 

 grass is nutritious m spring and early summer, but decreases in value 

 as the year advances. Grazing is mostly conducted on the free range 

 principle. Most of the range is unfenced and all kinds and grades of 

 stock graze together. Under this system the individual owner has little 

 control over his own or his neighbor's animals and therefore finds it 

 impractical or impossible to improve his herd by breeding, by feeding 

 when range forage is poor, or by practicing good herd management 

 gene rally. 



The mission of the Alexandria Research Center is to develop 

 improved methods of reforestation and management to guide forest land- 

 owners in the task of attaining optimum production and income. When 

 the Center was established in 1946, its first step was to study the forest 

 situation in the area and to propose a research program to its Research 

 Advisory Committee. This group selected, as most urgent, these five 

 lines of investigation: 



1. Reforesting the cutover pine lands. 



2. Managing pine plantations for optimum returns. 



3. Controlling low-value hardwoods with chemicals. 



4. Improving management of livestock and forage on forest 

 ranges. 



5. Determining costs and returns of good forest management. 



The progress that has been made in these research projects is 

 described m the following pages. 



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