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“The Dawn of 2 New
Constructive Era”

ATT

Being the Full and Complete
Report of the

Cut-Over Land Con-
ference of the South

Held Under the Auspices of the
Southern Pine Association;
Southern Setilement and Devel-
opment Organization; New Or-
leans Association of Commerce;
In Co-operation with the
United States Department of
Agriculture; Department of the
Interior; Southern State Agri-
cultural Colleges and Expert-
ment Stations.

Ls

Looking Ahead

N presenting this book to the public the publishers are inspired
I by a desire to make permanent record of the fund of informa-

tion embraced in the addresses of a number of prominent
men who gathered in New Orleans April 11, 12 and 13, 1917, to
participate in the “Cut-Over Land Conference of the South.”
This meeting was called for the purpose of discussing the ques-
tion of best present and future beneficial use for stock raising,
agriculture and reforestation to which there might be placed
inillions of acres now lying idle throughout a large part of the
South, and was attended by many land owners, agricultural
experts of the Federal and State governments, and others.

It is also desired that the volume serve as the record of the
first definite steps taken in a work which is expected to become
the greatest constructive development movement ever under-
taken in the United States.

Lumber manufacturers, who own much of the cut-over lands,
are looking forward to the day when their mill operations will be
curtailed by the diminution of the virgin pine forests. Mean-
while, they wish to take steps to convert into practical service
for the benefit of themselves and the public the vast empire of
territory now largely unproductive. The Southern Cut-Over
Land Association is an organization which has grown out of
the Cut-Over Land Conference, held under the joint auspices
of the Southern Pine Association and Association of Commerce
of New Orleans and the Southern Settlement and Development
Organization, of Baltimore, Md., and has now actively entered
on the task of consummating this great undertaking.

SOUTHERN CUT-OVER LAND ASSOCIATION,

Table of Contents

Section I—Proceedings of Wednesday, April 11, 1917.

Morning Session—Mr. M. L. Alexander Presiding Page
HA BOTOWORG | -. Ais eieaedrw ee iades etka e erent SeReee 7
By Mr. J. Lewis Thompson, Chairman, Cut-Over Land
Committee, Southern Pine Association
VAN Liye Wie El ave: Met 3 omspiun eave one tua enemas capes 8-10

Address by Mr. M. L. Alexander, Commissioner, Louisiana
State Conservation "Commission

“Address of Welcome”’..... 0... ccc cece ete ee ee neces 10-11
By Hon. Martin Behrman, Mayor of New Orleans

“Importance of Agricultural Development to the Cities” ....12-15
Address by Mr. Ernest Lee Jahncke, President of the
New Orleans Association of Commerce
“Practical, Reforestation’, 6 ay eidadavhciecalgeni goss awe ae 15-23
Paper prepared by Mr. Henry S. Graves, Chief Forester,
United States Forest Service, and read by Mr. E.
S. Bryant of the United States Forest
Service, representing Mr. Graves
“Practical Utilization of Cut-Over Lands’.................- 24-28
Address by Mr. Stanley F. Morse, Agricultural Expert,
formerly of the University of Arizona
Afternoon Session—Mr. M. L. Alexander Presiding

“Agriculture From A National Standpoint”................ 29-36

Address by ‘Honorable Carl Vrooman, Assistant Secretary
of Agriculture, United States Department of
Agriculture

“The Cut-Over Land Owner’s Responsibility—His

Opperttnity’ .. sraceseareiee Seas ever ss deeeseeae ys 36-46

Address by Hon. H. Clay Tallman, Commissioner, General
Land Office, United States Department of
the Interior

“Lumbermen’s Activities, Past, Present and Future”........ 46-50
Address by Mr. J. ‘Lewis Thompson
“The Railroad’s Part in the South’s Development”.......... 50-54

Address by Mr. J. C. Clair, Industrial Commissioner of
the Illinois Central Railroad

Section II—Proceedings of Thursday, April 12, 1917.
Morning Session—Mr. Clement S. Ucker Presiding

“The Practical Aspects of the Problem”................... 55-58
Address by Mr. Clement S. Ucker, Vice-President Southern
Settlement and Development Organization

“Natural Resources of the South—Arkansas as a Developing
TRAC EONS, ci tprise st wigkhucra vets uses elas eh Naa ooel alien sueiape cane ala eee ate 58-67

Address by Hon. Charles H. Brough, Governor of
Arkansas

Table of Contents—Continued Page

“Soils of the Coastal Plain Area’.......... 0.00000 cece eee 68-77
Address by Mr. C. I’. Marbut, ‘Soil Expert, Bureau of
Soils, United States Department of Agriculture
“Some Factors to be Considered in the Drainage of the Cut-

Over Lands of the South’. .... 0.00.00... ccc ee ee eee 78-83

Address by Mr. S. H. McCrary, Assistant Chief, Office
of Public Roads and ‘Rural Engineering, United
States Department of Agriculture

Afternoon Session—Mr. Clement S. Ucker Presiding

“Some Problems of Cut-Over Land Development”.......... 84-86
‘Address by Mr. Harry D. Wilson, Commissioner of
Agriculture of the State of Louisiana
"Forage Problem of the Coastal Plain Area”’............... 86-93

Address by Dr. C. V. Piper, Chief Agrostologist, Bureau
of Plant Industry, United States Department
of Agriculture

“Experiences in Cattle Raising on Cut-Over Lands”......... 93-96
Address, by Mr. F. B. Enochs, of Fernwood, Miss.
“Soil Iniprevettient Crops sa cssgwise as eat wee esses adie 97-103

Address by Mr. S. M. Tracy, Agronomist, Office of Forest
Crop Investigation, United States Department
of Agriculture
“Need of Experiment Station Work on Cut-Over Lands”. .103-106
‘Address by Mr. W. R. Dodson, Director of the State
College and Experiment Station of the State
of Louisiana
“Mississippi’s Part in Cut-Over Land Development”...... 106-107
Address by Dr. E. R. Lloyd, Director of Experiment
Stations of the State of Mississippi
“What Georgia is Doing to Encourage the Utilizing of Cut-
Omer ands cc. aida bk Sc ieche tinea ema daa ord dees 108-111
Address by Mr. John R. Fain, Agronomist of the College
of Agriculture of the State of Georgia
“Beet Cattle: and. Hogs” ..- os. sos Soins eck eau ei Gea eae 112-125
Address by Mr. George M. Rommel, Chief, Animal Hus-
bandry Division United States Department
of Agriculture
“A Survey of the Live Stock Situation”’.................. 125-141
\Address prepared by Dr. Andrew M. Soule, President of
the College of Agriculture of the State of Georgia
“The Animal Industry of the South—Past, Present and
Future, sos gases a BU EWIe te SE OEE U eee. Biers 142-150
Address by Dr. W. H. Dalrymple, Professor of Veterinary
Science, Louisiana Agricultural College
“The Railroads’ Interest in Cut-Over Land Development”. .151-155
Address by Mr. D. C. Welty, Commissioner of Agriculture,
St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway
“What Florida is Doing in Land Development”........... 155-157

Address by Mr. James F. Murphy, President of the Florida
Land Development and Colonization Association

Table of Contents—Concluded

Section III—Proceedings of Friday, April 13, 1917.
Morning Session—Mr. Clement 8. Ucker Presiding Page

“Demonstration Work on Cut-Over Lands’............. » 157-168

Address by Mr. G. E. Nesom, Superintendent of Live
Stock Extension Work in Louisiana for the United
States Department of Agriculture
“How Louisiana is Solving the Reforestation Problem”... . 169-172

Address by Mr. M. L. Alexander, Commissioner, ‘Louisiana
State Conservation Commission

“Some Problems of Colonizing Cut-Over Lands”...... 172-173
Address by Mr. H. Q. Weare, of Mobile, Ala.
“The Dairy Industry of the South’) .o cc.sasaveranee cose 174-178

Address by Mr. C. W. Radway, Dairy Specialist, Bureau of
‘Animal Industry, United States Department
of Agriculture

“Some Suggestions for Dairying on Cut-Over Lands” ..... 179-181
Address by Mr. N. P. Hull, President of National
Dairy Union
Tick Eradication “sae. aic> Buia e a Pw SRE Rew eee es ays 182-187

Industry, United States Department of Agriculture
Afternoon Session—Mr. Clement S. Ucker Presiding
“Stumps and Their Practical Removal”............0 02... 188-195

Address by Mr. Carl 'D. Livingston, University of
Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin

“The Sheep Industry of the South’..................... 196-201

Address by Mr. F. R. Marshall, Senior Animal Husband-
man, Bureau of Animal Industry, United States
Department of Agriculture

“Possibilities of Cut-Over Lands”...................... 201-207

Address by Mr. J. A. Evans, Assistant Chief, States Relation
Service, United States Department of Agriculture

“The Cut-Over Acre—What is It Worth?” ..... 0 ..... 207-209
Address by Mr. William R. Lighton, Fayetteville. Ark.
“Shortage of Raw Materials—The Demand Increasing”. . 210-216

Address by Mr. A. C. Bigelow, President, Philadelphia
Wool and Textile Association

“Forestry and Cattle Raising on the Cut-Over Pine Lands
of ‘the Southern States? :s:2:54 easy eae deena seeses 5 217-225

Address by Major J. G. Lee, Department of Forestry and
Horticulture, Louisiana State University

“The Necessity for Organized Effort”. .................. 226-229
Address by General L. C. Boyle, of Kansas City
“Cut-Over Lands and Their Value”..................05. 230-231

Address by Mr. C. C. Prescott, Agricultural Agent,
Southern Railway System Development Service

Resolutions: suc caves. sree at ei hs Perdeee, aime snp SZe2 OO
Senator Ransdell Sends Greetings........... ..... i 236:
RESiStia HOME Sta acid dence aes Galois ae = os eS 237-244

A Foreword
By J. Lewis Thompson

Chairman, Cut-Over Land Committee
Southern Pine Association

Gentlemen :—We are gathered together here this morning in
a conference—our program states just what we are here for; and
on account of my having, in an unguarded moment, accepted the
chairmanship of this committee I happen to be before you just at
this time. We had expected to have a large gathering, and to all of
you is due some explanation as to why we had so many changes
in our date of meeting. The Department at Washington and the
officials are very much interested in this meeting, and we were
shifting about dates trying to arrive at a date at which they could
attend, but, as we all know, the Germans interfered with their plans;
but we have finally gotten together here at this time. We are dis-
appointed in not having Senator Ransdell here to preside for us
this morning, but Mr. Alexander has kindly consented to preside,
and I take pleasure in introducing Mr. Alexander to you.

Government
Deeply Inter-
ested in Cut-
Over Land
Development

Vast Problem
Must Be
Solved

8 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

Why We Have Met
By M. L. Alexander

Commissioner, Louisiana Department of
Conservation

Gentlemen :—I consider it an honor and a privilege to be called
upon to preside at a gathering so important as this. I regret sin-
cerely, however, to say that Mr. Ransdell, who was originally chosen
to preside at this meeting, was unable to come owing to duties
which he is called upon to perform at this time at Washington and
which are possibly much more important than anything which could
be taken up on the outside.

Senator Ransdell has always expressed an active interest, not
only in the things which concern the development of his own state,
but which concern the development of the Southland or the devel-
opment of the whole United States, and I regret exceedingly that
he was not here to address you in person.

This is an important meeting, gentlemen; one that is of great
significance—a meeting which we hope will mean something to you
and the sections which you represent. This meeting is not called
for the purpose of fostering any real estate interest or any specified
real estate development, or for the aiding of any men or set of
men, but it has been called by sound-thinking men for the purpose
of bringing attention to these large areas of cut-over lands which
exist in the lumber belts of the Southern States, areas of cut-over
lands that now approximate something like 40 to 50 million acres
in that territory. Therefore, we hope that in your deliberations
here, in the papers that will be read before you, in the thoughts
that will be expressed, will have your due, careful and earnest
consideration, because there is a problem to be solved, a problem
the solving of which will mean so much to the development of this
section of the country.

Now, gentlemen, I am called upon to act in a sort of dual
capacity today—not only called upon to represent Mr. Ransdell as
chairman of your meeting, but called upon to express the regret
of the Governor of the State of Louisiana that he was not able to
be present, being confined to a sick bed at the capital at Baton

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 9

Rouge, and therefore I am going to claim the privilege of the chair-
man and, without further ceremony, will introduce myself to you
as the representative of the Honorable Ruffin G. Pleasant, Gov-
ernor of the State of Louisiana. (Applause.)

Gentlemen, as the representative of the Governor of Louisiana
I wish to say to you that the Governor regrets exceedingly that he
was not able, owing to sickness, to be present here today and to
welcome this distinguished body of men from these various sec-
tions who have come together here to consider problems that mean
so much to the State of Louisiana as well as to the other sections.
The Governor appreciates fully the significance of this meeting. He
recognizes that any plan or set of plans which can be brought about
to further the development of these areas of cut-over lands that
exist in the State of Louisiana, approximating something like five
or five and a half million acres at the present time, will be of great
good to this state and the people and that prosperity will follow
in the wake of this development; and I want to say to you that it
is a question of great importance. There is no more important
question which can be taken up at this particular time, for now,
at the time of the nation’s crisis; now, at the time when we are
entering into the world war; now, at the time when we are going
to require the efforts of the sound-thinking men to bring about a
further development along agricultural lines and along the line of
raising foodstuffs generally, and also live stock, this is a live ques-
tion and a question that concerns us all and we should give it serious
deliberation.

Louisiana has something like twenty-nine million acres of land
and today there is less than five million acres of that land under
cultivation. Louisiana has the greatest body of alluvial lands that
exist in the world today, and still there are large tracts of this land
which still remain uncultivated. Louisiana has vast prairies which
future development would make ideal stock farms. Louisiana has
had something like fourteen million acres of timber land, something
like nine or ten million acres of pine land, and today there exists
in the state over five million acres of cut-over pine land, and the
problem is, what are we going to do with it and what are we going
to make out of it? About 80 per cent of it, as we see it, would be
susceptible for agricultural development.

Louisiana has made a great deal of progress as to demonstrat-
ing what can be done with this cut-over land. Situated in some

Governor
Pleasant,
Louisiana,
Sends
Greetings

Louisiana’s
5,000,000
Acres of Un-
developed
Cut-Over
Lands

Big Yields
From Cut-
Over Lands

The South’s
Duty to the
Nation

10 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

of the parishes of the state, the cut-over lands have become the
most valuable lands we have in the state, because, after all, the
value of land is based on what it produces in actual revenue. We
have cut-over lands in Louisiana that, at a conservative estimate,
are yielding in actual revenue per acre, per year, one thousand dol-
lars. We have exceptional cases where this has gone as high as
two thousand dollars, but the agriculturists tell us, by their experi-
ments and by the experiments of the Louisiana Department of
Agriculture, that these cut-over lands have an actual cash value for
the production of hogs of at least $50 an acre. Therefore, it seems
to me we would not be wasting time if we encourage the exploita-
tion and development of these lands; and I sincerely trust that the
deliberations of this body of earnest, sound-thinking men, who
have come here to consider this problem, will evolve some scheme
and idea where those lands can be brought into early use; and
now, gentlemen, again, on behalf of the Governor of the state, I bid
you a most hearty welcome to Louisiana. I thank you. (Applause.)

Address of Welcome

By Hon. Martin Behrman
Mayor of New Orleans

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Conference :—I
do appreciate the importance of this conference. For that reason
I have canceled whatever engageménts I may have had this morn-
ing in order to be with you and personally extend to you a word
of welcome for the people of the City of New Orleans.

At this time, in this crisis, it is proper and meet that men like
yourselves should come together for the purposes of doing some-
thing to encourage the use of these wonderful lands of ours. You
know and I know what the cut-over lands of the South in certain
sections are producing, but the South will be called upon to do
her share now and to do it promptly. We will be called upon to
raise the products to feed the Allies as well as ourselves. We will
be called upon to furnish the rest of the country—who are not
blessed as we are, with the splendid soil we have and the splendid
opportunities we have here in the South—we will be compelled to
furnish them with the food products they may need. So I say
this is an important conference, one that I hope will bring about

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 11

the best results. We have a wonderful soil, and we have a won-
derful people, but we have been going along content just to let well
enough alone. Everything came easy for us; nature has been very
kind to us; anything we put in the ground would grow; and nothing
would better illustrate the feeling of being satisfied to let well
enough alone than this: Some years ago, when a company of
army engineers were locating the route of the Intercoastal Canal in
our state—part of it was completed, but part of it had to be done
with the aid of teams—they came to a beautiful section of our
state and saw a big family sitting under a great big oak tree; that
family had a splendid tract of land, but there was only a small
portion of it under cultivation; and someone in the party said,
“Why don’t you cultivate the rest of this land?’ He replied,
“What’s the use? We have enough.” That is the spirit we want
to get away from, and now it is not only the spirit of doing things
different from the way we used to do them, but the necessity that
we must do it, we must use those lands, and we must put them
to the uses for which they were intended. It is not only a ques-
tion of whether we ought to do it or not; it is a duty and it is
compulsory.

Speaking of the different arts, I read a few days ago that
*way back in 1859, in a spéech to the Agricultural Society of Wis-
consin, Abraham Lincoln said: “The most valuable of all arts will
be the art of deriving a comfortable subsistence from the smallest
area of soil.”

We have the soil and the acreage and all the other things.
God has blessed us with a splendid climate, and what we may lack
in people we can get from immigration. I was one of those who
never believed it was necessary to bring them all down into this
section of the country. You have the people in this country; they
only have to be educated up to an appreciation of the value of those
lands, and learn the possibilities of them and see the uses they can
be put to; and then the farmers from the great West and North-
west can come down here and develop these lands with the energy
they have shown in their own sections of the country; and then I
believe every section and all the lands of the state will be put to use.

Now, my friends, I hope the deliberations of your conference
will be entirely successful, and on behalf of the people I want to
say it is their earnest desire that they will be, and they bid me say
‘to you that you are most heartily welcome here. I thank you.
(Applause. ) .

Must Get
Away from
Old Ideas

Immigration
Not Essential.

Nation’s
Greatest Fu-
ture City
May Be in
South

Co-operation
Necessary to
Success

12 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

Importance of Agricultural
Development ¢o the Cities
By Ernest Lee Jahncke

President of the New Orleans Association
of Commerce

Gentlemen :—With the same earnestness evinced by our Hon-
orable Mayor, I, also, as President of the New Orleans Associa-
tion of Commerce, want to welcome you to this conference and to
express pleastire at having you come to this city to hear the dis-
cussions upon, and endeavor to solve problems so vital to the
nation’s welfare at this time.

As the head of a civic body organized for the purpose of
promoting the industrial and commercial welfare of New Orleans,
I realize the importance which the work you gentlemen are under-
taking has upon the development of this and other cities of the
South. The head of the gréatest statistical organization in the
country recently said that in 1950 the largest city in the United
States would be situated in the South and the chief reason upon
which he based this prophécy was the potential resources in this
territory, which you are now endeavoring to uncover. To release
this dormant wealth for the public good will require a great deal
of work, not only on the part of the agricultural interests, but in
co-operation with the Chambers of Commerce and Boards of Trade,
with the transportation lines, the bankers, the merchants, the trade
organizations and the colleges and experiment stations. The growth
and prosperity of all these factors are interdependent; the losses
sustained by one are shared directly or indirectly by the others, and
the touch of Fortune is felt by all alike.

If the farmers in a locality have had good crops and are able,
with the co-operation of the financial and commercial agencies, to
market same profitably the effect is felt all through the district.
If, through lack of practical aid being given to the rural communi-
ties, or in the absence of such communities there is no effort to
develop them, the cities and towns in those sections cease to pro-
gress, and if the proper steps are not taken, the retrograde move-
ment begins.

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 13

The days when people have sufficient unto themselves are
beginning to fade away,’so much so that the whole world fs look-
ing to more centralized effort. Whole nations are no longer able
to be entirely independent of others, and even now each continent
needs the assistance of the rest of the world.

We have been made to recognize in the past two years more
than ever before the importance of agriculture to the prosperity of
the nation. There is hardly a more important subject today than
the national food supply, not only as a factor in our own national
life, but in that of other nations. Without the farmer how long
could the soldiers maintain themselves in the fields? There is one
little incident in history that impresses me in this connection, and
that is the story oft told about Cincinnatus, the patriotic Roman,
who left his plow standing and hastened at top speed to help the
empire when news of war reached him. If Cincinnatus were a
farmer in these times the thing which he would be most likely to
do would not be to leave his plow, but he would be encouraged by
his government to push the plow more vigorously and where pos-
sible add another plow.

The ruralist of today is not the farmer of the days gone by;
he does not make his once a week trip to the nearest market to
dispose of his product and then bury himself in his farm for the
next six days. With the aid of the automobile, good roads and
interurban lines, he is now very much a city folk; he visits the
city places of amusement, makes his purchases in person at the
city stores and invests his money in municipal enterprises. Thus
we see that the distinction between urban and rural welfare is
being eliminated and that each must work for the benefit of the
other.

When commercial bodies commence to take notice of these
things and desire to do what is necessary for proper development
along these lines, they should make a careful study of the needs
and possibilities in their localities, and if all such organizations in
the South give attention to the problems presented and threshed
out at this conference, I feel certain that great steps will be taken
in that direction.

In this connection, it might be advisable to give some statistics
regarding the possibilities of the South, the surface of which has
thus only been scratched. In 1900, in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia,
Louisiana and Mississippi there were over one hundred and sixty

Nation’s Fate
Largely in
Hands of
Farmer

City and
Farm Inter-
dependent

Only 27 Per-
cent of

_. South’s Lands
Now Devel-
oped

14 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

million acres of land capable of being cultivated, and of which but
24 per cent had been improved. Between 1900 and 1910 nearly
six million acres more of improved farm lands were added, making
27 per cent at the latter date. Comparing, progress in these states
with that in other states, and making due allowance for increased
developments, it is probable that by 1930 at least eighteen million
acres more of improved lands will be added to the farms in these
five states, or 38 per cent. This is not at all a rash prediction when
we note that 34 per cent of the area of Wisconsin was improved
farms in 1910, and 49 per cent in New York, notwithstanding the
large mountainous area of the latter state. In the prairie states,
Illinois has 78 per cent of improved area, and Iowa 83 per cent,
which marks the maximum of present development. This will give
an idea of what can be done in the South. Wisconsin, which I
said has 34 per cent of improved farms in 1910, is the leading dairy
state of the Union, yet experts say that the possibilities for profit-
able dairying in the South are even greater than those in the North.

To realize what the addition of eighteen million acres of im-
proved farm lands would mean to industrial activity in the South
we have but to refer to the building statistics. According to census
reports, the average investment per acre for buildings in the five
beforementioned states was $8.48. To preserve this average per
acre for buildings, which, by the way, is almost $5.00 less than
the average in Northern states, farm buildings to the amount of
150 million dollars would be erected, and, using the same census
reports, it is estimated that forty million dollars’ worth of agricul-
tural implements and machinery would be used. These figures are
based upon the assumption that the same methods of farming would
be maintained in the South, but if they were brought to the higher
planes of the Northern farms these amounts would be greatly in-
creased.

The South’s greatest resource today is her yellow pine forests.
In the seven leading states producing this species of lumber, over
one-quarter of a million people are employed in lumber industries,
which means that over one million people are dependent upon this
source for a livelihood. Hundreds of towns are built up and main-
tained mainly because of the sawmill operations in those vicinities.
Millions of acres of cut-over lands are left idle after the woodman
has passed. These lands have been productive of wealth which has
given work to so many people and if they are to be kept as a source
of revenue, we must look to the co-operation of all agencies, gov-
ernmental and private, to do so.

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 15

New Orleans is situated at the very door of this great industry
and its effect upon the city’s growth has been very marked.

Fer years we have been benefited by the millions invested in
this work and the returns from the product. How are we going
to preserve this activity so vital to the welfare of this city and ta
other Southern cities? The South has not yet reached that stage
of a manufacturing locality where capital and labor ending its use-
fulness in one industry can be converted into another. We must
endeavor to take care of this by utilizing the lands that have been
cut over; making it possible to create productive farms throughout
the now barren land. The problems solved at this conference and
the work of any organization effected to carry them out are the
greatest steps taken to this end and should receive the support of
all commercial organizations.

Practical Reforestation

Paper prepared by Henry S. Graves, Chief Forester,
U. S. Forest Service, and read by E. S.
Bryant of the U.S. Forest Service,
representing Mr. Graves

The undertaking which you have called this meeting to con-
sider is one of very far reaching public importance; it commands
the interest of the whole public and should have its active sup-
port. The movement you have initiated is peculiarly significant
of a new spirit in the country and it points in the direction of a
virtual reconstitution of the industrial organization of the country.

Our history’ has been largely that of opening up and ex-
ploiting virgin resources. In a considerable part of the country
our industries might be likened to placer-mining that gathers by
rough and ready methods the gold accumulated in the surface
wash. In many respects we are only beginning to emerge from
conditions of primitive development, so far as both industrial and
political organization is concerned.

Politically we are still a nation of small political units, each
preoccupied with its individual problems and each working in
large part independently of and often in competition with its

Undertaking
Worthy of
Active Public
Support

Correlated
Efforts
Needed

War Crisis
Emphasizes
Need of
Nation for
Common EFf-
fort

After Lum-
bering, What?

16 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

neighbor. In public works, as, for example, road building and
flood control, uncorrelated effort between counties and towns re-
sults in failure or in achievement by a very costly route. There
is often lack of sympathy and confidence between county and
state, or state and federal government, and lack of mutual con-
fidence between counties and between states. So that when the
larger unit of government is appealed to for aid in inter-county
or inter-state undertakings, localism manifests itself in demands
for the lion’s share of common funds.

We are only just beginning to feel an economic pressure re-
quiring harmony of purpose and unity of effort in internal af-
fairs; and we are facing in the present international crisis the
consciousness of national weakness because of the lack of cor-
relation between our many separate political units. We are also
just beginning to appreciate that there is a lack of industrial or-
ganization of the country, that public interests and industry have
a vital relationship, that the industries of one locality are of im-
portance to other localities and to the people as a whole.

The very wealth of readily available resources has made it
possible for individual undertakings to succeed and localities to
prosper. When the cream has been skimmed off, communities
discover that they have not been building permanently. The
larger public learns that sources of supply are exhausted, and dis-
tress is caused by inability to obtain new supplies readily and at
reasonable cost. And when there is an unusual stress, such as
the present, the nation having the greatest resources of all na-
tions sees local shortages of a great variety of products such as
coal, timber, steel and foodstuffs.

The consequences of the local exhaustion of virgin resources
are very serious unless there is a replacement by a productive
use of the land. In many sections the first industry is lumber-
ing. If the land is rich and tillable agriculture follows with its
farm homes, communities, cities and related manufacturing.

In the South you are now facing the problem of progressive-
ly diminishing virgin resources, and what you are going to do to
sustain and build up local industry. Lumbering has been your
foremost industry. Today the South leads in lumber production.
In 1880 the South produced about 12 per cent of the nation’s
lumber cut; in 1914 the proportion of lumber from the South
was nearly 50 per cent. All know that the virgin supplies are

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 17

being rapidly depleted and will be largely cut out in a couple of
decades.

We have seen the Lake States leading the country in lum-
ber production twenty-five years ago, and now yielding only
about 10 per cent of the nation’s requirements. What is replac-
ing these industries? In some places agriculture, but over many
millions of acres nothing—a vast wilderness, fire swept and bar-
ten of useful products, here and there a trace of a former saw-
mill town, old farms deserted because the local industry with
its markets is gone, roads almost impassable because the taxable
resources that would keep them up has been destroyed, a virtual
depopulation of hundreds of square miles.

Today the great paper mills of the Lake States with millions
invested in equipment and water power are embarrassed to se-
cure supplies of wood, and they face the necessity to import
wood from a great distance or to abandon their plants. Inquiries
have already been made whether material could be secured from
the National Forests of the Rocky Mountains to supply paper
mills in Wisconsin; and it has always been hard for me to recon-
cile myself to the importation of wood pulp from Scandinavia to
points 1,000 miles in our interior.

For many years the United States has occupied a command-
ing position in the production of naval stores. I believe that we
have been producing about 80 per cent of the world’s supply.
This country has the best source of supply of the world in re-
spect! to species of trees, climate and accessibility—conditions
unexcelled anywhere. Yet we are rapidly dissipating this re-
source, and if we keep on, not only the South, but the country,
will lose its place as an important producer of naval stores. We
know that we can get turpentine from Western pine, and can by
distillation obtain it from Douglas fir and other species, but pos-
sibly with less yield and greater cost. The Southeast with its
long leaf and slash pine is the logical place for turpentine pro-
duction. It is important both to the locality and to the nation to
have this thirty-five million dollar industry continued. Is it
necessary for the South to lose its place in turpentine production
or in lumber production? If they were to be replaced by agri-
culture, production of cotton, corn and other farm products, and
the land now producing trees were turned into productive fields,
I should say that there would be no less, but perhaps a gain.

Lake States
Much of
Forest Area
Left Barren
and Unpopu-
lated

Naval Stores
Industry En-
dangered

If A Per-
manent Lum-
ber Supply
May Be
Assured

Slow Devel-
opment of
Cut-Over
Lands

Fires and
Hogs Retard
Reforestation

18 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

But that is not the case. There is an opportunity for an agri-
cultural development of gigantic proportions, and at the same
time a permanent turpentine and lumber industry. Millions of
acres of land in the South are unsuited to crop growing, but
capable of producing trees of exceptionally rapid growth. Shall
we sacrifice tree production on the whole because a part of the
land is better suited for crops? Is it not possible to carry on
both industries side by side with the land devoted to the pur-
pose for which it naturally is best suited?

Pennsylvania is sometimes held up as an example of a state
that originally was a prominent lumber producing center, and
in which that industry is now replaced by manufacturing, agri-
culture and mining that makes it one of our richest common-
wealths. It is true that in the broad valleys fields have replaced
the forest. It is true that mining and manufacturing places
the state in the front ranks of wealth. But it is also true that
over great portions of the state the forest has been replaced by
a waste of scrub oak and sweet fern, with a scanty population
struggling against the most adverse conditions to hold their
own. Today the state is trying to reclaim its mountain wastes
in order to restore the logical resource of much of the region,
the forest, and lay the foundation for future productiveness and
industry where the land today is a burden on the public.

What is happening now in the South? Are the logged off
lands being settled up, and is lumbering being replaced by agri-
culture? In general the extension of agriculture over logged off
pine lands is exceedingly slow. It is doubtful whether at the
present time the movement much more than offsets the aban-
donment of cleared lands. We know, for example, that between
1900 and 1910 there was an actual decrease in improved lands in
over 25 per cent of the counties of the pine region. I presume
that it is safe to say that the demand for logged off land for agri-
culture does not exceed 10 per cent of the area cut over each
year.

To a limited extent logged off lands are grazed and in places
there is some forest growth coming back. Most timber land
owners take the position that forestry is not practical for them,
so that fires continue to run over the lands, preventing in large
measure a regrowth of trees. In some sections also unregulated
running of hogs on the range effectively checks the reproduc-
tion of long leaf pine. Tree growth is accidental and such as oc-

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 19

curs is in spite of the forest fires and other adverse agencies.
In short, the present resource is not being replaced by any other
that will equal it in value. The state is therefore suffering a net
loss every year. ;

The question then arises whether the failure to settle up
the logged off lands is a temporary condition, and whether with
organized effort settlers cannot be induced to take up the lands
much more rapidly in the near future.

The fact that the lands are level or moderately rolling, that
an analysis of the soil shows some crop raising possibilities, and
that the climate is favorable, has misled many persons regard-
ing the immediate development of these regions. While there
is a great deal of land of good quality, we must also recognize
the fact that there are in the aggregate immense areas that are
too poor ever to be used permanently for crop raising and other
areas which can be made productive only by abundant fertilizers
and rather intensive methods of farming and which probably will
not be profitable to cultivate for a long time. Repeated ground
fires are making these lands even poorer, both for possible culti-
vation and for grazing.

The problem in this region is not only to get the real agri-
cultural lands settled up, but to secure the productive use of the
balance. The combined use of the lands not of immediate agri-
cultural use for grazing and forestry is, in my opinion, the an-
swer to the question.

It happens that in the Gulf States you have conditions for
forest production equaled only in portions of the north Pacific
region. Your pines grow with very astonishing rapidity, so that
in considering returns it is not necessary to think in terms of a
century or more, as in certain mountain regions.

Within the regions suited to the growth of slash and long
leaf pine we have the possibility of producing turpentine on a
very practical basis. Studies by the Forest Service indicate that
slash pine in natural stands can be used for turpentine in twenty
to thirty years, and is capable of yielding as much as 500 cups per
acre. These young stands are boxed now, but so severely treated
that they are destroyed in three or four years. Under the French
method the trees could be worked for from twenty-five to fifty
years. In much of the South the long leaf pine could not be
worked for turpentine quite as early, but in each case the pro-

Much of the
Land Losing
In Value

Ten Per Cent
Profit Pos-
sible in
Raising Tur-
pentine Trees

Growing Tim-
ber and Live
Stock on the
Same Lands

20 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

duction age could be considerably reduced by thinnings such as
are made in the Maritime Pine forests of southern France. Here,
then, we have a possibility of raising trees for turpentine on a
very profitable basis with the naval stores the chief product and
the wood a by-product. Estimates by the Forest Service show
the possibility of a 10 per cent investment, based on $5.00 land.
This is pretty good for land that is not suited, at the present
time, for agriculture.

In the matter of timber production the South is in an ex-
ceptionally favorable position. Examples may be multiplied
which demonstrate that young long leaf pine stands are growing
at the rate of from 600 to 800 board feet per acre per annum,
and, where properly thinned, would yield more. Loblolly Pine
under reasonably favorable conditions grows with equal rapidity.
Such growth, of course, occurs only where there is a reasonably
good stand of trees.

From the standpoint of the public, production of even 200
feet per acre per annum would be of great value. It would
mean a growth over the whole region of over twelve to fifteen
billion feet, enough to sustain the turpentine industry and a
lumber industry of large proportions in the aggregate for many
years. I believe that it is entirely possible to secure this growth,
by organized fire protection and by the systematic use of the
pine lands for grazing, agriculture and forestry.

One of the things that has been demonstrated by the admin-
istration of the National Forests has been the practicability of
producing timber and live stock on the same lands. In the
West as in the South the forests are chiefly coniferous. For-
merly these lands were over-grazed and as a result were steadily
deteriorating in productiveness of forage, and the forest growth
was progressively injured. The system of regulated grazing
now in effect has largely restored the forest range, stopped
erosion and safeguarded forest production. The same can be
done in the South. Unless I am misinformed, the constant abuse
of the Southern lands by fire is steadily lowering their value for
grazing and for possible later agriculture. Control of fire and
regulated grazing would make these lands more productive.

Still another result in the National Forests has been the de-
velopment of scattered agricultural lands directly due to the
public forestry enterprise. The activities connected with the
forests, and the stability of grazing on the public forests, are

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 21

bringing in settlers to occupy lands that could not be developed
if these other resources were not being built up at the same
time. It would, I believe, work in the same way in the South.
Every active step in the way of using the non-agricultural lands
for grazing and forestry stimulates the use of agricultural lands
and building up of communities. The National Forests are
carrying over ten million head of live stock and growing trees
at the same time; and the lands suited to farming are being oc-
cupied by actual settlers, most of whom would not have an out-
look for permanence if the old system of forest fires, of ex-
ploitation of timber with no regard for restocking, and of unreg-
ulated over-grazing of the mountain slopes prevailed.

Granted the truth of these contentions, how can the results
be attained in the South? Unquestionably it will be possible to
get private capital interested in handling lands for turpentine
production. The profits are certain and the period before actual
returns reasonable. But the average timber land owner balks at
even a forty-year proposition of tree growing. So far the so-
called conservation programs of the lumbermen of this region
have wholly left out the continuance of the forest by regrowth.
Thus the proposal recently made through the National Chamber
of Commerce to urge Congress to permit agreements in restraint
of trade where this would promote conservation of primary nat-

ural resources had in view only the saving of waste in exploiting,

present resources. Forest production by growth was overlooked
as impractical.

Personally I do not have much expectation that many pri-
vate owners of land in the South will individually undertake for-
estry merely on a showing that these lands are capable of
producing thirty to forty thousand feet per acre in forty years.
Nor do I believe that they will succeed in colonizing their cut-
over lands on any large scale under plans now in vogue. Specu-
lative land boosting would react to the injury of the’ country.
Often land may be sold, but not developed. On the other hand,
I believe the plan of combining agriculture, grazing and for-
estry is entirely practical, and can be successfully undertaken
through collective effort. The results are so important that I
believe that this collective effort should include the public as
well as the private owners of the land.

First of all, there has got to be some stability of ownership
of the land and policy of its use. Where non-resident owners

Grazing and
Forestry
Stimulate
Agriculture

Forestry Not
Impractical

Collective Ef-
fort Neces-
sary

State Owner-
ship Would
Have Some
Advantages

Private
Owners Must
Face the
Problem

22 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

who have bought the land for its timber are simply holding the
land until they can sell it at almost any price, but little can be
done. If, however, the owners retain the land with a view to its
productive use, plans can be put into effect involving the de-
velopment of the property for the various uses for which its
different parts are best suited. Neighboring owners could co-
ordinate their activities of fire protection, grazing administra-
tion and forestry, just as the Government does with other owners
whose lands are adjacent to and interlocking with the National
Forests. Of course, the plan would work out most simply if the
state owned all the lands. It would sell the agricultural lands
to settlers andi for townsites; it would sell timber as we do in
the National Forest, retaining title to the land and providing
for protection and regrowth; it would lease grazing privileges on
the same lands and would provide far miscellaneous special uses
of the lands as demands might arise. A great deal of the grazing
would ultimately be by the settlers who would build up herds in
connection with their farms. The grazing privileges would re-
sult in an increasing number of settlers who would combine ag-
riculture and stock raising and thus.use land for agriculture that
without the grazing would not support a family. Progressively
the agricultural land would thus be occupied and the balance
put to its best use.

The timber would furnish a stable and permanent industry

‘and contribute also to the increased use of agricultural lands,

through the markets for food and hay and the chance for part-
time employment connected with its various activities. This is
the sort of thing that is actually occurring on an extensive scale
where the Government owns the land in the National Forests.

The public does not own the pine lands of the South, and it
may not be feasible to acquire them. The question is whether
it is possible to secure under private ownership their productive
use, even if that is not as complete as if the state owned the
lands. The public interests in the right handling of these lands
is so great, the public loss from wrong handling so far reaching,
that it is only a question of time before the states themselves
will enact regulatory and restrictive legislation regarding them
if they are allowed to become an unproductive waste. A better
plan, in my opinion, is for the public and private agencies to
unite forces now and by joint effort work out a method for put-
ting the development of the pine lands on a permanent and
stable basis.

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 23

We need in this problem, as in many other matters, not so
much regulation by the state as correlated action and joint effort
by the public and private agencies, working toward a common
purpose. This plan is in successful operation in the West in
forest fire protection and in the handling of grazing matters.
While conditions are different in the South, the principle is, I
believe, feasible if the land owners are prepared to enter upon a
far-reaching plan of land administration.

There would be involved first of all a classification of the
land and a survey of the resources, both timber and grazing;
then a plan of development, administration, finance and control.

Personally I should like to see a plan worked out for a
specified group of holdings, under the direction of a board or
committee composed of representatives of the owners and of the
public agencies that might be interested, as the ‘county, state
and federal government. If such joint enterprises could be un-
dertaken it would turn the course of the use of the pine lands
from a progressive destruction of resources to an upbuilding
process. If such constructive enterprise should be initiated you
may confidently count on the support of the Forest Service.

Co-operation
Preferable to
State Regu-
lation

Offers Assist-
ance of For-
est Service

Differences in
Climate Must
Be Consid-
ered

Cut-Over
Land Soils
Offer Wide
Variety

24 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

Practical Utilization of Cut-
Over Lands
By Stanley F. Morse

Consulting Agricultural Expert, formerly of the
University of Arizona

Gentlemen:—I am going to endeavor, in a very few mo-
ments, to outline briefly the possible methods of practical utili-
zation of these cut-over lands. The first thing I want to call
your attention to is the fact that the method of utilization should
be based on the local conditions. I find,.in going over the cut-
over lands, that there doesn’t seem to be enough attention paid
to this fact—that there is a great variety in the conditions
amongst which these various lands are situated.

For instance, let us take the conditions that will obtain in
the different sections where the cut-over lands are located. We
find that the first and most vital difference is that of climate. I
don’t suppose many of you realize there is so much difference,
but if you will travel north from New Orleans a hundred miles
you will find there is an appreciable difference in the dates of
early and late frosts, and in the mildness of the winter.

Let us take simply the mildness of the winter. That makes
a great deal of difference from a cattle-raising standpoint, be-
cause in the milder sections you not only do not need such elab-
orate shelters, but the feed will remain greener for a longer
period. Then, of course, the early and late frosts help to deter-
mine the kind of crops you can plant. So the first thing to be
considered is the matter of climate, and that is also tempered
by the elevation. For instance, you may strike a certain locality
which is considerably higher than another, and you will find that
the temperature is cooler; and in another place in the same latitude
lower down you will find a milder climate.

The second thing is the soil. A great many people seem to
think the land of the cut-over section is more or less the same
kind of soil. That is a fallacy. As a matter of fact, I have found
soils varying in the cut-over district from a heavy clay to a very
light sand. That will make a considerable difference as to the

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 25

utilization of those lands. The type of agriculture which you are
going to attempt to carry on successfully will be governed to a
large extent by the fertility and type of the soil. Of course, the
heavy types of soil are apt to be poorly drained and have to be
broken up, while the lighter types have not so much of the or-
ganic matter in them and are well drained, and in some cases
quite leachy.

I haven’t the time to go into this matter in detail, but I
want to emphasize the fact that in developing the method of
utilization of this cut-over land you have to study your soil con-
ditions as well as climatic conditions and then adapt your crops
or live stock to these conditions.

The next factor which I would call your attention to, and
which is also of considerable importance, is the matter of topog-
raphy ; in other words, what the farmer calls “the lay of the land.”
We may have flat lands, gently rolling lands and hilly lands.
What difference does that make in the utilization of the land from
an agricultural standpoint? It makes all the difference in the
world. For instance, where the land is level in large areas it is
generally recognized that a rather extensive type of agriculture
can usually be profitably practised, for the reason that it permits
of the use of labor-saving tractor or horse-drawn machinery. If
you have land broken up by hills and you attempt to run large
tillage implements over it, you will find that your cost of oper-
ation is considerably increased. So a vital factor that I would
call your attention to is the matter of topography.

I might also point out that where you have rolling or hilly
lands you get better drainage; and there is also a tendency for
the land to wash, so that if you intend to raise cultivated crops
you are going to have to terrace your lands. Such lands would
better be kept in sod for pasture or hay.

This would be a better and more natural utilization of the
land under local conditions. I emphasize again, then, that the
topography of the land is a very vital factor, which will influence
the success or failure of the type of agriculture you engage in.
I have seen a number of different methods of development tried,
and in many of them there seems to have been little attention paid
to these factors.

Then comes the fourth factor, of transportation. You hear
a great deal of talk about the utilization of cut-over lands for
truck raising. If you are forty or fifty miles from a railroad, how

“The Lay of
the Land.”

Trans porta-
tion Facilities
Vital Factor
in Type of
Crops Grown

Cut-Over
Lands Ideal
for Pasturage

Live Stock
Farms Must

Be of Proper
Size

26 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

will you get your perishable products to the market? That
brings up the question of to what extent may we utilize these
cut-over lands, far distant from railroads, for the production of
more intensive crops? Naturally, the utilization of lands for
this purpose is limited.

As to the adapted agricultural products, very briefly, it
seems to me that the type of utilization which will be most
profitable for these cut-over lands is live stock. In the first
place, there are two or three things which lead to that conclusion.
The average cut-over land is what might be called of medium to
low fertility. The fertility, as a rule, is not high, although I
have seen some that were in a very good state of fertility; but
the average is rather a low state of fertility. That means that
if you try to produce food crops or any other kind you will have
to fertilize highly or set aside a period of years during which to
build up your soil, and that will increase the cost of producing
your crops and is going to make the production of certain crops
unprofitable.

In the second place, these lands are cheap. The grasses are
fairly good, lespedeza is coming in, and the pasture possibilities
of these lands seem to be almost unlimited; and on the rolling
lands the sod tends to hold the soil. You have a natural utiliza-
tion there by nature’s work, and you should utilize that pasture
in some way. .

I have recently come from the West, and we find that hun-
dreds of thousands of cattle are being raised on cheap pasture
—what is known as the range system; and the only reason we
can do that is because we have an abundance of this cheap pas-
ture and we can afford to let our cows graze over this pasture
and virtually take care of themselves and raise their calves; and
then these animals, when they are large enough, are shipped to
the richer lands for fattening for the market. That seems to be
the most common and natural utilization of this cut-over land.
Another thing: The need for more beef cattle is an increasing
one, and if these lands are available in large areas, and are cheap
and adapted to pasture crops, that should encourage the influx of
large cattle owners who can operate on a big scale, and they can
produce feeders more economically than some of the small men.
That doesn’t mean there is no place for the smaller live stock
farmer, because I believe there is. One point there: When you
try to induce the farmer to practice live stock raising, you should

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 27

not sell him a farm too small. I notice some of the cut-over
land owners are cutting their lands up in parcels which, on the
very face of the thing, are too small to enable the man to make a
decent living. The amount of income which a live stock farmer
can secure from an acre is limited by the number of cattle it will
support, and if you limit him to a certain number of acres his
aggregate income will not be sufficient to make him a decent
living, and then he will get discouraged. In the West and other
parts of the country we have found that you must have a size of
farm which is sufficient to give the farmer an aggregate income
which will enable him to operate profitably. So there is a place
for both the large and the medium-sized farmer.

Not only cattle, but sheep, can be grown here economically,
and on some of the cut-over lands I have seen hogs which are
as fat as you could desire, in the middle of January—simply
rolling fat; and these hogs did not have the advantage of winter
green crops such as oats or crimson clover.

The other utilization will be by means of crops. What can
we raise? We cannot raise, I believe, gentlemen, what might
be known as the foodstuff crops. If we attempt to raise wheat
and barley and products of that sort, which can be more eco-
nomically produced on better or richer lands elsewhere, we will
make a mistake; but if we raise forage crops which are naturally
adapted to these cut-over lands, that is more apt to give you an
income. You can either feed them to the cattle or sell them,
and you have a ready money crop. Among those I might men-
tion the cow pea, lespedeza and various other legumes and
grasses which are already adapted for producing feed crops to
sell as hay or feed to your stock. If you desire to raise grain
crops, there are only two crops you can give consideration to—
oats and corn; also, maybe some legumes or cow pea seed. Oats
and corn will probably be a fairly profitable crop; oats is not very
profitable under the best of conditions, but it is probably better
than corn. In looking over the cut-over lands, I find corn is a
very light producer. We find there is a range of from fifteen to
thirty bushels per acre, and the lower yields seem to be more
common. Since most of the cut-over lands are hilly, or of a
broken character, it is questionable how economical it will be to
attempt to cultivate corn on lands of that character. This same
statement applies to cotton, which is a fairly profitable money crop
under favorable conditions.

Sheep Raising
and Forage
Crop Possibil-
ities

Three Best
Means of
Utilization

Success
Assured If
Proper Meth-
ods Followed

28 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

One more thing: I have mentioned forage crops and grain
crops, and have forgotten to make any mention of truck prod-
ucts—the money crops. In certain localities a valuable utiliza-
tion of the lands may be made through the growing of vegetables
and fruits. To a limited extent, and along the lines of trans-
portation, there is no question but that, with the aid of fertiliz-
ers, we may be able to raise adapted crops of vegetables and
fruits; but we must not get away from the lines of transporta-
tion. Therefore, there are three main lines of utilization:

First, cattle raising, which is the largest and will be the best
method of utilization to start with; it will be most profitable
and, to a large degree, the tendency will be to run these cattle
on a large scale for the production of feeders for the market.

Second, moderate-sized live stock farming will have a limited
application, where the farm is not of too small a size, and there
is carried on a diversified sort of farming with emphasis on cattle,
hogs, sheep and poultry. (

Third, we can raise forage crops, for the market and for live
stock feeding, and there will be the limited production of certain
grain and seed crops; and then we shall have the more intensive
money crops, such as vegetables and fruits, in limited adapted areas
close to transportation.

That, gentlemen, in a very brief way, is an outline of the
utilization of these lands; and I] want to emphasize once more
the necessity of thoroughly analyzing your local conditions be-
fore you attempt to start farming or colonizing operations. If I
had time I should like to talk to you more about these things,
but the important thing for you people to do, before you attempt
to do anything with certain lands, is to have your conditions
thoroughly analyzed and have a plan of farming utilization care-
fully worked out in advance which has a chance for success in
it, rather than one which has a chance for failure. And in sell-
ing your land to colonists be sure that for the type of farming
you are advocating you have adopted the proper area. Before
you get through you will agree with me that you must have
farms of the proper size, according to the type of farming your
farmers will engage in; and you should see that every assistance
is given your farmers to follow out the type of farming chosen
as being best adapted to your conditions. (Applause.)

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 29

Agriculture from a National

Standpoint
By Hon. Carl Vrooman

Assistant Secretary, United States Department
of Agriculture

I shall talk to you in a sketchy, general sort of way about the
fundamental policies involved in the consideration of the prob-
lems up for discussion at this Conference. We have, in the
region under consideration—according to data I have brought
from Washington—about 76,000,000 acres of cut-over land on
which there is more or less second growth, and about 15,000,000
acres on which there is no second growth—on which nothing is
being produced.

The problem is, what are we going to do with these lands?
It is a large subject, and you have wisely cut it up into sub-
divisions and assigned experts to speak on each topic involved.
I shall merely make a brief, general survey of the question as a
whole. The Department of Agriculture would like to encourage
the development for agricultural purposes of all this area which
is adapted to agricultural purposes. We do not know how
much of it is adapted to agricultural purposes, and you do not
know; and, therefore, the first and most important step that I
can suggest is to have a survey made—such as we make in
the national forests—to ascertain which of these lands are suit-
able for agricultural development and which for other kinds of
development. Those suitable for agricultural development
should then be surveyed with regard to marketing conditions,
with regard to labor supply, with regard to the financing of
such agricultural development and with regard to every other
conceivable problem involved in developing these lands for agri-
cultural purposes. If you proceed to act before you do this,
you are riding to a fall, you are running into difficulty and you
are going in for a proposition which is only half digested. There-
fore, the first step is to make a definite survey of the situation
to determine what proportion of these lands are good for agri-
cultural purposes, and what other parts are adapted to stock-

First Work
Should Be
Land Survey

Varied Adap-
tability of
Cut-Over
Lands

Forest Fire
Problem Must
Be Solved

Experiment
Stations
Needed

30 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

raising purposes. A good deal of this land would be adapted to
raising sheep, cattle and hogs, which would not be at all adapted
to raising cotton, corn, sugar cane or soy beans, or any of the
other grain crops. The rest of the land, which is neither adapted
to agriculture in the shape of crops or agriculture in the shape
of live stock development, should then be set aside as a permanent
forest area and a permanent forestry policy worked out through
the co-operation of the Federal Department of Agriculture, or
the State Forestry Service, and the owners of the land.

Perhaps the greatest single obstacle to a proper development
of any of these lines of activity—agriculture, live stock or for-
estry—is the forest fire; the forest fire not only destroys a lot of
forest trees, but it destroys the humus in the soil and the
plant life on which the live stock subsist. Until you have worked
out a policy which will enable us, unitedly, to solve the problem
of forest fires, vou have not taken your first step in the develop-
ment of the cut-over areas of this or any other region. That is a
problem that will need the united attack.of the Federal Govern-
ment, the state government and the private owners of these lands.
When once you solve this problem and make your surveys, then
we are ready to’ get to work on the subdivisions of the problem.
Then we should have established, in all the different sections
where these lands are located, experiment stations where we can
experiment on solutions for all the problems connected with the
agricultural and live stock industries in these regions. At the
present time there is a good deal that you do not know, that the
state bodies do not know, and that nobody knows with regard
to these problems. We have not yet worked out all the problems
connected with the matter of grasses on which to raise the
live stock. We have not worked out the problems connected
with the proper crops to be grown to best advantage on those
parts of these lands which are agricultural in their possibilities.
We have not yet worked on these problems sufficiently to know

what method of reforestation to adopt. If you were to take
this matter up with our Congressmen and Senators, the United

States Government undoubtedly would be willing to establish
experiment stations in the different sections of the South where
all these problems could be worked out until a proper solution
for them was found.

Now, in looking at this problem the fundamental principle
involved is an old one, and an old one that is today receiving a

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 3l

good deal more emphasis than it ever received in the past. In
the past, the business men and the Government did not always
understand each other. Business men felt that the Government
very often was making business activity on their part unneces-
sarily difficult. The Federal Government, on the other hand,
felt that it was only meeting certain problems which had to be
grappled with in order to protect the innocent investor. But we
have, during the past year or two—and today it is more evident
than ever—discovered that the Government and the business
men of this country are able to get together and understand each
other. (Applause.) The Government is asking the business
men to put their cards on the table face up, and on that basis
we are getting together for a great constructive effort to build
up the agricultural, mineral and industrial resources of this
country

Gentlemen, this country has a greater future before it than
any of us realize. I suppose the publicity men working on these
problems think that they are able to paint, ‘in as roseate colors
as the facts will warrant, the agricultural possibilities of this
region; but allow me to say to you that no publicity man has yet
dreamed of the extent of the agricultural, live stock and forestry
possibilities of this great region. We have only just scratched
the surface of our national resources; and if we will all pull
together, each willing to give a square deal to every legitimate
interest involved, these resources can be developed, step by
step, until we astonish ourselves by the riches that will be the
outcome of our united efforts.

All this was true about two weeks ago. Since then some-
thing has happened which has changed very materially the
psychology of the American people. We are now in a state of
war. Everything we could have said ten days ago about this
problem we can now say with a thousand per cent of added em-
phasis. The time has now come for America to make the most of
her resources of men, of land, of capital, and of patriotism; if
there ever was a time when we should all put our cards and
chips on the table and see what we can all do with everything
we have, in order to strengthen our nation in this international
crisis, this is the hour. (Applause.)

I don’t know how much of this cut-over land is adapted to
immediate use for agricultural or live stock purposes. We hope

Business Men
and Govern-
ment Getting
Together

Cut-Over

Land Possi-
bilities Un-
dreamed Of

War's De-
mands Upon
the Southland

England’s
Early Mis-
takes

32 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

the war is going to be a short one; but nobody knows. It may
drag along for years. Therefore, let us have two programs—
one, our immediate and emergency program, what we can do
this week, this month, this year; and the other a permanent
program of national development that will go steadily ahead
during all the years to come. I left Washington ten days ago;
stopping at Atlanta, Memphis, Little Rock, Shreveport, and
today at New Orleans. I have been talking to the people at
each of these places about agricultural preparedness, or about
food preparedness. I have told the people of the South that the
Federal Government is expecting the South this year to do some-
thing very novel to the South. It means a great change in
the methods of the South. The Federal Government is expecting
the South this year to feed herself, and for two reasons: First
of all, because if the South does not feed herself the South
will go hungry before the year is out. We are not asking very
much of the South. We would have a perfect right to ask the
South not only to feed herself, but to contribute her quota toward
feeding the soldiers in the field, and also toward feeding our
Allies in the trenches of Europe; but we are not asking that;
we are not asking the maximum—we are asking the minimum:
and we confidently expect the South to respond in full measure
to what we ask of her.

When the war was started in Europe most of the countries
there thought war was conducted by armies, and that all they
had to do to win was. to get a lot of men together, train them to
shoot and send them to the trenches. England was the slowest,
but finally she got together the cream of her young manhood,
the most self-sacrificing, the most patriotic, the best men of
England, and they went over to France and Flanders and were
mowed down as with a scythe, because England forgot that men
can’t fight successfully against superior armament, that courage
does not take the place of cannon; and so, for month after
month, the English soldiers stayed in the trenches and were
shot to pieces because Germany had cannon which shot two
or three miles farther than theirs did. Then England set to
work to get guns, and she found she had pounds of powder where
she ought to have had tons. She then set to work and created
munition factories on such a scale that today they manufacture
more arms and munitions in a day than they used to manufacture
in a year. Then they found something else was wrong. The

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 33

working men began to strike all over England. The working
men said the capitalists were making big war profits and yet
their wages had not been increased, and they struck; and Lloyd
George exhorted them and begged them to return to their work
from patriotic motives, and they said, “We are perfectly willing
to work, but we have to have a square deal; if our masters make
huge war profits, then our wages must go up.” They would not
budge an inch. Finally, the workingmen sent word to the
Prime Minister and said: “We have a proposition; our masters
say we are disloyal, we are slackers and shirkers; we will find
out who is the slacker and the shirker; now we will not only
work for low wages, but for no wages at all, on one condition—
that the capitalists put their plants and coal mines and rail-
roads at the disposition of the Government as we offer to do
our labor, without remuneration.” Then the Government called
together the capitalists and the workingmen and the Govern-
ment officials and had a conference; and after a day or two they
worked out a plan which guaranteed to capitalists a reasonable
profit on their investment and no more, and to workingmen a
reasonable wage that would take care of them, even with the
prices of food as high as they were, and no more; and on this
basis they harnessed all the industrial, agricultural and financial
strength of England in the great war, and since that day you
have seen England leaping forward like a powerful automobile
that has been thrown into high—the change was magical, because
from that moment every man, woman and child in Great Britain
was working with one purpose only—to advance the cause of
their common country. They found that no nation is prepared
which does not take justice out of the Bible and out of the
skies and out of the hearts of jurists and judges and. prophets
and bring it down to earth and write it into the laws and Victory or
institutions of men. (Applause.) And after they had done all Defeat De-
that, they found there was still something lacking. They found pends on
what Germany had found--and France, and Italy, and even Rus- food Supplies
sia—that after all, an army travels on its belly; that this is a
war not between armies but between nations and combinations
of nations, and every man, woman and child is doing his bit
to help his country. With thirty million people slowly starv-
ing in Germany, and every other country in Europe being put
on war rations, they found that the war is going to be determined:
not by the nation with the greatest number of men in the

Food and
More Food
the Cry from
Abroad

The South’s
Duty to the
Nation

34 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

trenches and the greatest quantities of munitions and of financial
resources available, but by the combination of nations that is
able to feed itself the longest. Just at this juncture we got into
the war. We have not enough soldiers to count materially. Our
national army and our militia will not be large enough for a long
time to turn the tide of battle on any one of half a dozen battle
fronts. You will remember that when Rumania went into the
war she had 750,000 soldiers, but instead of helping her allies
her entrance strengthened her opponents. It is millions of men
that count.

We will probably send a division over there on the firing line
in France just to show that we are present in the flesh as well
as in the spirit, just to plant the Stars and Stripes beside the
flags of our Allies; just to show that this country has not for-
gotten the time when Lafayette and Rochambeau came to
America to help us (applause); that will be done largely for its
moral effect. The chief things we can do during the next six
months will be to finance and feed the troops of the Allies. We
have untold wealth. This country is wealthier than all the com-
bined nations on the continent of Europe. So we can finance our
Allies for years to come. But that is not the most immediate
need. They now need food, more food and still more food, be-
cause every country in Europe has been tightening its belt now
for some time; and if the submarine warfare had succeeded Eng-
land would have been brought to her knees within three months.

The South produces much food, but she imports from the
North and West nearly half a billion dollars worth of food and
foodstuffs every year in excess of the fruits, vegetables, cotton
seed products, etc., which she exports to the North. When we
ask you to produce your own food and feed yourself we are
only asking you to release that much food and foodstuffs with
which to feed our soldiers in the field and our Allies in the
trenches. Is the South going to respond to this call? If she
doesn’t, it is the first call of duty the South ever ignored.
(Applause.)

Now that means individual sacrifice. This means that every
man, woman and child in the South, without a single exception,
has a duty to perform; the children to put in gardens—I don’t
mean flower gardens, I mean vegetable gardens that will produce
food for you during the summer months and enable you to can
and dry and put aside food for the winter months, If you

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 35

haven’t a garden larger than this platform—it will be valuable
not only for the food it will produce but for what it typifies.
This flag that I wear on my breast is not big, but it represents
everything dearest in life to every man, woman and child under.
its folds, and when you have put in one little bit of a garden,
it stands as the symbol of the fact that you stand ready to do
your bit for your country in this great national crisis.

And then the planters and farmers of the South; some of
them have gone cotton crazy; because they are getting 22 cents
a pound for cotton they can only see cotton. Up in Kentucky
and Virginia and other states they are raising tobacco. It may
be all right to chew tobacco, but it isn’t going to feed you if you
have to chew tobacco and spit cotton in the wintertime. And
then our transportation systems—they already have been repeat-
edly congested in times of peace; and during the coming months

they will be weighed down with an ever increasing military re-
sponsibility. If they are congested, you can’t get food through

from the North; and then, if the South has failed to raise her
own foodstuffs, she will go hungry. So, if there are any
cotton planters here today, or if you know any cotton plant-
ers, take this message to them from their Government: Any man
who is a loyal American citizen is going to do his share toward
raising the food crops of his region during the next season, and
any man not ready to do that is not worthy to be protected by
the flag of our common country. (Applause.) We are sending
our boys to the front. They are going up there, perhaps, to be
shot to pieces. We are here urging them to be brave and
patriotic, and yet some of us may lag behind and fail to do the
little thing we are asked to do—to make the small sacrifice we
are asked to make. I know it is not easy to take a lot of tenants
trained to raise cotton and have them raise corn, or soy beans,
or sweet potatoes. I am a landlord myself. But this is not a
Sunday-school picnic. This is war; and we are not asking you
alone to do these things—we are asking every American citizen
to take up the most difficult task and do it gladly for his country.
If we will do that, if we will get that spirit into the emergency
work of the next few months, then this larger, more permanent
work of development of agricultural, live stock and forestry
resources of the South in due time will go forward with giant
strides. We need the right spirit in this work. If everybody
becomes imbued with that spirit then the future development
of the South’s resources will be magical.

“South Must
Raise Her
Own Food or
Go Hungry”

“War No Sun-
day-School
Picnic”

South’s Prob-
lems Not Un-
like Those

of the West

36 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

There are a great many other things that may be said along
these same lines, but there are a number of specialists to speak
to you this afternoon on these other topics, and therefore I will
simply thank you for your attention, and wish you success in
your great constructive and patriotic task. (Prolonged applause.)

The Cut-Over Land Owner’s
Responsibility— His
Opportunity
By Hon. Clay Tallman

Commissioner, General Land Office United States
Department of the Interior

I want to say first that I am very appreciative of the oppor-
tunity to come here and contribute a little, if I can, to the
development of a national resource, particularly a basic resource
like the land, to see if we cannot find a way to make it produce
a little more and add something to the upbuilding of the nation.

At the outset, I should say that so far as the public land in
the South is concerned, for the purpose of this discussion, it is
altogether negligible. The problems we are working on every
day concern the lands of the Western states, where the great bulk
of the remaining public lands are; there we are working out
problems and overcoming obstacles not altogether unlike those
you have here, and problems in which, I believe, the general
principles—the controlling principles—are very much the same.
I feel in a way, so far as I am personally concerned, as if this
program is a little bit wrong end to; not that I want to be
critical, but just because, in attacking a land problem of this
sort, when we take it up in the Western states, we first like
to learn as much as we can about the subject; we want to know
that in as much detail as possible; and I can only wish that
before J came on this program there had been some speakers
—as I understand there will be—who had already given us the
facts more in detail before we take up the problem with a view
to its solution.

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 37

I might say further that I don’t want to appear presump-
tuous. I realize that the sort of problems we are working on
are in a different part of the country, where climate, topography,
soil conditions and producing conditions are very much dif-
ferent. The people, it has been my experience, are just about
the same all over these United States; and they are just about
equally progressive in one place as another; and they are equally
patriotic, and equally anxious to respond to an appeal such as
Mr. Vrooman made here today.

Moreover, so far as the West is concerned, there is no
spirit of adverse competition; they want you to do the very
best you can here; they want you here in this Southern country
to make the best and most of these resources you have; we
feel you want us in the West to do likewise, because we know,
even from a selfish standpoint, that the more you can raise the
more money you can make, and the more people you have making
a good living, the more of our product you will be able to buy,
and the better we do the more of your products we will be able
to buy; the time is long since past when there is any necessity
for a spirit of destructive competition as between different parts
of this country. I talked to a man in Virginia the other day
who is very familiar with the growth and development of that
state, and he told me, among other things, that there were
thousands of acres of formerly cultivated lands in Virginia that
had been permitted to grow to trees, and I said to him, “Why
was that?” He said, “After the war of the States there was the
great Middle West; and we couldn’t compete with the country
out there where they had unlimited cheap and fertile lands.”
Those conditions have passed, as I will attempt to show you.

Now, speaking in a general way, it would seem to me that
one of the first questions that presents itself is whether or not
there is anything in this proposition we are talking about;
whether our efforts must result in failure, as regards this tract
of seventy million acres now lying idle; are we dreaming about
an impossible thing, or have we a practical problem on which
we have a fair chance of success? To me, with the experience
I have had in recent years, it seems very strange, it seems
almost incomprehensible, to think of seventy million acres of
land that will raise anything at all, lying idle, and not being.
made to produce the most and best it can.

Sectional
Competition a
Thing of the
Past

The First
Preemption
Law

38 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

My home state—Nevada—is probably as unlike conditions
that exist here in point of climate, products and general condi-
tions that we have to deal with as regards crop production, as
any other part of the United States. I have traveled all over
that vast area, and if there is any place in that state, in the most
remote place, way off in a canyon, 50 or 100 miles from a
railroad, where there is a little spring that will produce an inch
of water that somebody has not got, and that somebody is not
using and making the most of, I don’t know the place, and I
don’t know anybody else who does. So I say, it is strange to
me, it is difficult to understand, how there can be great areas
of productive land here that are not being used.

Now, as a preliminary, sometimes it is desirable, in grap-
pling a big problem like this, to get a sort of comprehensive view
of the land conditions throughout the nation as a whole, to sort
of get a line on the trend of the times, as it were—ask ourselves
the question, where do we stand in this nation as a whole on this
question? What is its present status? Perhaps a reference,
for a minute or two, to the history of the public lands of the
United States would not be amiss.

In the early days of this government, Congress looked upon
the land as a resource merely to pay debts with, merely to get
money out of; and consequently we find that the public lands
were disposed of almost exclusively, until the year 1841, on an
essentially cash sale system; millions of acres were disposed of
to pay debts. Consequently, the government offered the public
lands at public auction, and if they were not sold at public
sales, they were sold at private sale and anybody could buy all
he could pay for; and so we disposed of a great area in that
way. The government got a comparatively small amount of
money out of it, and there was an era of much speculation and
comparatively little development; the poor man with only his
hands didn’t have a chance. They never asked the purchaser
what he was going to do with the land—whether he would
cultivate it or what he intended to do with it.

That system went on until 1841, and then public thought
began to change and we had the first preemption law, a little
modification of the cash sale, whereby the government said, “We
will sell this land to you, and if you will live on it and make
your residence on it, you will have a preference right: for a
limited time in which to buy it.” It was a modification of

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 39

the cash sale, whereby a man could get a preference right
by settlement. Time went on, and in the year 1862, in the
midst of the war, Congress woke up to the proposition that
the mere money we were getting out of these public lands
was the least consideration; that the matter of cultivation, de-
velopment and homebuilding was the great big consideration
that we should look to; and from 1862 on, you will notice, in
all the land laws, all the acts of Congress—that the controlling
and main thought has been, how can we dispose of these lands
so as to produce the most homes and the greatest development
and use.

And so there was never any one act of Congress which so
well laid the foundation for the development of the Middle West
and the Far West as the Homestead law. We had disposed of,
roughly, under the old system, of from 80 to 100 million acres.
Under the Homestead law we have disposed of 150 million acres;
and under the Commuted Homestead law, whereby by a shorter
residence and a cash payment title could be secured to the land,
we disposed of 50 million acres more. The operation of that
legislation has swept from the Mississippi west to the Pacific
ocean, and no single act of Congress has ever been more con-
ducive to the upbuilding of a great empire than that legislation.

The Homestead law meant homes, cultivation and crop rais-
ing. Then Congress went on and saw the transportation prob-
lem, and said, we must get railroads to this country in order to
get the homesteaders there. So we find Congress making great
railroad grants to induce the building of railroads. Probably
nothing in the way of land legislation has ever been the subject
of more controversy and argument, one way or the other, than
this railroad grant proposition. Congress has given away, as
donations to railroads, probably 160 million acres. Texas gave
away 25 million acres more. One thing certain the rail-
roads did conduce very much to the upbuilding of the
country. Whether they would have come eventually without
the grants, or if so, whether they would have come soon enough,
is a mere matter of speculation. Two years ago, when the ques-
tion of development in Alaska was up, Congress said, we will
not give away half of that territory to get railroads; we will
keep the land and give it to settlers and build the railroad with
government money, carrying that controlling principle still
further, making it easier and more attractive. and desirable for

Homestead
Act Finally
Solves
Problem

The Govern-
ment and
Western Rail-
road Build-
ing

Money Get-
ting vs. Devel-
opment

The Age of
Co-operation

40 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

the settlers to make homes; knowing that the more developed
farms, the more resources there are in the country, the better
we can always secure the necessary revenues to support the
government.

Therefore, we have our public land history divided into
two periods I have sketched—first, the money getting period;
next, the development period. A few years ago there came
in still another period. We might call’ it the conservation or
reservation period. Nobody can tell exactly when it started, but
it nevertheless did start. Nobody can state, in a sentence, what
the controlling principle of this period is, but, in a general way,
this last period revolves around this thought: that we have been
lax in the enforcement of many of our land laws; that we have
not always looked carefully to the best use of all these resources;
that we have permitted our land laws in many respects to be
abused; that we have permitted certain people and interests to
gain a monopoly of this thing or that thing; and so we had vari-
ous changes in the matter of public policy. We have, through
the West, probably 150 million acres that have been put into for-
est reserves. We have the Government taking up and spending
money for reclamation. We have a price put on our coal lands
above the minimum; we have the old system which operated
to lock up the coal of Alaska, replaced by a complete leasing
system; we have a price put on the timber lands above the
minimum, the idea being to make the land free and easy to get
always for the man who will develop and use it to the best
advantage; but if it is a straight out-and-out business proposi-
tion, and does not involve a home building principle, then he
should pay what it is worth.

I think we are gradually growing into a fourth period. I
can see it coming in many ways. Some aspects of it were de-
scribed by Secretary Vrooman this afternoon. It is a period of
co-operative development among all the interests involved. It is
the period we are starting in on now, where private owners, the
states and the Federal government will pull together more than
they have ever done before in the development of these resources.
And never before in our country’s history was each man’s private
business so much everybody’s business as it is now. For in-
stance, we give a charter to a street railroad company to use
the streets, and’ we impose upon the grantee of that right various
duties and obligations. We say it is a common carrier. Now

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era Al

the tendency is to go further and further with this. The
tendency is for the public to have an interest in everything
going on all over this country, whether commonly called private
or public. For instance, the public will say you have 70 million
acres of good land lying idle here; you won’t be permitted to
leave that land lying idle in the United States when we need it
to produce food for all of us, particularly at a time when the per-
petuation of our very national existence may depend on our
ability to feed ourselves and our allies.

Now, what is the purpose of all this talk about what hap-
pened fifty years ago, forty years ago and now? I simply want
to develop this proposition, gentlemen: that the time has come
when every acre of land that will produce anything at all has
some value and should be put to use, that the time is past
when fertile lands can be had in the great West for the taking;
the great bulk of those lands are all taken and yet farm products
continued to rise in price even before the war. If these seventy
million idle acres can produce anything, the trend of develop-
ment and increased production is bound to swing back to the
South and East. Take the cattle business as an illustration.
Out in Arizona or New Mexico, where it takes forty acres to
keep a cow, men are very freely paying $1.25 to $5.00 an acre
for the land, and they are glad to get it. We sold last year
44,000 acres of land in an Indian Reservation in California at
public auction. Anybody could buy all he wanted. It was
picked-over land. The Indians had been allotted the best of it,
and the homesteaders had taken what they wanted, and this was
the tail end. It was appraised at $56,000, and we sold it for
$119,000. Last summer we opened the Colville Indian Reserva-
tion in Washington, of about 400,000 acres. That was also
remaining land—after the Indians had been allotted the best
lands. It was very rough and much of jit very dry. We held
registrations out there for that land, and we had 90,000 applica-
tions to register for 3,000 farms. In Dakota a year and a half
ago we had 110,000 acres on the Standing Rock Indian Reserva-
tion that was appraised at from $2.50 to $8.00 an acre, subject
to the Homestead law. A man could get only so much of it; he
had to homestead it and pay the price, too. We had 30,000 ap-
plications for that land, and they took every acre of it. This
spring, just before I came down, I signed instructions for some
land we appraised two years ago to be appraised at $2.00 more

All Land
Has a Value

$120,000 ,000
Spent to
Reclaim Arid
Lands

42 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

an acre, just indicating how these things are going on. In
northern Montana we have an Indian reservation, known as
Fort Peck, and we opened there three years ago a million acres.
That had been picked over and the best allotted to the Indians.
These lands were appraised at $2.00 to $7.00 per acre, and we

opened them to homestead entry with the appraised price in

addition. At that time there were other lands available, and only
27,000 acres were taken up the first year; but the next year, 1915,
71,000 acres were taken; and last year 198,000 acres were taken
up. So that the price didn’t trouble them. The demand for
land on which they can raise something, on which they can
make a living in this country, is pressing and urgent. Just one
other word with respect to Fort Peck. A large part of that
land was classified as coal, and a lot of fellows wanted that land
so badly they paid for coal filings on it at $10 and $20 an acre.

Now, the United States Reclamation Service is another in-
stance of this new era of interrelation between public and private
business. The government has now expended probably 120 mil-
lion dollars in building reclamation projects for arid lands. The
cost of reclamation is spread over the land reclaimed. The
people buy the water rights, and they must pay annual install-
ments, under a recent law, covering a period of twenty years, for
the total cost. What is that cost? All throughout the Western
states you will find people willingly and gladly paying anywhere
from $30 to $1CO an acre just for the water alone, to say nothing
of the cost of reclaiming the land; and leveling it and getting
it ready for crops which may run up to $50 an acre more.

I am saying these things to you just to point out a little of
what is going on in different parts of the country, just to show
the demand for farm land under conditions such that a poor
man can work out a home.

It was mentioned by a gentleman here today that if you
don’t give a man enough land to make a living on, he is going
to make a failure. Congress saw that proposition. Back in
1909 Congress saw that there were large areas in the Western
country now known as the so-called dry-farming region. It
has heen ascertained that there are great areas in Montana,

‘Washington, Idaho and Colorado where crops, particularly grain

crops, can be raised successfully, where they couldn’t raise any-
thing and didn’t raise anything twenty years ago; the idea is

‘to crop the land alternate years so as to put two years’ moisture

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 43

into one year’s crop. Congress said this is extensive farming
instead of intensive. To enable these men to make a go of it
we must give them more land. Consequently, they gave us the
Enlarged Homestead act, giving 320 instead of 160 acres of
desert land. Millions of acres have been taken up under that
act. You go out on the Great Northern across Montana, or
on the Northern Pacific, or on the Oregon Short Line up through
southern Idaho, and you will find thousands of acres there to-
day covered with wheat crops, and threshing machines and
self-binders, and little towns and elevators. They are making
land which was only worth 5 cents an acre per year as a grazing
proposition bring in from $5 to $10 an acre or more per year.
Later on Congress said, this dry farming land is about all gone;
all that we have left is rough land; much of it stands straight
up. Here is a grazing proposition, that land cannot grow crops.
Consequently, in December last, another homestead law was
passed known as the Grazing Homestead law, giving the entry-
man 640 acres of designated grazing land, and since December
29, 1916, there have been 45,000 applications covering 18 million
acres of that land. I call your attention to this as showing how
the people out West are now going after the grazing proposition
where there is a chance for a poor man to get a little ranch
of his own.

In this connection it should be remembered that the Western
‘open range is carrying every head of stock it is capable of
carrying.

Now, doesn’t it stand to reason, if we have any land at all
left back here in the South, say 70 million acres, or any other
number of acres, it is up to you to get busy? Won’t it raise
something? I don’t know how good it is. It may be half
swamp, or very low grade, or sandy, but it cannot be any less
productive per acre than millions of acres of land in the West
out of which tremendous amounts of money are being realized
today. I think that if you will take a broad comprehensive view
of the land situation of the country you will come to the con-
clusion that there is no question of doubt that you can success-
fully compete on this land with the rest of the country; in fact
the matter of food production can hardly be said to be longer
in the competitive stage; it is rather a question of getting enough.

While in the new development of the raw land it is always
best to have cattle and sheep first, I want to say to vou that

Five-Cent-
an-Acre Land
Producing
$10 Yearly

South Offers
Only Cheap
Lands Now
Left in
Country

Small Farms
Best Where
Practicable

Little of
Western Cow
Country Left

44 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

wherever anybody can make a decent living, the proper and
desirable thing to do is to get people on your land and cut it
up into small farms, as many as you can, making self-sustaining
and self-owned homes. (Applause.)

We have had a great fight during the last few months be-
tween the stockmen and the homesteaders; between those who
were for and against the 640 acre grazing homestead law. The
cattle men, almost to a unit, opposed it. But the other fellow,
who stood for the homestead law, and who proved to be in the
majority, contended that whenever we have been able to get
people on the land we have gotten more cattle from it than
before, and a lot more things besides, and the settlers have
made a living and built towns and schools.

Those of you who have been to Colorado know that across
that great eastern portion, for many miles back of the Kansas
line, is a great area of rolling plains. Twenty years ago, when I
used to go across there, it was nothing but a cow country. One
would see scarcely a habitation or town. You go across there
now and you will find that as a result of this 320-acre homestead
law that whole country is settled, and that country is producing
more meat than it ever did before.

I was talking to a Congressman who told me of a valley
which a cattle company had completely controlled for years,
and when the 320-acre homestead law came in it drove the
cattle company out, and now that valley is producing much more
cattle than the cattle company produced, and crops of grain
besides.

Now, my friends, we have heard considerable here today
about various settlement and colonization schemes; while I agree
with much that has been said, I want to say as a general thought
that if you will demonstrate the possibilities of these lands and
show their usefulness and practicability for home building pur-
poses under conditions such that a man can bring up and educate
his children under modern conditions, and you will sell the lands
at prices and on terms such that an industrious man can pay
out, you will not have to resort to any colonization schemes;
you can’t keep the settlers out.

Now, the chief obstacle in the way, invariably in the West,
is the speculator. Invariably he wants to get in between the
large land proposition and the man who ultimately cultivates:

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 45

it, and drag down all the profit. I want to say that on this
70,000,000 acres, or any part of it, if you are taking a broad-
minded, patriotic view of the situation and not a very narrow
or short-sighted one, don’t put any proposition up to the settler
that you are not morally certain he can make a success of if he
will work; because his failure is ultimately bound to be the
failure of the community and the state.

Now, in closing, I am going to venture a suggestion. This
is private land, for the most part. I expect it is largely owned
by the timber companies who cut it off. What are you going
to do with it? It was said that if it was Government land the
Government could handle it like the forest reserves are handled.
As I said, this is private land. You can do more with private
land than with Government land, because you are free to do
with it just exactly as you please, not hindered by law, or super-
visory authority. It seems to me that if I were the owner of any
considerable block of this land I would first have it very care-
fully cruised and examined by the best expert I could get;
I would have him go over this land with a fine tooth comb for
the purpose of determining as nearly as possible just exactly
what the land is best adapted to and what it needs in the way
of improvement or building up. I would then, with the advice of
experts, lay out a plan of procedure and then go to work, on
a small scale at first, to demonstrate fully and conclusively just
what could be done with the land. When you are successful
in this demonstration then you have reached a point where you
can offer some of this land to the public. Wherever possible
the sale should be made direct to the settler without any inter-
vening selling agency and consequent added expense. The sale
should be at rock bottom prices, on easy terms, with little to pay
to begin with, except to demonstrate good faith, the balance
being extended over, as long a time as possible, on as low a
rate of interest as is consistent with good business, and the
sale should be on condition that the buyer will reclaim and
cultivate or otherwise make good use of the land. You should
sell him just as much as he will reclaim, cultivate and use, and
not more. Effort should be made to sell adjoining and con-
tiguous lands to other settlers to the end that a neighborly com-
munity may be established which will thereby be able to build
up its towns, schools and marketing facilities by joint effort.
Every reasonable assistance should be given the good faith

Conservative
Development
Methods Best

Suggestions
for Cut-Over
Land Owners.

10,000 Acres
to the Pasture

46 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

settler to help him get started. This matter of building up an
agreeable community life is by no means the least important in
this connection. In this manner I believe you will be able in
the long run not only to realize a fair price for the land, but
you would be contributing a great thing to the upbuilding of the
state and the United States.

Gentlemen, the leading thought I have tried to leave with
you this afternoon is that it seems to me that we have passed
the point, we have answered the question of whether or not
the proposition you have presented to you here is worth while.
I think there can be no doubt about it.

Lumbermen’s Activities,
Past, Present and Future
By J. Lewis Thompson

I have been requested to tell you a little something about
what we have done ourselves in development, what progress
we are making in our cut-over lands. I can’t say it in any boast-
ful spirit, because I have fought the opposition of our stock-
holders, and J have spent money which is considerable for us,
and it has been spent just because I took the bull by the horns
and went ahead with it. Some of our stockholders think I know
naught of what I am doing, and the future may answer that
question; but for the present we have done this: We have
already fenced 60,000 acres. In that 60,000 acres we have some
six pastures. We have five different ranches. In these differ-
ent pastures we are using native cattle as far as we can—getting
in good bulls. On one of our ranches we have a registered herd
of Herefords with which we propose to raise our Hereford
bulls, and on another ranch the Shorthorns. We have been
going at the thing in a systematic way, but we have been
groping a little bit in the dark. Last year we had 300 acres
in cultivation. We built thirteen 100-ton silos, with sorghum
silage. We find that sorghum gives twice as much ensilage
per acre as corn does. We may not know how to take care
of the corn, but we have found that sorghum produces twelve

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 47

to twenty tons of ensilage per acre. This year we have a
hundred acres in peanuts; we have forty acres in sweet pota-
toes; and we have about 300 acres in sorghum, and we propose
to build twenty-five silos this year. We figure a ton of ensilage
will carry the cattle you have to feed—will carry one head
through the winter—and puts them on the grass in the spring
in fine condition, so that they start right off to growing. We
have the only dipping vat in the two counties we are located in.

The question, “What part is the lumberman to play in the
upbuilding of the Southland through the proper development
and use of the vast areas of cut-over lands that are as yet
largely unused?” is one that every timber and timber land owner
has a right to be interested in, and is, I trust.

The lumber industry of the South came to life after the
Civil War. Previous to that great war the South was given
over almost entirely to the production of cotton. It was a land
about equally divided between aristocrats and poor whites, with
the negroes for the laboring class. In those days the lumber
production of the country came from the North, but as the price
of stumpage and the value of lumber advanced in the Northern
territories, the lumber folks naturally began to seek other and
newer forests and the South came in for a large share of their
attention.

Then began the development of the forests of the South.
What this development has amounted to, and what the lumber
industry means to the South today, is a matter of fact with
which we are all familiar. He is the largest employer of the
South—a great community builder—and a leading spirit in his
locality. The lumberman is essentially a pioneer. He seeks
new forests when his old ones have been cut away, and he builds
up and develops the territory in which he chooses to locate. Be-
hind the lumberman come farms, schools, villages and eventually
cities. Whenever you find him, you find a constructive worker,
and a natural builder.

As an individual, the lumberman stands high among the
industrial people of the land. As a citizen he is known always
for his activity, his progress and his generosity.

As an industry, there is much for the lumber folks to do—a
world of needful work that must be done—and a great field of
undeveloped opportunity that stretches out before him in every
direction. The opportunities that present themselves to the

Early Days of
Lumbering in
the South

Lumberman
Blazes the
Way for
Civilization

“Cut-Over
Lands Could
Feed the
Nation”

Combining a
Patriotic
Duty and
Profitable In-
vestment

48 The Dawn of a Nw Constructive Era

lumbermen of the future are greater even than those that pre-
sented themselves in the past.

The lumbermen of the Southland are the owners of enough
land at present barren to build a new world. They have in their
possession the potential makings of a veritable empire, it is their
privilege, if they will grasp it, to carry out a great work for the
development and upbuildings of the entire South. There is
enough cut-over timber land in the hands of the lumbermen of
the South today to feed this entire nation, if properly cleared,
fertilized, cultivated and farmed. The possibilities of this land
for farming and growing purposes has no reasonable limit. It
is the most fruitful soil within the limits of the continent. It
will raise anything and everything, within reasonable limits.

The lumbermen have the ability to handle the problem of
handling and developing the cut-over lands of the South. They
can do so with commercial success, because properly handled,
there is money to be made in the work. The argument that has
long been advanced against the lumber manufacturer doing any-
ing specific with his cut-over lands was that no decent return
could be made on the investment and he was not in position to
develop this land out of charity.

The demand for better soil and newer farming districts has
gradually increased the values of the Southern land that once
grew forests, and today it is a possibility for men to take this
cut-over land and make a success. of developing and selling it
for farming purposes. This is a proposition in itself that re-
quires specific handling, and the great trouble with the mill man
has always been that he was so busy running his mill that he
could not and would not divide his attention.

He can, however, in the future co-operate in the work that
is proposed for developing these lands, and may do much with-
out actually giving all his personal attention to the matter. I
believe that he will not be slow in manifesting his willingness
and ability to co-operate in the great work that means at one
and the same time an excellent investment financially and a great
work for the future. There are, therefore, both financial and
sentimental reasons why the lumber manufacturers should start
now to develop this great heritage of potential wealth that Prov-
idence has bestowed upon them.

There have been times, I admit, when many of us have
seriously questioned whether this Providential bestowal was in

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 49

the nature of a gracious gift, or a full-grown millstone to be
carried around our necks. That time has passed, however, and
there are few of us today who do not appreciate the value of
these cut-over lands, and have not some general idea of their
future importance.

In the past the lumberman has. accepted his various trusts
and handled them well. I know that he will do so in this case.
He came to the South, saw the possibilities of the forests for
the future, bought and developed same on his own initiative and
without outside financial assistance built his plants and his rail-
roads, developed the country, acted as home builder to the nation,
solved his industrial, commercial and labor problems, and did
much to develop the South from a strictly cotton country to a
great industrial part of the commonwealth.

He is able to do much with this heritage of undeveloped
cut-over lands, which is not really unlike the wealth of forests of
the South, when he first encountered them. Cut-over land today
is fully as valuable a present asset as were the great forests of
the South when the lumberman first invaded them. The future
possibilities of the land are easily as great as the possibilities of
the forest have proven to be. An investment in these lands to-
day can be reasonably expected to be a better investment than
an investment in pine timber in Louisiana or Texas would have
been fifty years ago.

The ownership of the great cut-over lands of the South is
largely in the hands of the lumbermen. A great trust has been
thrust upon them. The question of what shall be done with these
vast holdings is one that has been growing louder and more
insistent with every year that passes. It is really a mighty
heritage—one that may be developed into boundless possibilities.
The possibilities are limited only by the efforts that will be
made in this direction.

In the days to come, when history of the South is written,
will the lumberman be able to lift his head and report that he
has accepted his heritage and developed it as commanded us in
the parable of the ten talents, or will he be kept side-stepping,
trying to find an alibi and explain why he did not do so? That
question is soon to be settled, but with the faith that I have in the
ever-readiness of the followers of the lumber industry to do
their part, I know that the record will be kept straight, and

Value of Cut-
Over Lands
Beginning to
Be Recog-
nized

Lands Worth
as Much as
Original
Forests

Lumbermen

Will Measure
Up to His Re-
sponsibilities

Farms and
Railroads In-
terdependent

50 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

that when the time for writing this history comes, the lumber
folks will find their credit side of the ledger to be well filled.

They will develop these cut-over lands; they will assist in
the tilling of the soil; they will develop and build up great com-
munities where their forests once stood; they will encourage and
make possible scientific farming; they will send their children
to agricultural schools, where they will learn the great lessons
of proper use of the soil; they will lay a great foundation for
their children and their children’s children, to assist them in
carrying on the work of making this Southland the Great Gar-
den Spot of America.

The Railroads’ Part in the

South’s Development
By J. C. Clair

Industrial Commissioner of the Illinois Central

Railroad

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen :—I was invited to attend this
Conference, but was not told I would be called upon to make any
remarks. It was a pleasure, however, to come down here to
meet with you, and in looking over your work and appreciating
it from all angles I only regret that real transportation men are
not on the program. Jf there is any time in the history of this
country when the two greatest and foremost industries of ‘the
world are to be appreciated and should be appreciated, it is at
this time—agriculture and transportation—they go hand in hand,
one with the other.

It certainly was inspiring to listen to that gentleman, the
Assistant Secretary of Agriculture, this afternoon; as well as
to the other men who followed and preceded him. I deem this
one of the most important conventions upon one of the most
important subjects that has come before the Southern people—
in fact, the nation as a whole—and I am glad to be here this
afternoon and speak for four or five minutes.

We should enter into this matter in the spirit of real co-
operation, as partners, and we can learn much. from each other.

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 51

The Illinois Central railroad, appreciating the Department of
‘Agriculture at Washington, the administration field work of that
department; the agricultural colleges of the various states
through which our lines traverse, took it upon themselves, a few
years ago, to co-operate with those agencies to the best of their
ability.

Mr. C. H. Markham, president of our road, is vitally inter-
ested in your development work. He made his mark, years ago,
on the Southern Pacific in this work; and it is not many years
since he was only a station agent; but through his. activities,
and what he was able to bring about with the various adminis-
trations interested in development work, he is today President
of one of the largest corporations of transportation in this
country.

He directed me to look over the Southern Mississippi Valley
to ascertain what further could be carried on—what should be
done at once.

I went over the State of Mississippi in the interests of the
creamery business, feeling that that great state should make its
own butter. I discovered there were two creameries in the
state two years ago last fall—one carried along on the Mobile &
Ohio, and a small one at Brookhaven, on the Illinois Central, a
failure for very good reasons. I do not desire, however, to over-
look the Creamery Co-operative Dairy College, at Starkville,
Mississippi, which, of course, was a success—a demonstration to
the people of that state who wished to consider the dairy business.
It was my recommendation that all communities served by the
Illinois Central, where they would guarantee sufficient cows or
butter fat, construct a proper building in an up-to-date way, that
our company furnish the business manager, at our expense, for
one year; realizing, that in a year’s time, such a man could picture
to the farmer the importance of getting a good milk cow, explain
to him the separator, explain about utilizing the natural fertilizer,
etc. Several of those co-operative creameries are under way,
after two years, and all are a success. At this time, together with
those who have taken the work up in a private way, there are
seventeen creameries in Mississippi. I sincerely hope that the
state will call upon the Illinois Central within the next twelve
months for sixteen more creameries managers. We will be pleased
to furnish them at our expense.

Creamery
Development
in Mississippi

Practical Co-
operation
With the
Farmer

New Blood
Important in
Cattle Raising

52 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

In taking the schools to the farms we have 32 demonstration
farms in the Southern Mississippi Valley. This last year we dis-
tributed 90 pure bred sires in Southern Illinois, Kentucky, Ten-
nessee and Mississippi in the interest of improved live stock,
both beef and dairy types, Angus, Shorthorns, Herefords,
Guernseys, Jerseys and Holsteins.

Now, gentlemen, in this work of activity and co-operation,
we find it is useless to hand something to somebody on a gold
platter. The Lord helps those who help themselves, and that is
the truth. In order to encourage the dairy business in the South-
ern Mississippi Valley—and by the way, in the presentation of
those sires we would not, of course, allow one of those fine bulls
to go into a tick-infested county—we think too much of the live
stock; I speak here only of Mississippi, because there is no
parish traversed by our line in Louisiana that is yet free from
the cattle tick, and I regret that. Dr. Dalrymple, however, tells
me that two or three of the parishes will be free in a few months,
and when that time comes the Illinois Central will be right here
with the bulls to co-operate with you, too; that is, if you want us to.

Now, again speaking of those who should help themselves.
We have pictured the importance of the dairy cow and the dairy
business. By this time we realize that live stock is its most im-
portant division. That brings the first cash, then the hog and
the poultry, and following with the steer and sheep. I am glad
sheep has been mentioned here today, because we know that
animal should be on those lands in great numbers in this part of
the country.

This matter of education, gentlemen, you observe, changes
everything; and right here, gentlemen, don’t think for a mo-
ment that I make any reflection upon the people of this terri-
tory. I want rather to congratulate the people on the progress
they have made in the last three or four years, and that, now
you have a compulsory law, that by 1918 the cattle tick will be
a thing of the past, is something that you are to be congratulated
upon. (Applatuse.) Any community on our lines, from Southern
Illinois to Louisiana, where they will organize the bankers and
business men and have the farmers purchase dairy cows from out-
side the state, the Illinois Central railroad will furnish the sires.
That is helping those who help themselves. I say from outside
the state. I don’t think it is along the lines of progress for Tan-
gipahoa Parish to sell cattle to West Feliciana. I do think it

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 53

is important to bring in good cows from the outside of your
state. J assure you that we will not purchase a bull from any
part of Mississippi to send it to any other part of that state.
We demonstrate the importance of new cattle by taking in cattle

from outside territory, and then you are starting immediately:

with new cattle.

I state this to show you what we have done and what we
are doing in a spirit of co-operation. The railroads are a great
factor in this work, and on this cut-over pine land proposition,
and I sincerely hope that before the deliberations conclude, the
interested delegates will organize a plan along conservative lines
that will be so attractive that it will be simply impossible for
any interested party, including the railroads, to get away from
participating and doing their full share in carrying out such a
plan. The railroads of this country have an organization known
as the Railway Development Association, and will have its annual
meeting at Louisville, May 9-10-11, and the Secretary of that
Association, Mr. Welty, is present. I am glad to say that we
represent 90 per cent. of the railroad mileage of this country,
including Canada—and I might say Mlexico, or we used to—and
we would certainly enjoy having anybody attend that meeting
who is desirous of our co-operation in the movement you have
under way now. Secretary Vrooman told Mr. Welty and myself
today that he would endeavor to be with us at that time.

Now, this Railway Development Association, gentlemen,
represents the Agricultural, Industrial and Immigration Depart-
ments of the various roads, and you will readily understand from
that that we are very much interested in everything pertaining
to development. We don’t claim any special credit for what the
Illinois Central has done; we are not in this for philanthropy;
we have a selfish motive. We realize that as the country develops
the road develops, and therefore we are desirous of doing our full
share and part in the general development work. I want to say
to you people of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas and
Texas, and the whole South, that we have, in our general pas-
senger waiting room in Chicago, an exhibit of the kinds of soils
and pictures of the most progressive farms in this Mississippi
Valley.

Allusion has been made'to the land man. If there is anybody
I am prejudiced against, it is the land man, and in order to protect
him and myself and the would-be homesteader, I am always frank

Promises Aid
of Railway
Association

Make the
Homesteader
Happy

54 _ The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

to tell him so. I only wish the man, in selling land in the
Southern Mississippi Valley, could appreciate this fact: That
when he conscientiously and to the best of his ability makes a
homesteader happy, he is making his best agent. Human nature
is the same all over, and when a man takes an interest in his
home, that man is going to be an active agent from then on for
that community. (Applause.)

As I said in beginning, it is the development policy of the
Illinois Central to co-operate in every way we can in the further
development of the South; and I hope the meeting will not close
until some comprehensive, practicable plan has been brought
‘about that we all can serve on, and do so with pleasure; and I
want to say that it will be a special pleasue of the Development
Bureau at Chicago to point all the men we can this way; and
when you men have your plans ready, whether you are on the
lines of the Illinois Central or not, please give me your infor-
mation, the number of acres you have to sell, and at what price,
and it will be my pleasure to co-operate with you people also;
because any part of the South, in helping itself, only helps the
whole South and the Nation. (Applause.)

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era (55

The Practical Aspects of the

Problem
By Clement 8S. Ucker

Vice-President, Southern Settlement and
Development Organization

Gentlemen of the Cut-Over Land ‘Conference: I am some-
what in the position of the gentleman who so very ably presided
over your deliberations yesterday—I am under the necessity of
introducing myself, and I proceed to so do without further com-
ment.

The program this morning provides, as prepared by the
Program Committee, for a few remarks from myself under the
general head of “The Practical Aspects of the Problem.” In view
of the fact that I have been called upon to preside, I will take this
opportunity to say what I have to say to you on this initial,
occasion.

The week before last, we had a conference of this kind at
Wilmington, N. C. A gentleman of national reputation was about
to address the conference, and another man, of more or less
national reputation, was delivering an address. The man who
was about to speak was sitting with me on the platform, and
I noticed that from time to time he drew his chair nearer to
the front. After probably fifteen minutes, he backed away, stuck
his manuscript in his pocket, and turned to me and said, ‘That
man has made my speech.” That is pretty largely the position of
myself. All that I might say to you about the practical aspects of
this problem was either touched upon yesterday, or will be today;
and whatever I might say to you now in the limited time at my
command is largely of a superficial character.

However, there are some thoughts I want to leave with you.
On yesterday we listened with absorbing interest to the address

“made to you by the Commissioner of the United States Land
“Office. The one point in his address that stood out most promi-
nently to me was the fact that in the public domain, in the far
western country, wherever there has been thrown: open to the
-settlers lands that certainly could not.be of much greater value

Cut-Over
Lands Must
Be Made
Assimilable

South’s
Advantages
Little Known

56 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

than these lands now under consideration would have, they were
promptly absorbed by the public; all of which brings us to this
one thought—why is it, that at this late day, this vast area of
land still remains? It seems to me there are two reasons, two
main underlying reasons; one of them is perhaps the fact that
these lands are not in what I choose to call assimilable form.
They have not been put into condition; they have not been given
that finished touch that, after all, may be necessary to cause their
assimilation, You will remember that Mr. Tallman on yesterday
pointed out to you that there were areas—and I know of my own
knowledge of areas in the west—in Western Nebraska, as I recall
it, where lands were offered for settlement for years, and Con-
gress changed the form, increased the area and terms and condi-
tions, and promptly the land was absorbed. Therefore, it seems
to me in all probability, that these lands are not in assimilable
form; that perhaps those who have been engaged in the ex-
ploitation of lands, engaged in colonization work, have not em-
ployed the best and most comprehensive talent in developing
those factors.

The other outstanding fact, of which I am entirely convinced,
is the fact that the public mind has not run in this direction.
Ever since the Pilgrim Fathers left Massachusetts; ever since
the Cavaliers left the tidewater of Virginia or the Carolinas, there
has been instilled into the minds of the people that westward
lay the great opportunities; and there has never been concerted
action to instill into the minds of the people that there were
great and equal opportunities in the Southern country. So it
seems to me that is, after all, one of the very important factors,
if not the most important factor—publicity—instilling into the
minds of the People the facts as they are and that there are op-
portunities in this lower Southern land. A single effort cannot
bring that about. A single corporation, no matter how much
financial backing it may have, no matter what talent it may have,
cannot bring it about, because the task is too gigantic and be-
cause it requires too long a sustained effort; and what may be
true of that is also true of every other single agency, whether it
be transportation lines, whether it be part of a state, or whether
it be the individual effort of the land-owning and land-financing
corporation.

After all, gentlemen, there are, as I see it, four factors that
go to make up a country. There are, transportation; there are

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 57

lands in adaptable form ; those two things, coupled with publicity,
ought to give people. Now, it seems to me that the problem you
gentlemen have before you, and which is no different in any
single respect, save that of climate and location, from Western
North Carolina or Eastern South Carolina, or South or Central
Georgia, or Florida, or Eastern Texas—those great cut-over
lands present the same problems; and it seems to me that we
will get down to this problem when we have effected some form
of organization that makes the man who owns the thing we are
trying to operate upon an interested fundamental part of the solu-
tion of the problem, and when all other interests can rally around
that basic effort; when the talents of the Federal government may
be brought to bear; when the effort is proving itself to be one of
broad, disinterested, national scope; when the Federal govern-
ment can join itself with the States, who, after all, must bear the
brunt of this through their colleges and agricultural schools;
then, it seems, we will be a long way towards solving this
problem; and if that fails of solution, then it seems to me we
will have to look to some source that we know not of in this
day to bring about its solution. But so far as I am concerned,
for the several years I have been connected with this problem,
that represents my conclusion with respect to it—that the men
who own the land; the men who have this thing; that the men
who, in the trend of our affairs, find themselves with this thing
upon their hands, have a very solemn duty to perform. As the
public domain of the United States shall pass away, it seems to
me the vital aspect of this problem increases. This land is in pri-
vate ownership. The government does not own it; the States do
not own it; private individuals own it; and from the aspect of a
progressive, a solidified nation, it seems to me that it behooves
those who own this land, together with all other agencies
which may be interested in it, to do all they can to co-ordinate
their efforts and to adopt a plan of action that will be able to
command the support of all, and that will be continuing in its
efforts.

Gentlemen, this land represented here today covers an area
embracing the eastern part of Texas, Arkansas, Southern Mis-
souri, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Western Georgia and
Western Florida: We are very fortunate today in having with
us the representative of one of these great states—a state that I
am advised—a state that I know from my own personal knowl-

Four Factors
That Make a
Country

The Land
Owner’s Duty
to the Nation

Arkansas of
the Past and
of Today

58 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

edge—has, within a very remarkably short period of time, made
a remarkable progress in agricultural development. We are very
fortunate in having with us the Chief Executive of that state, a
man who has done a great work towards the accomplishment of
the end TI refer to. I have great pleasure, gentlemen, in intro-
ducing to you, His Excellency, Governor Charles H. Brough, of
Arkansas: (Applause.)

Natural Resources of the
South—Arkansas as a
Developing Factor
By Hon. Charles H. Brough

Governor of Arkansas

Gentlemen of the Cut-Over Land Conference: I deeply ap-
preciate the honor of the invitation extended to me by my
friend, Mr. Putman, of the Southern Pine Association, to be
present and deliver an address before this representative body
of the captains of industry of the South; men who are building
more wisely than they know,

“Men who are broad-backed, brown-handed, upright as the pines,
And by the scale of a hemisphere shape their designs.”

You have heard a great deal, my friends, about the Arkansas
of the past—the Arkansas traveler, wearing his coonskin cap
and coming to the forked roads, not knowing which fork to
take. I want to tell you. gentlemen from Louisiana and Missis-
sippi and the other Southern states that there is a new Arkansas
at the present time—an Arkansas with an empire of vision in
her brain. New York has been called the Empire State of the
American Union because New York is the richest state in the
American Union. New York can boast of the roseate hue of
her apples and the amber of her fields of wheat; Arkansas can
boast that her apples have’captured the First Prize at the
last six International Expositions, and the largest apple ever
placed on exhibition in the world was an apple raised by-a

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 59

Benton County farmer, three and a half miles from Sulphur
Springs, which weighed 294 ounces. (Applause.) New York
can point to the beautiful tint of her cherry blossoms; Arkansas
can boast of the state of the famous Alberta peaches that nestle
in the snow-white virginity of her soil; and the only solid carload
of peaches ever shipped abroad was shipped by an Arkansas agri-
culturist from the greatest peach orchard in the world, located
in Pike and Howard Counties, Arkansas. New York has only
a small mineral belt; Arkansas claims 18 counties of her state
that hold valuable deposits of anthracite coal; and it may be in-
teresting to know, in this day of our nation’s crisis, when we are
dependent upon the United States Navy to maintain the freedom
of.the high seas, that the smokeless coal now used by the United
States Navy is mined in Sebastian County Arkansas. Arkansas
ranks first in production of ash, cottonwood and red gum; third
in products of hickory and oak; and fifth in the production of
pine in the United States.

We have at present about three million acres of cut-over
“timber in our state, and within ten years this amount will un-
doubtedly increase to approximately ten million acres, represent-
ing approximately, then, one-eighth of the total cut-over land
surface of the Southern states, on the basis of 76 million acres.

Now, my friends, we join with our sister Southern states in
believing that the time has come for a great industrial renaissance
for economic development in our state; and because of this fact
our Legislature has recently appropriated about two million dol-
lars to meet the terms of the Smith-Lever Bill, for carrying the
doctrine of agricultural extension into our state. We appropriated
$2,240,000 at the last session of the Legislature to meet the
terms of the Good Roads Bill, which will network our state with
roads and construct about three thousand miles of improved
roads within the next-five years. We are the third state in the
Union to be completely freed of the great evil of the cattle tick,
having made Arkansas a state-wide free cattle tick state, ranking
with Mississippi and Tennessee. We have appropriated $50,000
to enforce the provisions of this Act. We have begun to realize,
my friends, that the foundation of all educational progress, the
foundation of all moral progress, is economic development. I am
rather heterodox when I make this statement, my friends; but I
don’t believe a people can be thoroughly intelligent, I don’t be-
lieve they can be thoroughly moral, I don’t believe they can live

Wonderful
Products of
the Field and
Mine

State and
Nation Co-
operate in
Economic
Development

60 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

up to the highest ideals of educational advancement, unless they
have a bedrock of economic prosperity.

After all, industrial prosperity is the rock upon which this
republic rests and upon which our South rests today, and the
greatest problem, social and political, which is before you today
is the problem of scientific agriculture—the problem of the colo-
nization and improvement of these cut-over lands in the South
(applause)—the problem of the foundation of the economic
structure reared by human toil and held firmly in place by the
average prosperity of all who have helped in its building. We
think this average prosperity exists whenever there is a great
middle class in our society—not a domain where the tenets of
socialism exist, but where the people are all animated by loyalty
to a common flag and a common country. (Applause.) A great
French philosopher has said that civilization is like beer—froth at
the top, dregs at the bottom, and the substantial part in between.
Show me a nation or a section that has a great middle class of
people and I will show you a nation and a section that is ma-
terially prosperous, that is educationally progressive, and that is
morally what it should be.

We need to develop, therefore, our 76 million acres of cut-
over timber land in the South, in order to build up a new South—
neither the top of society on the one hand, nor the submerged
tint on the other hand—but to flood the South with a great

Boece Bes middle class of people, of people not tenants but landlords, and
Suited i of people economically self-sufficient. Now, it is estimated by
Develop Cut- the distinguished gentleman who addressed you yesterday, who
Over Lands _ delivered such a brilliant address at Little Rock on Monday
night, that of the 76 million acres of cut-over land, fully 15
million acres will have no second growth, and therefore are
thoroughly adaptable to colonization. I congratulate the great
railway systems of the South, and the great colonization systems
of the South, that they are fully alive to the immensity and im-
portance of this problem, and that they are utilizing their ac-
tivities and their publicity bureaus in order to stimulate an im-
migration to this greatest of all undeveloped sections of our
country. The South, my friends—and I know there are delegates

South Des- —_ rere from other sections of the country, but I believe they will
tined to Be ‘i ss ‘ ;
Nation's bear me out—the South is destined to be the great industrial

didicstcial empire of the American nation. The Middle West, the West,_.
Empire and the East have shown a wonderfully progressive spirit, but

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 61

their resources are well-nigh utilized. They have, to no great
extent, these cut-over lands located within their borders, and the
United States must look for its most progressive development
in the future from the Southern states. At the same time, in this
development, we should look to the East, the Middle West, and
the West and absorb a great deal of their progressive spirit; we
should absorb their progressive spirit with reference to fine breeds
of cattle. We have 500 million dollars worth of cattle in the
South today, but I regret to say that a large proportion of it is
common stock, stock that does not measure up to the best
breeds; but the bankers and business men are rapidly introducing
Herefords and Shorthorns and Angus and other cattle of a stand-
ard breed; and it is very interesting, my friends, in this connec-
tion, to know that the champion bull of the United States was
raised in my state—the Point Comfort the 14th—raised by Col-
onel Miles; sold two years ago for $300.00 and, after this bull
won the First Prize at the Chicago International Stock Expo-
sition, there was offered $25,000 for this animal. We are rapidly
developing improved stock on all cut-over lands, and this will
mean a wonderful improvement in our form of agriculture. We
need but to absorb some of this spirit and some of this progres-
sivism with reference to the cattle-raising industry from the
United States; and it will help the bankers, also, because of the
6 billion dollars invested today in the live stock industry of the
United States, there are only one billion dollars’ worth of loans
based on this six billion dollar live stock industry. Heretofore,
our bankers have required our stockmen to mortgage their lands
and homes, and almost their wives and children, in order to get a
loan on stock; but since the organization of the Federal Reserve
System, and since cattle is now regarded as a liquid asset by
bankers, on which loans can be made, a great opportunity opens
up to the bankers and business men of the country to float a
larger proportion of loans on the stock and cattle of the South.

As Mr. Vrooman told you yesterday—for I judge he called
attention to this point—we are confronted with a mighty problem
today in the South. We are importing from five to six hundred
million dollars of foodstuffs each year. Cotton is still king in
the South, and by virtue of the splendid prices we have been re-
ceiving for cotton in the past three years, cotton is more firmly
intrenched than ever before; but, my friends,-the time has come,
in connection with this great war, and in connection with our in-

~

Banks Now
Willing to
Loan Money
on Cattle

The South’s
Duty to the
Nation and to
Ttself

The
Lumberman’s
Opportunity

62 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

dustrial development, when a large proportion of these cut-over
lands in the South should be used for raising cereals, and legumes,
and foodstuffs of all kinds. An army. travels on its belly, is an
old saying; but the boy in the furrow can render just as patriotic
service to the United States Government as the soldier on the
battlefield. I doubt very much, indeed, whether more than a
division of American troops will be sent to Europe; for they
tell us that it requires thirteen months to prepare an army.
Roosevelt may be sent over with a regiment to take its place out
there in the trenches, to plant Old Glory alongside the Tri-color of
France, (applause) in order that we may return our gratitude
to France for the gift of Lafayette and Rochambeau, those great
French soldiers, during the Revolutionary War; but with the
exception of a division or two it is not likely that an army will
be sent to Europe during this international war; but we will be
expected to feed our Allies; we will be expected to send great
convoys of ships to the Allies; and we will be expected to feed
ourselves. My own state last year imported 65 million dollars’
worth of foodstuffs; and yet in Arkansas we say that a wall of
isolation could be erected around our state and that we could be
self-sufficing and independent—and yet the startling fact stares
us in the face that last year we imported 65 millions of foodstuffs
in one state, and about 600 million dollars of foodstuffs in the
thirteen Southern states.

Now, my friends, we should preach a diversified agriculture ;
we should preach the planting of cereals and legumes and soy
beans and clover crops of all kinds; because the crops of the
West are going to be commandeered by the United States govern-
ment; and, as Mr. Vrooman said, we must either feed ourselves
or we must go hungry. Now, the great lumber men of the
South—and there are thousands of them within my own state of
Arkansas—have a glorious opportunity in this respect. Fully
70 per cent. of these lands are rather favorably located within
a short distance of railroads. Colonization plans could be made
most attractive for the settler from the older sections of the
country; and the experiment stations will co-operate with the
railroads and the lumbermen and with the other agencies for
industrial development of the South in attracting settlers to these
cut-over lands. Aside from this, my friends, as long as the cut-
over lands remain in their present state there is not only a great
economic waste to the South as individuals, but there is a great

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 63

economic waste to the State itself. For instance, when the timber
was standing on these lands, these lands were found on the tax
books at about $18.00 an acre; now they are at about $2.00 an
acre. Look what the State of Arkansas loses on three million
acres assessed at only $2.00 an acre, and I take it that this is true
also of Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and others of the Southern
states. There is a direct economic loss out of the revenues due
the Southern states, to say nothing of the economic waste to the
South as an industrial section; and so we are going to make an
appeal, my friends, for these lands to be offered to settlers at
attractive prices. I am going to get in touch with John H. Page,
our Commissioner of Agriculture, along these lines, and with the
University and Experiment Stations, the University of Arkansas
and the Agricultural Colleges of our state, and see that exper-
iments are conducted on these cut-over lands designed to attract
settlers; and I believe that in this way, within the next year, we
can certainly feed ourselves and we can certainly lay the founda-
tions for a great industrial empire.

In connection with the stock industry of the United States,
I trust that at this meeting of the Cut-Over Land Conference a
resolution will be adopted, petitioning our great President—than
whom, in my humble opinion, no greater President has ever sat
in the presidential chair, combining as he does, the patriotism of
a Washington, the philosophy of a Thomas Jefferson, the con-
structive ability of an Alexander Hamilton, the sweet charity
of an Abraham Lincoln, the judicial temperament of a Wil-
liam Howard Taft, and the energy of a Theodore Roosevelt—
greatest men who ever occupied the presidential chair (applause)
—that a resolution will be passed at this session of the Confer-
ence petitioning the President of the United States to admit,
free of all import duties, cattle from the Latin-American coun-
tries to our Gulf ports, in order that the South may have the
best breeds of cattle, and in order that these cut-over lands, which
are admirably adapted for pasturage, may be supplied with the
very best breeds of cattle from the Latin-American countries. I
believe this would be a great constructive measure that could be
passed by the Cut-Over Land Conference.

My friends, there is an inscription on a monument in Atlanta,
Georgia, erected to Benjamin H. Hill, which reads:

“Who loves his country, loves all things,
And all things will bless him;

Economic
Waste in
Present
Situation

Arkansas to
Begin Cut-
Over Land
Experimental
Work at Once

Latin-Amer-
ican Cattle
Suggested to
Stock South-
ern Farms

America
Seen as De-
ciding Factor
in the War

America’s
Greatness
Recognized
Abroad

64 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

Who lets his country die, lets all things die,
And all things dying, curse him.”

If these words, written on the monument of Benjamin H.
Hill, in Atlanta, Georgia, be true, then it is incumbent upon us,
as the sons of noble American sires, to put our shoulders to the
wheel to develop the great American empire that we have at our
disposal today. I have no fear of the result of this present Euro-
pean War. I believe the entrance of the United States is the de-
ciding factor in the scale of this War. I have always believed
in the prophecy shown in the Book of Revelations, and I think it
is literally true—in the Book of Revelations we read: “A woman
shall go forth.in a wilderness and upon a barren rock shall give
birth to a child, and that child shall one day rule the world.”
In 1620, our forefathers, driven by constitutional oppression, left
Mother England in the Mayflower. On December 20, 1620, that
Mayflower reached Plymouth Rock, and there, on a barren rock,

‘in the wilderness of North America, was born the child of these

United States ; and who, in this intelligent and patriotic audience
before me today, doubts for one moment that that child today
rules the world? (Applause.)

“Not for our own land is Freedom’s flag unfurled,
but for world.”

Aside from our economic development, in which we cannot
compare with either Germany, France or England, the United
States today has the most remarkable form of government on the
face of the globe. Mr. Gladstone, England’s greatest statesman,
once said that the American Constitution was the most remark-
able document that ever sprung from the brain of man.

“America takes but to give again,

As the sea returns her water in rain,

So she gathers her seed from the haunted of every crown and
creed.

Her Germany dwells by the gentler Rhine,

Her Ireland sees the old sunburst shine,

Her Norway still clings to the mountain pines;

And broad-based under all is England’s broken-hearted mood,

As rich in fortitude as ever went from her island wall.

Fused into her candid light,

All races here to one great race unite.

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 65

Hereditary foemen forget their slogan, kith and clan,
’Twas once glory to be a Roman,
America makes it a glory now to be a man.” (Applause.)

And then, my friends, while, as I have said, the economic
development of our country is not parallel with the economic de-
velopment of Germany, France or England, it must be remem-
bered that we are today the only great exporting nation of the
world—the United States and the Argentine Republic. There
were, in the last fifty years, only three great exporting nations—
the United States, Russia and Argentine Republic; but since
the entrance of Russia into the war, the United States and Ar-
gentine Republic remain the only two great exporting nations of
the world.

To show the wonderful resources we have at our disposal,
a brilliant writer on the Pall Mall Gazette, England’s leading
paper, paid a rather humorous but effective tribute to the abso-
lute dependence of the average Englishman upon the United
States for everything the Englishman eats, drinks and wears.
He said—in the morning the Englishman gets out from between
his New England sheets, shaves with Williams’ soap and a Yan-
kee safety razor; adjusts his Kentucky suspenders on trousers
manufactured in Massachusetts; slips on his shoes manufactured
in St. Louis over socks manufactured in North Carolina, and
goes down to breakfast.

The breakfast of the Englishman consists of some beefsteak
from a middle western cow, while his wife plays with a piece
of Chicago ox tongue, and his children amuse themselves by
eating some cereals or rolled oats from the Middle West. The
Englishman then goes to his office. At his office he finds every-
thing is American. He sits down on a Nebraska swivel chair
before a Michigan roll top desk; writes his letters on an Under-
wood, Smith Premier, Remington, Caligraph, Oliver, Royal or
other typewriter of American make, and signs his letters with a
Waterman, Paul E. Wirt or Parker fountain pen, all made in the
United States; and puts his letters away in a letter file made by
the Macey file Company, of Grand Rapids, Michigan. He then
goes out to lunch. His lunch consists of some roast beef taken
from the same middle western cow; flavored with some Pitts-
burgh pickles; and tops it all off with some canned peaches from
old Arkansas. (Applause.)

Figures Show
Country’s
Amazing
Economic
Resources

American vs.
German
Ideals

66 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

And so, the economic resources of our country are tremend-
ous. If the wealth of 285 billion dollars were equally divided
amongst us, we are told by the great economists that there would
be $1,385 to the credit of every man, woman and child in the
United States. In spite of the fact that we do 96 per cent. of our
business on credit, by the use of checks and other forms of ex-
change, there is in actual circulation in the United States $38.40
for every man, woman and child in the United States. Our 285
thousand miles of railway represent three-fifths of the railway
mileage of the world, of which the South has approximately
50,000 miles; and our freight rate today of three-quarters of one
cent for carrying one ton one mile is the cheapest freight rate in
the world.

But, my friends, in spite of this great economic development,
in spite of our wonderful form of government, we have not
adopted the scientific form of intensive agriculture that is prac-
ticed in Germany, in France and in England today. We have not
utilized our forests. Why, the substitution by Germany of
forest products instead of cotton, instead of nitroglycerine, and
instead of cotton absorbents, shows the value of the proper util-
ization of the forest supplies, and this has enabled Germany—our
great enemy in this war—to wage the war with so much ferocity

up to the present time. It is her scientific training, her prepared-
ness, her efficiency.

But I rejoice, my friends—and I say this with due respect
to our German-Americans, for I believe they are going to be
loyal to Old Glory during this war; I believe every one of them
will be loyal—I rejoice, however, that in the United States we
have the ideal of character, while in Germany they have the
ideal of efficiency. In Germany a man is simply a cog in an
organization, and he is worked just as much as a cog would be
worked in any kind of a machine. In the United States the
ideal is of character. What we need in the United States, and par-
ticularly in the South is the blending of the two ideals—character
and efficiency. Our men are a high-toned men, who wear their
consciences as their kings, and wear the white flower of blameless
private and public lives. Character is one of our inheritances;
but, my friends, we lack the ideal of efficiency in the South. If
we could but blend the two ideals of character and efficiency in
our American civilization, and particularly in our Southern civil-
ization, we would have a character fashioned that would pass all

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 67

nations in the formulation of their national design. I therefore
appeal to these captains of industry of the South and the Middle
West, who are represented here today, in developing these great
cut-over lands to go out and, in your colonization plans and in
the management of your industrial work, preach the gospel of
blending the two ideals of character and efficiency. I beseech
you to preach the gospel that the South should feed herself; that
we should be a self-sufficing section, rather than an importing
section. I beseech you to go out and to use your means—for most
of you are men of means and influence—to better the condition of
our rural population. Eighty-seven per cent. of the population of
the South live in places smaller than 2,500; and they, after all, are
the saving remnants of our economic civilization. I beseech you
not to pursue a selfish policy with reference to putting your cut-
over lands on the market, to sell them on reasonable terms, at
good terms of credit. I appeal to such live citizens as, my friends,
Mr. Putman, who has been honored by being made Advertising
Manager of the Southern Pine Association; Mr. Ucker and other
distinguished gentlemen, the editors of all the trade journals, to
present before the people of the United States the great economic
possibilities of these cut-over lands.

My friends, we have a new South today. Let it be a new
South in every way. God grant that the traditions of the old may
prove an incentive to the progress of the new. God grant that
you and I, in our respective spheres of life, may see to it that
our wonderful undeveloped resources are developed; that the
forests, that like giants stand to sentinel our land, are properly
conserved; and then we may say with the poet:

“Henceforth, oh Southland, we look up to thee,
Not down at other lands.

Arise, arise, be not proud,

Be humble and be wise,

And bow thy head to the

Great Unknown One, who on high

Hath willed that as a land

Dixie shall never die!” (Applause.)

Combine
Character
and
Efficiency

Natural Ad-
vantages of
the South

Lands of the
West and
North

68 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

Soils of the Coastal Plains Area

By C. F. Marbut

In Charge, Soil Survey, Bureau of Soils,
United States Department
of Agriculture

Mr. Chairman: It is one of my social theories that if we could
fill every man’s belly and cover his back we would solve most of the
social problems. I am perfectly willing to say that this is just like
most sweeping statements, but it contains, nevertheless, a certain
amount of truth. The question of filling bellies and covering backs
is partly, at least, a question of soil. The soil is at least one factor,
and an important one in doing both.

The South is very much favored in its wonderful climate, in
its abundant rainfall, its warm winters, its long growing seasons,
and in the great variety of crops which that climate permits it to
grow. In other parts of the United States, as was so clearly
brought out by Commissioner Tallman yesterday, the available land
is pressing pretty close up to the possibility of crop production on
that land. I have had some connection with the classification of
lands in the national forests, and many times within the last three
years I have recommended to the chief of the Bureau of Soils and
the chief of the office of Forest Reserves, the opening up for settle-
ment of tracts of land which I knew positively could not ripen a
wheat crop. It was perfectly evident that a wheat crop could not
be ripened on it because of its Northern location, or its high altitude.
Yet, that land is sought by a great number of people, and because of
the strong demand for that land, and because of the fact that the
soil is good, and because also of the fact that the land will grow
grain hay in a region where summer grazing is important, it will
probably enable the farmer to make a living, especially if it is
carried on in conjunction with grazing in the national forests in the
summer time. I make the preceding statement merely as an illus-
tration of the kind of land now being taken up by settlers in the far
West and North. In the South no such climatic conditions exist.
There are tremendous areas of smooth unoccupied land in the South
where the growing season is long.

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 69

The Southern part of the United States is an area widely
different from any other area of the same size, either in Europe,
Asia or Africa. The position in Europe that corresponds to the
Southern part of the United States is mainly mountain land, and
only a very little of it is open to utilization by man. The same
thing is true of Asia and that part of Africa that corresponds
climatically to the Southern Coastal Plain of the United States is
largely a desert. Fortunately the desert in America corresponding
to the desert in Africa happens to lie in the Gulf of Mexico where
it doesn’t do any harm. We have a region here that is smooth in
topography, has a high rainfall and climate favorable to agriculture.

The character of the soil in any place at any time is due to two
fundamental things. This is a rather general statement, but will
enable us to get to the point. One is the character of the material
from which the soil came. The other is what has happened to that
material since it began to exist as a soil. The main thing that in-
fluences a soil after it has been formed is the climate. The way
climate influences that soil is largely through the action of water,
and where rainfall is very heavy leaching goes on at a rather heavy
rate. Furthermore, the leaching or soluble effect of the water is
increased in its effect by high temperature, so that in a region where
the annual temperature is high and the rainfall heavy, the soil soon
becomes thoroughly leached. What does that mean? It means that
the soluble material in those soils has been carried away and taken
to the sea. It means also that a large part of the minerals in that
soil, those that are easily decomposible, have been decomposed,
and the salts of which they are composed have been taken out of
the soil. That is just the condition that exists in a large part of the
South. We have here a region of high rainfall, a region of long
summers, a region of warm winters, during which the soil does not
freeze; during which, therefore, the rain can act upon che soil all
the time, both summer and winter. The result is that Southern
soils are pretty well leached. The result is that a large part of the
soluble constituents in that soil is carried out, taken away and
carried to sea. These soils differ very much from the soils of the
wide plains of the West, for example, where the soluble material,
at least in places, is so high on account of the great abundance of
that material, that plants cannot grow. We call it alkali, but it is
nothing more than an excess of soluble material in the soil. We
have just opposite of that condition of things in the Southern and
Southeastern part of the United States. These soils, especially the

Climate’s
Influence in
Soil-Making

Tremendous
Possibilities
of Long
Growing
Seasons

Difficulties of
the Northern
Farmer

70 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

mineral salts, were washed out long ago, and now in addition to
those things being gone, the minerals have been extensively decom-
posed and their constituents carried away. To illustrate that I will
call your attention to a table of Southern soils I have here.

I have used here the names we use in the Bureau of soils classi-
fication; and I have given the percentages of potash and lime and
silica. Of course, silica is not one of the elements of fertility. The
Orangeburg Sandy Loam, which is an important soil in. Western
Georgia, in Central Alabama and Eastern Mississippi, and quite an
important soil also in Central Louisiana, and also in Texas (but not
very abundantly in Texas), has 1/10 of 1 per cent of potash. Soils
in other areas will contain 2 or 3 per cent. This contains 1/10 of
1 per cent. What I want to point out to you is that the Southern
soils are pretty well leached through natural conditions—not due to
Southern agriculture. The farmer has not leached them out. Nature
did it. It is the result of natural processes. It is a condition that
the Southern landowner and farmer must meet. How does Nature
compensate the Southern farmer for this soil condition which she
has given him? The compensation lies in just what I mentioned
first, in the tremendous advantage that the Southern farmer has in
his climate. The settlers who take up land in the high mountains of
the West and North find it absolutely impossible to lengthen their
growing season one day. They find it impossible to increase their
rainfall 1/10 of 1 inch. They must meet conditions that they cannot
change. The Southern farmer, however, is not in that position. He
is not under the necessity of resigning himself to the soil conditions
established for him by nature. Since his soil deficiency is merely
one of soluble mineral matter, and a supply of organic matter they
may be supplied by him. The great development of the fertilizer
industry within the last fifty years has made it possible for the
Southern farmer to purchase an abundant supply of mineral
fertilizer for his soil, while his climate favors the rapid utilization
of all organic matter that he puts into it.

The Southern farmer labors under a slight disadvantage in the
nature of his soils. He basks in the favor of the tremendously
advantageous climaté and is able to overcome the disadvantage of his
soils by the use of fertilizers, which are not extremely expensive.
That is essentially the situation so far as the character of Southern
soils is concerned.

There is another factor in the handling of soils in agriculture,
with which agriculture has to contend—and that is the question of

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 71

topography. I don’t mean elevation necessarily ; that comes in as a
part of the climate; but I mean the local relief of the country, that
character of the country which says you can either use machinery ,
or you cannot—you can use this land for crops or for pasture. I
have no map here showing the characteristics of the topography
of Southern soils, but I will use these maps; and do not let the
coloring of these maps divert you from what I am saying; because
this coloring does not represent topography at all.

In general I will say that the topography of the coastal plain
is, as a whole, smooth. It lies low and the topography is smooth; Topography
but that does not mean that it is flat; and there are certain areas in of Coastal
which the topography is as complex and in which it influences Plain Region
agriculture as much as in the Rocky Mountain region. Smooth

In Alabama the edge of the coloring here represents the interior
part of the coastal plain. That is not coastal plain country, and
since this Conference is concerned with coastal plain country only,
that represents the northern edge of the country we are considering
(pointing to map). Along the edge of the coastal plain is a region
where the topography is pretty rough in detail. It is relatively high;
there is abundant rainfall, and that has enabled the streams to cut
it up pretty thoroughly. There is quite a percentage of that country
that is too rough for cultivation, Then through this belt is the
Black Belt and low belt of Alabama. When I say black I apply ;
that to the soil and not to the people. It happens though that both The Soils of
soil and people are largely black in that belt. Running just about Mabamea
south of it is a belt of rough country where the country rises sud-
denly from the lowland of the black belt, and then southward slopes
gradually down to the sea. The North-South coastal plain profile
would begin at the North with rough country, and then would fol-
low a low smooth belt, and then suddenly it would rise to an
elevation of two hundred feet above that region and slope thence
gradually to the sea. In addition to these rough belts there are
others along each side of all the larger streams.

In between the country is smooth. Down in this region it is all
so low that it is relatively smooth.

Taking this region as a whole it is a region of smooth country,

and Florida is still smoother.

In Mississippi the same rough belt exists just south of Meridian
and extends inward a little way, but gradually fades out. The
rim of it extends northward in this direction, flattening out as it

Mississippi
and Louisiana
Froma

Stand point
of Lands

Arkansas Pre-
sents Varied
Character

of Soils

Erosion’s
Effect on
Soil Fertility

72 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

goes, and a little less broken in this region. Then, along the western
side of the State, there is a belt of country which is relatively high,
but is thoroughly cut to pieces by streams. This consists of the hill
lands just east of the Delta.

In Louisiana this region is all smooth, except along the eastern
side, where it is cut up by streams flowing into the Mississippi. In
this part of the State there is more or less rough land—possibly 10
per cent—a little rough for cultivation under conditions of South-
ern rainfall; and going southward it slopes to smooth land down to
the sea.

In Arkansas we have two mountainous regions. By the way—
the request that was extended to me by Mr. Moore of the Southern
Pine Association, stated that they desired to discuss Arkansas as a
whole—not simply the coastal plain part; so I have colored the
whole state. There is a mountainous belt in this region, just south
of the Arkansas River lowland, a high plateau belt in the northern
part, and a high limestone region in the extreme northern part.
The eastern part of the State is low. In the mountain regions, by
no means, is all of the land too rough to cultivate. The rough
topography consists of certain minor ridges which are high and
steep with intervening lowlands, two, three and four miles in width,
all of which are now cultivated to a great extent and which will be
more cultivated in the future. The North Central part of the State,
on the other hand, consists of a high plateau except where valleys
have been cut into it. The northern edge drops off steeply. The
southern edge also has a narrow belt of rough country. In general
it is a high plateau.

In Texas we include only a small portion of the eastern part
of the State. In the northern part there is a good deal of relatively
rough land. Then, as you go southward, the country gradually
slopes off to a smooth plain at sea level.

Probably 15 to 20 per cent of the coastal plain lands of the
South are rather too rough for cultivation under existing condi-
tions here. What are those conditions? Warm winters which do
not freeze the soil, and thereby expose it to erosion throughout
twelve months of the year; high rainfall; the absence of thick grass
over the timber land as well as the fields; the South being charac-
teristically a region of no grass. The Southern farmer, therefore,
has to contend with the two unfavorable conditions of a pretty
well leached soil, and a soil which erodes easily.

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 73

The colors of these charts show the percentage of undeveloped
or unimproved land worked out from census data. This represents
nothing but a compilation made from the census reports. This
darker color represents an area where 80 to 90 per cent is unim-
proved; this represents 60 to 65; and here 60 to 80. If the black
belt could be sorted out from this belt we would have in the black
belt an area where there is very little land not cultivated; but since
the statistics are given according to counties, and since each county
includes this land plus the land lying outside of the black belt, I was
unable to get the percentage of unimproved land in the black belt.

In Mississippi, in the southeastern part of the state, there is
rather a large area, of which, according to the census reports more
than 90 per cent is unimproved. Another belt 80 to 90; in this

region 60 to 80; and here two areas are essentially the same 45 to
65, 50 to 65.

In Louisiana the unimproved area lies in the southwestern
part of the state. More than 90 per cent of the area is unim-
proved, and a large part of that is quite smooth land. Here are
two areas where 80 to 90 and 65 to 80 is unimproved; and over
here is an area where a large part is unimproved, and becomes less
and less as we go northward.

In Arkansas, there is no county—there are parts of the state—
but no whole county where more than 90 per cent is unimproved.
There are plenty of areas—small areas+-where more than 90 per
cent is unimproved, but no single county, so that the lowest per-
centage of unimproved land there is 80 to 90 per cent, and then,
lying along the other side of that, we have land which has a higher
percentage of unimproved.

There are two centers in Arkansas with a similarity in unim-
proved land; one in the, Southern mountain region; the other
in the high plateau of the North, extending beyond the sand stone
plateau over into the redlands of the North.

In Texas you see a large area in the southeastern part of the
state, which extends to the area in Louisiana, where more than 90
per cent is unimproved.

The white areas here represent level land; it is not coastal plain,
and therefore not pine land; and they are not taken into considera-
tion. That is the level land of Arkansas; in other words, it is not
pine land. In Texas I only included a small part; and in Alabama
I included all the coastal plain, but the northern mountain region

Lands 45 to
90 Per Cent
Unimproved

Wide Scope
of Southern
Pine Associa-
tion’s Activi-
ties

The Charac-
ter of Unim-
proved Lands

Alabama’s
Uncultivated
Millions of
Acres

74 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

was left out; and in Mississippi the level plain and the northern
part.

These round dots show the location of the saw mills of the
Southern Pine Association, compiled from a list sent me by Mr.
Moore. I had a draftsman take the list and locate the mills on the
maps. Since this is a discussion of the Southern Pine Association
lands, you will notice that the areas which we discussed are the
areas that include all of the saw mills, with the exception of two in
the mountains of Alabama.

The maps already shown were compiled from census data and
does not undertake to show details. After that had been compiled
then the question of the details of these different areas, details con-
cerning the character of unimproved lands, was raised, and how
such information could be displayed. The Soil Survey reports, so
far as published, give details concerning the character, distribution
and acreage of the various soils. For example, taking the report
of this county, I can say, there are 967 acres of Orangeburg sandy
loam in that county. The Soil Survey reports will show us, with
great accuracy, the acreage of each soil type in the county surveyed.
When a soil survey of a county is completed we have the data avail-
able in great detail. The reports will state further the approximate
percentage of any given soil remaining unimproved at the time the
survey was made. That, of course, is an estimate, but is based
upon the study of the man who went over the ground and saw
every 40 or 10 acres of it. In fact, the Soil Survey man is sup-
posed to see every foot of the ground. He does see the land so
that he can form a very close estimate as to how much is cultivated
and how much uncultivated. I took the survey reports therefore
and compiled the data that they show, and that is shown in these
charts I have here. I will begin with Alabama, the legend is placed
up there. s

In Alabama nearly every county has been surveyed in detail,
so that we have definite data for every county except three. These
are the counties of the coastal plain of Alabama, with the exception
of two or three. The bars on the chart represent, by their length,
the total acreage of unimproved land in each county, and these
figures up here represent the number of acres in figures. The
vertical red lines across all the bars cut them up into lengths of
100,000 acres each. You can see, therefore, that Baldwin county,
for example, has 960,000 acres of land which is unimproved. Here
in Lee County, for example, there is only 100,000 acres unimproved.

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 75

That means 100,000 acres of coastal plain. Some of Lee County
is in the coastal plain and some in the mountains to the north, so
that the bar for this county does not represent all the unimproved
land. The yellow color represents sand, the blue color, wet and
heavy lands, the uncolored, the sandy loam, and the red color, the
rough and mountainous lands. The wet and heavy lands include
all lands wet, or frequently overflowed and all soils heavier than
loams. .

It is well known that sand has a certain adaptability to crops—
that is—there are certain crops which you can grow on sand, and
certain others which do not do well on such soil. There are certain
other crops adapted to wet and heavy lands—lands that have an
abundance of moisture; and certain other crops are adapted to
sandy loams. I will venture to say that the wet and heavy lands
of the South are probably the lands on which stock raising will de-
velop in the future the best, because they are the lands on which
forage crops and grasses will grow the best. The sandy loam
lands are lands wide in their range of adaptibility. They are well
adapted to the growth of truck crops and cotton. Truck crops and
cotton, then, are probably the best crops for the sands, forage crops
for the wet and heavy lands, forestry for the rough lands, and gen-
eral farm crops for the sandy loams.

It is not necessary to take up in detail each of the individual
counties, but I will call your attention to certain general character-
istics of the several states.

You will notice a considerable amount of yellow in the bars
for the Alabama counties, showing the presence of a considerable
amount of sand in Alabama. You will note also that the blue color
representing the proportion of wet and heavy land is not extremely
prominent. It is, however, in Clark County and Washington Coun-
ty. Practically all of this land in Washington County is wet land
and not heavy. There is a large amount of sand in Baldwin
County. As you go north, the sandy loam makes up a larger pro-
portion of the soils. In the northern part of the state the clays rep-
resent a considerable proportion of the land, but it happens that all
the clays are under cultivation and do not enter into this calculation.

Next I will take Mississippi. Another factor enters there, and
that is lack of knowledge. We know much less about the soils of
Mississippi than of Alabama, because only a relatively small part of
the state has been covered by soil surveys up to the present time.

Sandy and
Wet Lands;
What They
Are Adapted
For.

Mississippi's
Soils Largely
Silt Loams

Louisiana
Rich in Sandy
Loams

76 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

A solid colored bar represents a surveyed county, while a bar col-
ored only in skeleton form represents an unsurveyed county where
the proportions of the various kinds of lands given are based upon
the character of the land in the nearest surveyed county, or upon
the general knowledge we have acquired in our work in the state.
We have gained more or less general knowledge of the character of
soils in all parts of the United States, and that factor enters into
this estimate.

Without going over the counties in detail, I will call your at-
tention to the absence of yellow—the nearly complete absence—in
the soils of Mississippi. In these counties lying in the southeastern
and eastern part of the state there is some sand. In the western
part of the state, not including the delta, the blue color, you will
notice, is very prominent.

In other words, Mississippi is a state of rather heavy soils;
that color represents both wet and heavy, but in Mississippi it rep-
resents relatively heavy land, with very little wet land. It is prac-
tically all silt loam. Mississippi is, therefore, a state of silt loams,
well drained, as it happens in this case; a state, therefore, where
the lands are adapted to forage crops. You will notice also that
the percentage of sandy loam is rather lower than in the case of
Alabama, but not so high as in Louisiana, for example. You will
notice also that the red is more prominent in Mississippi than in
Alabama. There are more rough lands in Mississippi than in Ala-
bama, but a great deal of this rough land shown here represents
silt land also. It represents land that can be converted into pasture.

You will notice again that Louisiana is not covered solid. We
know relatively little about the details of Louisiana soils, except in
a few places. We have surveyed Tangipahoa Parish in the east,
Winn Parish in the northwest, Iberia in the southeast, East Baton
Rouge, East Feliciana and Bienville, and recently surveyed Rapides,
but the data for the latter is not yet available. You will notice that
the percentage of sand is low. The percentage of wet and heavy
land is rather high. The percentage of rough land is also pretty
low. The blue color is especially prominent in counties east of the
Mississippi—Tangipahoa, East and West Feliciana. You will notice
also the percentage of sandy loams—which is a widely adaptable
soil—is relatively high’ That, like the others, is based on estimate,
of course, but the estimate is based on the general knowledge we
have—a good deal of general knowledge and the results obtained by
the surveys in the nearest surveyed counties.

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 77

We have in Arkansas the whole of the state represented, ex-
cept the lowlands, and it should be stated that the agricultural
wealth of that state lies in its lowlands. I might say it is more or
less of a misrepresentation of Arkansas to show merely its upland
portion, a good deal of which is mountainous land, but you will
notice the yellow is not present. You will notice the blue is quite
prominent in a number of counties, but what corresponds to sandy
loam in the other counties is quite prominent in Arkansas. That
does not mean that it is all sandy loam, however. You will notice,
though, that the red is quite prominent. Wherever we have a
coastal plain county, there is very little red in it. Jefferson is a

- coastal plain, but the amount of unimproved land is larger than
shown here, because not all of Jefferson County lies in the coastal
plain, and is not represented here. Jefferson has a good deal of wet
and heavy land. Grant County is a coastal plain county, and the
proportion of rough and stony land is low. When we get into the
mountain counties, the proportion of rough and stony land is rela-
tively high.

Texas, again, we know relatively little about, and I have un-
dertaken to show only the eastern part of the state. One of the
characteristics of the Texas Coast Plain is that there is a very high
percentage of sandy loam and a relatively low percentage of sand.
One or two counties have a high percentage of sand. Wet and
heavy lands are also low. Texas is a region of adaptable soils and
a small amount of the characteristically forage land crops. I will
also say that this blue color in Texas represents mostly the heavy
lands, rather than the wet, for there is not a great deal of wet land
in the state.

Now, to sum the whole thing up, I have put on the chart a
summation of the data shown on the other charts.

This bar represents for Alabama the total improved land; this,
the total unimproved land, and of the unimproved land, this: repre-
sents the percentage of sand, this the wet and heavy land, this the
rough, and this the sandy loam.

The same way in other states. You will notice here the large
amount of blue in Mississippi and the relatively small amount-of
red—a little larger than in Alabama-and quite a little larger than in
Texas. —~ : .

A Delegate: I would like to ask whether the chart represents
the entire part of the states?

Mr. Marbut: No. It represents only those. counties in the
coastal plain, with the exception of Arkansas.

Two Kinds
of Natural
Drainage

78 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

Some Factors to be Consid-

ered in the Drainage of the
Cut-Over Lands of the South
By 8S. H. McCrory

Chief of Drainage Investigations

Office of Public Roads and Rural Engineering
U.S. Department of Agriculture

One of the fundamental requirements of any soil that is to
be used profitably for agriculture is that it be well drained. It
matters little how much inherent fertility the soil may possess,
or how favorably located the land may be with respect to mar-
kets, if there is insufficient drainage agricultural operations can-
not be conducted successfully. It is hardly necessary for me to
say that in all the Southern States there are large areas of cut-
over lands, which, before they can be made available for the
practice of agriculture on a paying basis, must have existing
drainage improved. These areas may be divided roughly into
two classes. In the one class may be placed wide stretches of
low-lying level lands with poorly developed natural drainage
channels. In the other may be placed rolling and hilly land
where the natural drainage is ample—if not too ample—only the
narrow valleys along the streams needing drainage.

The low level lands are usually found in the coastal plain
region or the Mississippi Valley. The drainage channels of these
lands are usually shallow, poorly defined depressions that vary
in width from a few feet to several miles, and are generally cov-
ered with stumps and a heavy growth of small trees, brush, and
vines. Occasionally there is a poorly defined stream channel that
winds its way through the depression. Usually, however, the
water finds its way slowly down the swamp through the trees
and natural growth or stands until it sinks into the earth or is
evaporated. Between the drainage channels are low ridges which
usually rise only a few feet above the channels. The first at-
tempts at cultivation are generally made on these ridges. Dur-
ing periods of heavy rain the water rises and the ridges become

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 79

so wet that the growing or cultivating of crops becomes impos-
sible.

The drainage of these low-lying level lands can usually be
accomplished readily by the construction of properly designed
drainage improvements. To design adequate drainage improve-
ments the needs of each district must be considered separately.
The first step is to make a survey of the lands involved. This
survey should include a determination of the location, size and
fall of the existing drainage channels, the relation of these chan-
nels to the area needing drainage, and the amount of land that
will be drained by each watercourse. Sufficient elevations should
be secured so that a clear idea of the character of the topography
can be obtained. During the progress of the survey notes should
be made of the vegetation, the character of the soil, and the
apparent need of the various tracts for drainage. After the sur-
vey is completed a careful study should be made of the data
secured, of the existing rainfall records, and of records of the
amount of run-off from the areas in question or similar areas
nearby in order to determine the amount of water that must be
removed from the area which it is proposed to drain. Upon the
proper determination of the amount of water that must be re-
moved depends to a large extent the successful operation of the
drainage improvement. Many factors affect the amount of water
that will be discharged from a given watershed. The principal
factors are: Rainfall, topography, size and shape of the water-
shed, evaporation, climate and seasons, soil, geological structure,
proportion of forest and open land, character of vegetation, nat-
ural reservoirs and artificial improvements affecting drainage.

After the amount of water that must be removed has been
decided upon the proper size of the ditches can be readily com-
puted by commonly known engineering formule. In general the
ditches should have ample depth. For dredge ditches eight feet
is probably a minimum depth under ordinary conditions. The
excavated material should not be placed closer than eight feet
to the edge of the ditch and if the ditch is very deep the distance
should be much greater.

The drainage ditches. should be so located that they can be
readily reached by the landowners whose lands they are supposed
to benefit. The topography of the district and the character of
the farm drains that will be used are usually the deciding factors
in determining the location of the ditches.

How to Drain
Low-Lying
Level Lands

Drainage in
Hilly Country

Timber
Removal and
Erosion

80 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

I come now to the problem of successfully draining the nar-
row stream valleys in the hilly country. This can be accom-
plished only by coupling drainage with measures to prevent and
control erosion on the surrounding hills if the improvement is
to be permanent and satisfactory.

When the rolling and hilly country in the entire watershed
was timbered and in its natural state, the drainage system was
well developed, and only the narrow strips of low lands found
along the streams needed drainage. With the removal of the
timber on the hill lands and attempts at cultivation of these hills,
the forces of nature began to work and soon erosion developed
with the result that the streams in the lowlands were filled with
soil washed from the hillsides and the bottoms were flooded so
frequently that they were abandoned. A description of condi-
tions in a typical area before drainage will give you a clear idea
of the lands I have in mind:

“Beginning at the northern extremity, the channel is very
narrow and crooked, though its general direction is straight.
The depth of this section varies from one-half to 1 foot. Near
its mouth the stream is much wider, averaging about ten to
fifteen feet, and in a better condition. The entire length of the
stream has a heavy growth of brush, trees, and logs.

“Not much meadow land is found along the stream, the
width between the hills varying from about 100 feet to one-fourth
mile, being as much as one-half mile in only one or possibly two
short strips. Practically all of this land has at one time been
under cultivation, and years ago, when the stream had a much
deeper and better defined channel, large crops of corn and hay
were produced. However, the landowners have been cultivating
their hill lands almost entirely with cotton, corn, or some other
clean crop, year after year, giving little or no attention to the
care of the hillside wash, until today over three-fourths of this
low land is practically valueless. Several of the landowners
stated that about twenty-five years ago the channel was from
four to six feet deep, while today, except where improved, it will
not average over one to two feet in depth, being filled with the
hillside wash. Overflows are frequent on this stream; although
some of them are quite large, especially the spring and summer
freshets, very little damage can be done at present since none of
the landowners attempt the cultivation of this low land.”

How shall these hilly lands and narrow lowlands be con-
served? As in the drainage of the low-lying lands, so in the
drainage of these hill lands, the first step is to make a survey of
the stream valley similar to that before indicated. Frequently

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 81

it is found advisable to construct a new channel which should be
located usually down the middle of the valley. Rock is fre-
quently found in these valleys and hence it is essential that
sufficient borings be made to locate any rock that might be
encountered, in constructing the ditches. Experience has shown
that by carefully determining the location and area of rock ledges
the ditch can be so located as to avoid them.

The amount of water removed by these streams is so large
that it has not been found economically practicable to prevent
entirely the overflow of the bottom lands. The amount of runoff
that must be provided for on these streams is considerably more
than that on the low-lying level areas. Satisfactory results have
been secured in reclaiming bottom lands draining from 35 to 50
square miles when the ditches provided for one inch in depth in
twenty-four hours over the entire watershed. On other streams
a somewhat lower rate of runoff has been used with quite satis-
factory results. The most important factor seems to be to have
the ditch as deep as possible so that during periods of low water
in the ditch the bottom can be thoroughly drained. The over-
flows that occur after the ditch has been constructed are usually
of short duration and many landowners believe they are ben-
efited more by the deposit of silt on their lands than they are
injured.

The period of usefulness of ditches constructed in these
valleys will depend largely on how successfully erosion on the
hillsides is controlled. Control the erosion on the hillsides and
you perform a double function; namely, the conservation of the
fertility of the hill lands and the extension of usefulness of the
ditches in the lowlands. It has been amply demonstrated in this
country and abroad that erosion can be controlled by improved
methods of agriculture and the use of terraces. Successful ex-
amples of terracing can be found in every Southern state. Con-
struction of ditches in the lowlands without proper attention to
the hillsides means excessive and frequent maintenance costs if
the ditches are to be kept in good working condition.

A word on the subject of costs. Drainage improvements for
low-lying level areas range from $2 to $10 per acre. In the nar-
row valleys the cost ranges from $15 to $50 an acre. These costs
are for outlet drainage only and do not include the cost of drain-
ing the individual tracts or of terracing the hill lands. Neither
do these prices include clearing of the lands.

Best Methods
to Follow

Costs of
Drainage

High Produc-
tivity of
Property
Drained
Cut-Over
Lands

82 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

I have outlined in a general way the character of improve-
ments needed to drain cut-over lands, I have indicated the range
of cost to construct proper drainage systems. The question
whether these lands should be drained resolves itself into the
simple business proposition: Will it pay? To answer this ques-
tion properly consideration must be given to suitability of the
soil to producing crops adapted to the region, transportation
facilities, markets, cost of clearing and developing, demand for
more agricultural land, and desirability of location for settle-
ment. In cases where drainage is undertaken principally with a
view to selling the lands rather than to opening them up to cul-
tivation by their owners, care must be taken to see that such
settlers have sufficient funds to clear and develop the land, plant
it, and to provide for their needs until they can realize some-
thing from their crops.

It will be of interest to refer for a moment to some sections
where cut-over lands have been drained and see what has fol-
lowed drainage. Not so long ago from a landowner in a 200,000-
acre tract of low-lying level land in Arkansas we received a
letter reading in part as follows: “Many thousand acres of land
have gone rapidly into cultivation, with population and produc-
tion increasing amazingly. Many hundreds of houses and barns
have been built per annum for the past several years. Lands that
were in swamps and timber a few years ago have lately been
producing 75 to 95 bushels of corn per acre and this year $75 to
$125 worth of cotton per acre; and miles of good roads where
were Swamps and cut-over timber. Certainly our efforts and
expenditures have been justified beyond all expectation.” On
similar land in Missouri the farmers have reported harvesting
28 bushels of winter wheat the first year and from 35 to 45
bushels of corn. A few years ago the hilly and narrow lowlands
of which I read you a description of conditions were drained.
Not so long ago a landowner in that section remarked that the
value of the corn crops harvested the first year after drainage
was completed was sufficient to pay the entire cost of drainage.

There is another form of benefit accruing from the drainage
of swamp and cut-over land, which, though not tangible or capa-
ble of being expressed in dollars and cents, should not be over-
looked. I refer to the influence of drainage on the sanitary con-
ditions of the community. Not long ago I was inspecting one of
the first drainage ditches to be constructed in the Piedmont Sec-

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 83

tion of North Carolina. While on this inspection I chanced to
meet an old lady at a farm house, During the conversation I
inquired regarding the health of the community. To my inquiry
she replied with much satisfaction that for the past two or three
years they had practically no sickness, but that prior to that
time every summer and fall they and all their neighbors suf-
fered much with “chills and fevers.”» When I recalled when the
drainage was completed, I found that the sickness to which the
old lady referred abated just after the time the improvements
were completed. The experience related is only in common with
that experienced by many in other sections where cut-over lands
were drained.

From the benefits which I have enumerated as being re-
ceived in certain sections I do not wish it to be inferred that
the drainage of any and all cut-over lands is to be encouraged.
The soil in the sections to which I refer was of unquestioned
agricultural value and the lands seemed to combine in unusual
degree all the factors which I have previously indicated must
receive careful preliminary consideration before drainage is un-
dertaken.

In conclusion let me leave with you this parting word:
If it is the purpose of this association to encourage and promote
the drainage of the cut-over lands in the South, see to it that
projects are undertaken only after careful, discriminating con-
sideration is given to the various factors I have endeavored to
impress upon you. Remember after all, if the drainage of these
lands is undertaken on anything other than a sound business
basis in the end it must prove a disappointment if not a failure.

Drainage
Improves
Sanitary
Conditions

Cattle Impor-
tations from
South Amer-
ica Opposed

Right Sort of
Colonists
Must Be
Obtained

84 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

Some Problems of Cut-Over
Land Development
By Harry D. Wilson

Commissioner of Agriculture of the State of
Louisiana

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen :—As I am a real hill-
billy, born and raised in the cut-over section, I really think I
know something of the cut-over proposition; but before I start
on this subject I want to say that I cannot fully agree with our
brilliant Governor from Arkansas in reference to throwing open
the bars to the importation of cattle from Argentine and other:
countries. (Applause.) I want to say, gentlemen, that we are
fighting day and night to get rid of the cattle tick. We want to
get rid of what we have, before we bring in any more to work on.

This thing at first glance may sound all right; but we don’t
know so much about this cattle business. We want more good
cattle, but if we want to develop these cut-over lands we better
go slow on this proposition. You know, I am a Louisiana Demo-
crat, and that means that we like to protect our agricultural in-
terests, and we are getting away from the idea of free trade. If
you don’t make the conditions surrounding that boy and woman
on the farm as interesting as those surrounding the fellow in the
city he won’t stay. He can’t get along competing with negroes
and Japanese raising cattle on lands that don’t cost anything.
My opinion is that these cut-over lands have a value to them.

The success of this great enterprise that you gentlemen have
under consideration today depends absolutely on the people you
put on these cut-over lands. I want to sound a note of warning.
If you folks bring down people from the North or from foreign
countries that are farmers, they will succeed; but if you bring
shoemakers and blacksmiths and street car conductors, the re-
sult will be disastrous ; and we want these land's settled by people
that will stay.

We have a great industry that I am particularly interested
in—the sheep industry. We have not as many sheep in the
whole United States as we had forty years ago; but there is one

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 85

trouble to that industry, and that is the dog. Now, mind you,
I never saw a man who had a sheep-killing dog in my life; but
you cannot have sheep and dogs in the same county or parish.
The Legislatures have to take care of the dogs, so we can have
sheep. I have no objections to a dog, but I do have objection to
a dog killing my sheep. If we can regulate the dog—there are
no sheep-killing dogs, I know—but if we can regulate the dog
in some way these cut-over lands can be brought up to their
economic limits at once. You don’t have to remove stumps to
graze sheep; they will do your cultivating without the removal
of stumps; but when you go out to plowing, some of us are cul-
tivating the same stumps that our grandfathers left. You have
to get those stumps out, because you can’t farm on it with
stumps. Now, the question has often come to my mind, since
this great convention was advertised for’ New Orleans, whether
it is more economical for the large Iand owner to cut those
stumps out and put the land in perfect condition, or whether it
is best for the forty or sixty-acre farmer to do it. ‘That is some-
thing for a man higher up to solve than a common two by four
Commissioner of Agriculture.

Now, gentlemen, I want to warn you all of this: Don’t go
too fast in some wild-cat scheme. The foundation of this whole
problem is to get people that will stay—not any fly-by-night
concerns. What we want is something permanent. If you bring
some farmers down here and 95 per cent of them go back up North,
they will tell them up there that this is a devil of a country. But
the best advertisement in the world is a satisfied customer:

If you just get down to the proper ideas of business methods
you will find there is a world of virtue in these cut-over lands.
It is very susceptible to drainage, and it is very susceptible to
any good treatment you give it. Soy beans is one of its best
crops; and soy beans and velvet beans will soon put these lands
where they will be just as fertile and raise just as good crops as
these alluvial’ lands. I do hopé something tangible and business-
like will come from this great Conference; and you can depend

on the Department of Agriculture doing everything in its power
to back up and foster and push forward every movement. On
the other hand, if there is any disposition to try anything not
just right, and it comes to the notice of the Department of Agri-
culture, we will put our stamp of disapproval on it; for you can-
not get by but once with deception. Now, the Department of Ag-

Destroy the
Sheep-Killing
Dog

Developmen
Must Be on
Sound Basis

86 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

riculture will do anything in its power to help any land company
develop this on a sane, conservative business basis. I thank you.
( Applause.)

The Forage Problem of the
Coastal Plain Area
By Dr. C. V. Piper

Chief Agrostologist, Bureau of Plant Industry,
United States Department of Agriculture

One of the joys of my life is to listen to an ardent Californian
describe the attractions of his wonderful state. If he is a little
enthusiastic, his description is like that we are inclined to asso-
ciate with Paradise; and he is not so very wrong, after all, even
if portions of California are more nearly comparable with another
place. I have listened to very many able addresses in which the
resources of the Southland were described, but when the enthu-
siastic Southerner is describing the South he is never thinking
of these cut-over pine lands. He is thinking of some other part
of Dixieland.

Now, gentlemen, we are here to discuss the most important
large land problem in the United States, certainly the most im-
portant of possible agricultural lands. I want to make it clear
just what lands I am talking about in my address. We heard
from Dr. Marbut this morning as to the classification of these
lands. In the Coastal Plains there are large areas of alluvial
and swamp lands, which, when well drained, present no serious
problem to agriculture. There are other areas of very sandy
lands which do present a serious problem. Intermediate be-
tween these are large areas of land lumped together as sandy
loams, and, for the most part, in the area we are discussing, well
drained; those are the ones my remarks will. apply to par-
ticularly. If we can utilize those lands successfully then there
will be ample time to take up the more difficult sandy areas.

‘Now, gentlemen, there is no question but what these lands
are not sufficiently fertile. If they were fertile lands they would
have been utilized long ago; but they have not been attractive

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 87

from the viewpoint of the farmer. It is well known, however,
that any of these sandy loam lands, when well and judiciously
fertilized, will produce good crops. Under present economic
conditions, however, no large body of these lands can be utilized
in that way. When the population of the United States is
double what it is today, all of the land will probably be developed
into small productive farms. In the meantime, what are we going
to do about it?

The crying need, fundamentally, is to find in the near future
some profitable use for these lands, and one of the lines along
which it seems that use can be made, under present economic
conditions, is the growing of live stock, particularly cattle and
sheep, which utilize large areas of land.

Now, at the present time there is already a live stock in-
dustry on these cut-over pine lands. It is the live stock industry
of growing razorback hogs and piney woods cattle, an industry
that long ago reached approximately the limits of its practical de-
velopment. The problem is, can we replace this type of industry
by a more attractive and more profitable one? I think you will
agree with me that if we are to have a profitable live stock in-
dustry on these lands, the keynote to the entire subject will be,
can we grow the forage on these lands; and it is about the forage
question I am to speak this afternoon.

I want you to look for a moment at the few maps I have.
This first map indicates the production of hay and forage in the
United States in 1909, according to the last census. These dots,
representing 10,000 acres each, are very accurately placed, just as
accurately as it is possible from statistics. Notice where the
hay and forage is grown. You will see that it is largely in the
northeastern quarter of the United States. Of course, in the West
there is a great deal of forage not shown on this map. I refer to
the native pasture and range land. In the same way, the native
forage of the South is not indicated on this map. The map in-
dicates forage crops only on cultivated land.

The statistics of corn are not included in the forage, but
separately, although practically all the corn is fed to animals. All
the corn is in the eastern half of the United States; but consid-
erably more than half is in the northern part of the eastern por-
tion of the United States.

Now, you would naturally expect the distribution of live
stock to be correlated to that forage. Notice on this second map

More Forage
Necessary to
Better Cattle

Need of
Experiment
Work

Two Methods
to Be Fol-
lowed

88 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

where the live stock is—the great black area in that northeastern
quarter of the United States. It is perfectly obvious that forage
and live stock go together.

I said that these cut-over pine lands are not generally fertile,
but can be made to produce large crops. This is being done in
many areas throughout the Coastal Plains on soils essentially the
same as the sandy loam soils I am speaking about, but when
it comes to growing forage which is cheap crop, any large use
of fertilizers is probably out of the question. The increased fer-
tility will in the main have to be brought about by indirect
methods. I want to state frankly that in the light of our present
knowledge it is out of the question for the Department of Agri-
culture, and I believe for any of the State Experiment Stations,
to recommend farmers to engage in the live stock industry on
these areas on these cut-over pine lands. The reason we cannot
conservatively recommend that is because the necessary data
do not exist. We have scattered amounts of data obtained
from small experiments; we have a small amount of experience
from practical stockmen—but a very small amount. In all
the area I am talking about there is not, to my knowledge, one
modern live stock farm where the possibility and practicability
of profitably producing cattle and sheep has been demonstrated.
Without that demonstration we have to be very cautious. While
I state this with all frankness, I want to add to it my own
opinion as to the possibilities. I have no doubt that by the
judicious use of the knowledge we already possess, profitable
cattle and sheep raising can be carried on on these Coastal
Plains sandy loam soils.

If we do not already have this demonstrated knowledge
that I have mentioned—and we do not have it—how are we to
get it? There are just two methods: One is to await the ex-
perience of men patriotic enough to go into the cattle or sheep
business. After the course of years, through their success or
failure, we will gradually learn the possibility of these lands
from the live stock point of view. A few enterprising men and
companies have already gone into such ventures; but this way
of obtaining knowledge is long and costly, and usually it is not
readily accessible to the public.

The other method of obtaining the knowledge is by estab-
lishing properly equipped live stock and forage experiment sta-
tions, where in the course of a few years we ought to be able to

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 89

tell just what is possible on these lands in the way of profitable
live stock industry. In my judgment, this latter method is by
far the better and more economical.

I have already stated that my own opinion on this whole
matter is optimistic. I want again to caution you that opinion
and demonstrated knowledge are two radically different things.
I would not hesitate to give any man my opinion but I would
also caution him that it was my opinion and that there was no
place he could see the thing demonstrated at the present time.

I want to go into some details as to the facts on the raising
of forage on these lands which lead me to have optimistic
opinions. In the first place, various forage crops can be grown
profitably on these lands, and with a very moderate amount of
fertilizers, if any. Among summer crops are peanuts, velvet
beans, beggarweed, and soy beans—all legumes. For winter
crops oats and rye can be grown with a high degree of success,
and where the land is more fertile you can bring in bur clover
and vetch. These crops all require the fitting of the land each
time they are planted, and will probably repay the use of a rel-
atively small amount of fertilizer. In the way of perennial forage
crops we have Japanese sugar cane, that will raise more tonnage
per acre than any other crop similar to it, and when once estab-
lished it is good for from six to twelve years without replanting.
It is an excellent silage plant, and abundantly repays any use
of fertilizer.

Another perennial forage crop which I believe is going to
cut a large figure in the utilization of these lands is the perennial
legume kudzu. At Arlington Farm, we have been able to raise in
each of the past three years over five tons of kudzu hay per acre,
double what we could get from cow peas. It prefers apparently
a clay subsoil, but I have seen excellent growth of it on sandy
loam. Then there are various other forages you can grow on
these lands as soon as you have built up the fertility a littl—
corn and sorghums, millets and various other plants.

The real forage difficulty is the pasture problem. You can-
not conduct profitably any animal industry on a large acreage
without the use of permanent pasture. Now, the permanent native
pasture on these piney woods lands consists of broom sedge and
various wiry grasses, which may be grouped under the name
of wire grass. These grasses furnish very poor feed. For two
or three months in the spring they give fair pasturage; after that

Abundant
Forage Easily
Grown on
Cut-Over
Lands

Types of
Grass Best
Suited

South’s
Agriculture
Distinctively
American

90 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

they are the poorest type of pasture, and just the ordinary type of
pasture that the piney woods cattle subsist upon.

There is one striking fact, however, in regard to. pastures
in the piney woods which can be seen in the vicinity of every
town and village in the South, and that is that wherever the town
cattle graze continuously, you get patches of very dense sod con-
sisting mainly of carpet grass.

We know that heavy grazing is an important factor in the
bringing about of this type of pasture. Where the cattle graze
continuously you have carpet grass, elsewhere broom sedge
and wire grass persist. Ordinarily, it requires heavy continuous
pasturage to kill out wire grass and to secure carpet and other
desirable pastures grasses. But when you once have good carpet
grass you can allow it practically to take care of itself.

In it may come the growth of more or less Bermuda, but
there is not much of it as a rule. There is usually a good deal of
Lespedeza, however. In winter the pasturage is supplemented,
to some extent, by Bur clover, and large quantities of this can
be brought in. The carrying capacity of a good carpet grass
pasture is not very well known, but it seems to me it is not
much different from the blue grass pastures of the North. I
believe, in general, a good carpet grass pasture will carry one
cow to about three acres. The best blue grass will carry
one cow to two and a half acres. Your pasture season for
carpet grass is much longer than for blue grass, and will be
eight or nine months of the year. In the light of our present
knowledge, this is the only type of good permanent pasture
that you can look forward to on these sandy loam soils. I may
say, incidentally, that carpet grass seed is not a commercial seed,
but almost any place in the South where you pasture heavily the
carpet grass will gradually come in.

In this connection I want to mention one factor which is likely
to be enormously important. Generally speaking, the agriculture
of the North was a direct inheritance of the agriculture of Europe.
The only important crop exception is corn. When you come to
the South the situation is entirely different. The agriculture
of the South is almost entirely American. We have inher-
ited cotton, corn, tobacco, peanuts, sweet potatoes from the Amer-
ican Indian. We have gone to Japan for the soy bean and Japan
clover; to India to get Bermuda grass; to the Malayan region to
get the velvet bean; to Africa to get cow peas and sorghums; to

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 91

India for sugar cane; in other words, we have built up the agri-
culture of the South from crop plants we have obtained from all
parts of the world. That is particularly true of the forage crops.
Every forage crop we grow in the South is introduced. We have
been unable in agriculture to utilize a single native plant of the
South.

When you bear in mind that there are in existence some
ten thousand species of legumes, and four thousand species
of grasses, it must be evident to you that there are still
large possibilities in finding other valuable forage grasses or
legumes. This is a subject which demands very exhaustive
investigation. Ina relatively small way we have been doing this
in the Department for years and with some success. At the
present time we have under trial a number of recently obtained
forages, which possess various degree of promise; and some of
these, I am sure, are going to make easier the forage problems
on the soils we are talking about.

I might mention some of the plants that apply to the South.
One is a native of South Africa, where it has created a great deal
of interest, and is known as “Napier’s Fodder.” It is a perennial
grass, growing in the manner of sugar cane, and produces a very
large amount of highly palatable feed per acre. In some of the
Coastal Plain states it has succeeded very well.

We have also been investigating very carefully the different
varieties of Bermuda grasses, and we have found one that gives
double the yield of ordinary Bermuda. Whether that will be the
case under practical pasture conditions remains to be determined.

I might mention a lot of these legumes and grasses; but I will
say that out of the enormous number of legumes and grasses avail-
able we have found several that are going to help solve this forage
problem in the South. I stated a moment ago that all the forage
plants we are growing in the United States are introduced. This
is as true in the North as in the South. The pasture plants
throughout that area are blue grass, white clover and red clover—
from Europe. The hay plants are timothy and red clover, from
Europe, and so on down the line. Out of the enormous agri-
culturally unexplored areas of the earth may come very much
more.

But altogether apart from these possibilities which lie in the
future, my opinion, as I have stated before, is pretty optimistic.
I believe that with our present knowledge we can build up a prof-

Impracticable
to Combine

Cattle Raising
and Forestry

Confident of
Ultimate Suc-
cess of Work

92 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

itable live stock industry—the cattle industry I am thinking of,
particularly... When it comes to the hog industry, I think it has
already been demonstrated in these sandy loam areas that by the
use of peanuts, velvet beans, soy beans and others, you can con-
duct a profitable hog industry; but this is a relatively intensive
type of farming as compared with cattle raising.

The question has been brought up a number of times as to
what extent live stock farming in the South, particularly cattle
raising, and forestry, may be conducted together. I do not think,
myself, that the idea is very feasible. Over. most of these sandy
loam soils if you don’t burn the woods every year or so it comes
up thickly in young pines. If you do burn it, you get your grounds
cleared, but of course, you burn off your second growth. One
gentleman, a few years ago, complained about the number
of young pines that grew up in his pasture, and he wanted to
know what to do. An expert advised him that they were very
good pasture for piney woods cattle. He wanted to know the
advantage of them. The expert replied: “Well, you see, the cows
eat more or less of those young pines, and the effect of it is to
shrink their stomachs, and therefore there is less danger of the
cow starving to death.” (Laughter.)

Now, I want to recapitulate briefly and emphasize the main
points of this problem. So far as growing reasonably large
crops of forage on these sandy loam soils, using a judicious
amount of fertilizer, there is in my opinion no question. There is
a pretty serious problem as to how practicable it is to take poor
broom sedge and wire grass pasture and gradually convert it
into good carpet grass pasture. I don’t know how it can be
speeded up. We need investigations, very seriously on that par-
ticular point. We don’t know, after the carpet grass pasture
is obtained, just how well cattle are going to succeed on it.
There is reason to believe, however, that the results will be satis-
factory. But it will be necessary to supplement this by some
other feed. However, that is commonly done in the North and
other pasturing regions.

I want to close by saying that in general the whole situation
of the live stock enterprise, at least from the standpoint of grow-
ing the forage crops, looks to me decidedly optimistic. I want to
repeat again that until we have demonstrated knowledge to show
this to be a fact, we cannot conscientiously advise farmers to
go into this thing unless they understand fully that certainty of

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 93

success is as yet unproven. What we need most, in order to get
the knowledge really required, are these live stock and forage ex-
periment stations, which, in my judgment, present the simplest
and cheapest plan to get the information we need and ought to
have. I thank you. (Applause.)

Experiences z7 Cattle Raising
on Cut-Over Lands
By F. B. Enochs of Fernwood, Miss.

The first venture we made in the cattle business, I bought a
registered bull on the 13th day of February, 1913. Before that I
didn’t know how to raise any pedigreed animal intelligently. My
cndeavor was then to breed up some of my native cattle. We
bought considerable native cattle through the country. We made
a mistake—and I want to be frank with you on that—we didn’t
appreciate the fact that this in-bred class of cattle, that had
been in-bred for ten years, of the dairy type, were practically
run out and would give us poor results; but when we picked
the best of those and began to put pure bred bulls on them
to breed them up, we got about the same results as when
a man gets a good stallion and breeds him. We have an
improvement. Now, those calves that we got, they had a
good front and rear end, and the dairy type didn’t have that.
They were the other extreme—all points. We went into the cattle
business under difficulties. We had to pioneer. Certain people in
this audience will know that we dipped cattle two years before we
could get our county to vote to get rid of the tick, and we had to
convince them that dipping cattle would not kill them. After dip-
ping that same bunch of cattle for two years we finally got a vote
in our county of 81 per cent of the registered voters; we only had
19 per cent that voted against it. We have gotten through with
that end of it and we have gotten rid of the tick, as a result of the
pioneering we did in the early history of our cattle endeavor. We
have gotten round the fact that we have been going in for pure
bred, for the simple reason that there are people in Mississippi that
have to be educated to buying good bulls, just like I did; I didn’t

Early Mis-
takes in
Grades of Cat-
tle Selected

Tick Elimi-
nated as a
Factor

Success
Comes With’
Knowledge

Abundant
Forage Crops
Produced

94 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

know any difference between a good heifer, even if she had a
register paper, and a poor heifer.

Most people concede that you can take a human family of ten
and you can find a black sheep among them. We shipped to Okla-
homa this spring, with our herd of show cattle, some Herefords,
and they sold for an average of $300, and they were not yet breed-
ing age. We sold some Herefords in Ft. Worth, Texas, for as
high as $450, not yet of breeding age. That is our pure bred cattle.
At the this year’s sale in Jackson, Miss., we sent three heifers and
one bull up there that really we ought not to have sacrificed—that
we ought to have kept. We took them up there to help out the
sale, and they sold for from $175 to $195, and most of them were
April calves, 1916. Now I don’t know a man in Missouri but what
is willing to sell a year-old mule for less money than $175. The
disadvantage we were under was that we didn’t know the stock
business. We were green at it when we started; as green as could
be. Why? We were lumbermen. We had been engaged ever since
we were boys in running a sawmill and other lines of endeavor;
but the position we took was this: Looking forward to the time
when we are:cut out, that settlement will be a desert sawmill set-
tlement. unless we do what we are doing there, and that is to es-
tablish the cattle business. The-most good fortune I have had is
to find a man who knew how to handle that cattle business. I
spent more money advertising for a man to take care of that de-
partment than any other department. When I got a man from
the North he didn’t know Southern conditions, labor and rainfall.
Hie didn’t know winter conditions here, and we have gradually
had to take those that came to us; but today, in my judgment, I
am not sorry I went into the cattle business, and if the State of
Mississippi and the Southern States will get around this point on
these lands—that they get rid of this in-bred class of cattle and
grow some good cattle to put into the feed-pen—it will give you
some return for your feed. The class of cattle called the “scrub”
isn’t going to give you any return for your feed. We have
built silos and filled them to the extent of 2,700 tons of ensilage
in one year. We have not only corn ensilage, but we have
grown as many as 14,000 bushels of oats in one season. We
also grow lespedeza. Professor Lloyd was there three years
ago and he said he didn’t know the cut-over hill soils of South
Mississippi would grow lespedeza after oats. It was an enlight-
enment to him.

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 95

The bur clover was not already on these lands. We have had
all the misfits coming to us working against a proposition that
didn’t look good to a lot of people, and yet we have sold our calves
at less than two years,old for the price of three-year-old mules in
Missouri. Under circumstances of that kind, I have been told that
whenever you try to make a man do something he don’t want to
do, it is an uphill business to push him on.

I am in the game to win and I believe we are going to win;
and I am a little disappointed to hear some of the discouraging
reports here; because I was raised in this same territory and I feel
that a man can make a living here. My father, a farmer, raised
ten boys and a daughter on this very land that everybody is trying
to find somebody to buy.

Dr. Piper: How many acres of ranch have you?

Mr. Enochs: About 7,000 acres. Not ranch—but cut-over
stump lands fenced.

Dr. Piper: How many pure bred cattle?

Mr. Enochs: One hundred and thirty.

Dr. Piper: How many native?

Mr. Enochs: Possibly 1,600.

Mr. L. D. Gilbert, Texarkana, Tex.: How many acres of
land are you using to graze those?

Mr. Enochs: We are not grazing as many cattle as we did.
We have about 7,000 acres and as we get good grade heifers we
turn common old cows loose, hecause we would rather have a
iess number of grades and breed them, than to keep the common
scrub-breed proposition.

Mr. Gilbert: Are you running all of your cattle on your
pasture or on the open range?

Mr. Enochs: We dom’t ever put them on the open range
because they go astray, and we don’t get them. As a protection
to that weihave three brands on them and keep them under fence.

Mr. Gilbert: How many of them, approximately, are you run-
ning on this 7,000 acres?

Mr. Enochs: Our ownership now is 1,600 grades and 130
pure bred, but we don’t need that 7,000 acres for them. We figure
ten acres will easily graze a cow. , That is what you are getting
at, isn’t it?

Mr. Gilbert: Yes.

Mr. Enochs: We have grazed a cow on less than ten acres,
but we don’t do it as against the extremes of the season. We have

Ten Acres
Sufficient to
Graze a Cow

Lespedeza
Solves Pastur-
age Problem

Growing Feed
for the Cattle

96 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

had favorable seasons in which we have grazed as low as five
acres, but we wouldn’t do it when we have the extremes of the
season.

Mr. Gilbert: On a ten-acre basis that would only carry 700.

Mr. Enochs: Well, we have rented some of these grazing
areas that other people are not willing to put cattle on. You asked
me how much we had.

Dr. Piper: ‘You run ten acres to the cow?

Mr. Enochs: Yes.

Dr. Piper: Is that the ordinary piney woods pasture?

Mr. Enochs: That is the ordinary piney woods stump land.

Dr. Piper: Is that pasture improving under your system of
pasturage ?

Mr. Enochs: Yes, sir. It is going to lespedeza now. Before
that, the fires would destroy the lespedeza and then we only had
the wire grass, but now the lespedeza is gradually getting hold of
this land, and the cattle graze it close enough so there is little
chance for broom grass growth.

Dr. Piper: Is the carpet grass coming in, too?

Mr. Enochs: Some, but not so much on hillsides. They do
on these flat lands that don’t get the water off. The flat lands are
what we call top table lands. We don’t consider we have made
any money on the proposition, but we were in the business pos-
sibly three years before we saw a profit, because we didn’t know
the line.

Dr. Piper: How many acres of feed are you growing to an
animal ?

Mr. Enochs: That is hard to answer, because we are feeding
log teams and turpentine teams out of the same enclosures.

Dr. Piper: You are growing an ample amount, evidently, to
supplement your pastures?

Mr. Enochs: Well, not in the sense of the man in the North,
because a man in the North frequently, when a dry spell comes,
has two or three silos of ensilage to supplement his cattle in the
summer grass growing season, when the hot sultry suns burn up
the grass. We have not gotten around to the point that we have
been able to carry everything. We went most too heavy on
cattle for the experience we have.

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 97

Soil Improvement Crops
By 8. M. Tracy

Agronomist, Office of Forage Crop Investigation,
United States Department of Agriculture

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen :—Mr. Piper gives a long list of
forage crops which can be grown successfully and profitably here
on most of our Southern soils, but before we can grow those crops
we must have something on which to grow them. A good crop of
grass, of legume, of corn or of anything else has to have a foun-
dation; it has to have something on whichi to live. We have
many good soils in the Pine Woods country, but all soils, wher-
ever they may be located, can be improved, but we must learn
how we can make our poor soils good, and our good soils better.

Our pine soils, as a rule, are very deficient in humus. We
must supply that first. When that is supplied we may go out after
much more profitable crops that we can produce on our cut-over
lands. Humus is the first essential thing in soils. We can add
nitrogen, if you want to, but without the humus, the decayed vege-
table and anima] matter, you are bound to be disappointed; you
will suffer from drouths and floods and your crop will not be what
you had a right to expect. The average pile of bricks has enough
phosphoric acid and potash for a good crop. But you have to have
some humus to hold that soil in the condition in which the plants
can assimilate it. The soils of our pine woods lands, both the
cut-over lands and the virgin timber lands, contain very little humus.
They have been burned year after year, generation after generation,
until the humus is thoroughly destroyed ; all of the available nitro-
gen driven off, and they are in a condition where they produce any-
thing but desirable crops. Every burning we give to a pine woods,
or wild lands of any kind, destroys more humus and nitrogen and
exhausts the soil more than does a crop of corn or cotton. The
fire is the most expensive crop we have. Soil is far from being
enriched by burning; it always makes it poorer; and before we
can get the crops which are our due we must restore the humus
to the soil.

Pound for pound, the dry matter of all plants will produce
about the same amounts of humus. So far as is known, the value

Humus Must
Be Restored
to Soil

Taming Wild
Soils

Velvet Bean
the Ideal
Legume

98 The Dawn of a New Constrictive Era

of the humus is the same no matter from what particular plant it
may have been derived. That being the case, the plants which we
want to grow for our humus are those which will give us the great-
est number of pounds per acre.

The desirable humus crop is one which will grow rapidly and
make a heavy yield, which will decay quickly, and, if possible, one
which will not only provide humus but will also absorb nitrogen
from the air and so give us that most expensive element in com-
mercial fertilizers. This is the ideal type of humus producing
plant ; and we have such plants in the legumes, plants which draw
their nitrogen from the air and which are equal to any others in
providing the humus. Mr. Piper said we had something over ten
thousand species of legumes. Out of this ten thousand we have
cultivated perhaps a couple of hundred, so you see we have barely
touched them. They have an infinite variety. We have some
which grow very large, and some slender, and some in bushes and
some on vines, and some are short straggling plants. Some grow
in winter and some in summer. In that group we can get some
species which will fit almost any desired condition or farm.

It is a recognized fact that on most of our pine woods soils
we do not get as good a yield of corn, or of cotton, and some other
crops, the year in which the land is cleared as we do a year or two
later. The soil is in a condition which has produced a certain type
of wild plant for years, and it must be greatly changed in its nature
before we can expect it to produce a good yield of ordinary cul-
tivated plants. We. must have something to civilize the soil, to tame
it down, before we can expect our tame, civilized crops to feel at
home.

We have one legume eminently fitted for this—the velvet bean.
It will do more than any other crop we have ever had to smother
the wild growth. It will furnish more humus than we can get from
any other crop. It is a rank-growing vine, and can be grown in
any part of the pine woods country. It has almost universal possi-
bilities, and will certainly grow in all of our cut-over pine region.

It was in 1898 that the Department of Agriculture first called
attention to these beans as an agricultural product. They had been
grown for a great many years before that in Florida simply as an
ornamental vine; but in 1898, in one of the publications, it was
mentioned as being a very desirable forage. At that time we knew
of only one variety—what is now known as the “Florida Velvet
Bean.” That is seldom seen outside of Florida, and although it

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 99

was frequently planted in other regions it didn’t become popular
because they always had to send to Florida to get the seed.

Twelve years ago the Department took up the matter in a sys-

“tematic manner and began a careful search of the entire world, try-
ing to find other species of velvet bean which would be more hardy
and mature earlier and have other desirable characteristics lacking
in the Florida bean. Up to this time about twenty distinct species
have been brought in. Of these, some hundreds of hybrids and
crosses have been made in an endeavor to combine the desirable
qualities of the different species; and now we have an infinite
variety, and of these quite a number of forms have made for
themselves a place in the agriculture of the South.

The old Florida bean was a vine which grew pretty high; I
don’t think any of us know how long it will grow; it produces a
small pod 2% to 3 inches, with small mottled seeds, the pod cov-
ered with a black velvet—from which the bean took its name.
Until twelve years ago that was the only variety we had in culti-
vation.

Another was what is known as the “Lyon” bean. The pod,
instead of being three inches long, was nearly six inches in length;
the beans, instead of being spherical and mottled, were large, flat-
tened ovals, like a butter bean, only larger. The pods, instead of
being covered with black, velvety pubescence, were covered
with grayish hairs and of quite a different form—pointed at each
end. If anything, it was more rank growing than the Florida
bean, and produced fully as heavily, but unfortunately ripened
very little earlier. These were popular for two or three years
until we got others in.

The next was what is known as the “Yokohama” bean, from
Japan. That pod is very similar to that of the Lyon bean, a large
pod with ash colored or white seed, the pod covered with hairy
bristles instead of velvet. The vine is rather small. This ripens in
about five months from planting, where the old bean took nine to
ten months.

Following that came the “Chinese” bean, which is probably
little more than an early ripening variety of the Lyon bean. That
ripens in a hundred and fifty days from planting.

Then we have another one, which came to us probably from
Georgia ; it is called the “Georgia” bean. Some say it is a 90 and
100-day bean, but it is not; it ripens in 120 days. The pod is very
similar to that of the Florida bean, but the vine is much smaller.

Early Varie-
ties of Bean .
Development

Best Beans
for Different
Localities

100 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

Then we have another one of the hybrids, called the “Osceola”
bean. That is something between the Lyon and the old Florida
bean, and was produced by the Florida Experiment Station. It has
the black, velvety pod of the old Florida bean, but has a very much
larger seed; nearly as large as the Lyon, or Chinese, or Yokohama.

In general, the varieties having the large, black, velvety pods
have one characteristic which is very desirable—the Lyon bean, the
Chinese bean and the Yokohama bean, those large hairy-podded
ones, very often split open when they are growing on the vines and
beginning to get ripe. The black, velvety pods do not split open,
and therefore are somewhat better.

For the extreme South, the old Florida bean and the Lyon
bean are among the best we have. From here north to central
Mississippi or Alabama the more productive beans are the
Osceola and the Chinese. Still further north to Tennessee and
in Georgia the Yokohama and Georgia beans will be found more
satisfactory. We have so many of these varieties now that we can
find something which is suited to practically every locality where
velvet beans may be wanted.

We do not need to discuss the varieties here extensively, be-
cause they will be more fully discussed in a bulletin which is soon
to be issued by the Department.

I want to call your attention to this difference in the varie-
ties, because a great many growers, all the way from here to
Kentucky, have sent in orders for one bushel, five bushels, 120
bushels, of “velvet beans,” not specifying any variety. When they
are planted they are sure to be disappointed. When the Yoko-
hama and Georgia varieties are planted in south Florida they
waste half a year. When you plant velvet beans, select the va-
riety suited to your particular locality. The best variety for any
locality is one which will continue growing without stopping to
mature the seed until just before the vines are to be killed by
frost. That day, of course, is a little uncertain, but it can be ap-
proximated for each locality.

The beans produce an immense yield. We have very little
data giving specified yields of hay and beans, from the fact that
the crop is very rarely cleaned from the fields. The vine is long
and difficult to cut, and it is commonly utilized for grazing. The
beans, when they are gathered, are gathered by the hundred
pounds; and it is rare that they are gathered clean, because when

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 101

left in the field they are good for feed; but an average yield of
beans and vines would be from two to four tons per acre; if
they are good and dry like hay that would be a good estimate.
The yield of beans in the pods varies all the way from three-
quarters of a ton to something over two tons. In Mississippi I
have known something over two tons of seed per acre to be
grown,

The principal use of the velvet bean, in addition to this
humus making, is for winter grazing. Most legumes, such as
cow peas, soy beans, etc., the leaves break off very quickly, and
after dropping they are decayed and the whole plant is worth-
less in a few days after the first touch of frost. The velvet bean
is very tough, though; and tha beans, leaves and vines resist
decay for many weeks or even months. Neither do the beans
decay when left on the ground during the winter. In fact, in
central and southern Florida many varieties retain their vitality
so completely that when a field has once been seeded volunteer
crops will follow for many years, and even in southern Missis-
sippi this sometimes occurs. The vines grow much larger and
seed much more freely when they are supported from the ground
by means of poles, and a grain of corn soon develops into an
efficient and inexpensive pole. Not much corn may be secured
from such a planting on new ground, but the presence of the
stalks will add largely to the yield of both vines and beans.
When planted on old fields they are usually planted with corn,
nearly all of which can be gathered before the bean vines are
large enough to cause serious inconvenience, and the few ears
which will be missed will be found and eaten when the field is
grazed.

They are far superior to any other legume which we could
have for that purpose. The quality of the feed is excellent. I
have seen steers sell in February ready for the butcher. They had
no other feed except this from December until sent to the butcher
in February. The most economical way to handle the crop is to
give the cattle the first grazing; let them go over the fields and
clean them, and after they have cleaned off the best of it the
hogs can be turned’ in and they will get about as much as the
cattle got. If the crop is reserved for hog pasture it will give
more pork than we can get from most any other crop. I know
where four to six hundred pounds of pork have been made per
acre from this one crop. I have known of some instances where

Velvet Beans
Best for Win-
ter Use

May Be
Grown Simul-
taneously
With Corn

Experiments
Show Value
of Velvet
Beans for Soil
Enrichment

102 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

the yield of pork per acre has been more than double that
amount, but we have definite records of over six hundred pounds
of pork per acre; and after the hogs are taken off the field there
are the remains of the vines and the droppings of the hogs left
on the ground to add to the fertility of the soil.

As a restorative crop for exhausted soils, velvet beans are
even more valuable than cow peas, as they grow larger and so
produce more humus and add more nitrogen to the soil. Pro-
fessor Ross, of the Alabama Station, shows the fertilizing value
of a crop of two tons of vines and beans to have a value of about
$55.00 per acre, the valuation being based on the present prices
of commercial fertilizers; and this valuation was fully justified
in the increase in yield of the crops which followed. Bulletin
120, of the Alabama Station, says that following a crop of the
beans on a sandy soil the yield of cotton was increased 18 per
cent, corn 32 per cent, fall-sown oats 334 per cent, and of wheat
280 per cent. This great increase was, doubtless, due partly to
the fertilizing elements contained in the bean crop, and partly
to the betterment of the condition of the soil by the addition of
the humus. Station analyses show that an ordinary crop of the
beans will add as much plant food to the soil as is contained in
1,400 pounds of cottonseed meal, and that, in addition to its
humus-making and other beneficial effects. Every Experiment
Station official with whom I have corresponded has been em-
phatic in stating that the fertilizing value alone was worth far
more than the entire cost of growing the crop, thus leaving its
pasture and seed value as clear profit.

This is the experience which has been given to me by many
Station authorities with whom I have talked. Within the last
twelve years, since the propaganda in favor of their cultivation
has been going on, the increase in cultivation has been immense.
The increase in Louisiana is very great; I don’t know the exact
acreage.

The plantings in Mississippi will be over a million acres this
year.

The papers sometimes call me a velvet bean crank. Per-
haps I am; but I hardly know the difference between a crank
and a man who pushes a good thing when he sees it. I am push-
ing velvet beans. It is twenty years since I planted the first crop
and I have been for it ever since, and I believe it is the best crop

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 103

we have for taming and fertilizing the soil, for furnishing winter
grazing and for restoring the fertility to exhausted soil. It is
undoubtedly the pioneer crop for our cut-over lands. (Ap-
plause.)

Mr. Thompson: What variety of bean would you advise for
Texas?

Mr. Tracy: How many months have you without frost?

Mr. Thompson: We don’t have frost before the latter part
of November, until the last days in March.

Mr. Tracy: I would use the Chinese or the Osceola. The
Osceola is a little later than the Chinese—a week or two.

Need of Experiment Station

Work on Cut-Over Lands
By W. R. Dodson

Dean of the State College, Director of the Experi-
ment Stations of the State of Louisiana

I think the miscellaneous discussion indulged in after Mr.
Piper’s address justifies me in the assertion that we have en-
tirely inadequate information as to what can be done on these
lands in a definite, specific way to tell the average inquirer
what he might expect us to know. I don’t know but one way
to get that information, and that is to get the experiment sta-
tions to do these things over a series of years to get the aver-
age conditions and make the average deduction from it.

I was just thinking, when we were talking about this ques-
tion, suppose they had been in the very definite form of ques-
tions, and we had said to some of these gentlemen: How many
tons of velvet beans can you expect to gain, as an average, on
the long leaf yellow pine cut-over lands? How much cow pea
hay can you expect? How many tons of beef can you make on
an acre of land an average year, and how much will it cost you?
How many pounds of pork can you make on an average acre of
land on an average season in the general type of long leaf and
short leaf yellow pine region? And I don’t believe you could an-
swer those questions, because you don’t know. The only way I

Best Beans
for Use in
Texas

Exact Knowl-
edge What Is
Lacking

Federal and.
State Co-oper-
ation Best

104 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

know of to get that information is to try it and see; and the
people that are best equipped! to get reliable information of this
kind are people that have no land to sell, that have no personal
interest in the results that are to come from those experiments,
so that they can be uninfluenced as to whether the results are
favorable or unfavorable; and there will be no temptation to
look to the good results with a magnifying eye, and the bad re-
sults in a diminished estimate, so that the whole truth, by an
unprejudiced, disinterested party, can go into things of this
kind; and that means somebody maintained either by the Fed-
eral or state funds, or by funds that may be subscribed to by
interested people; but the best way, I think, is the basis on which
we have worked it out for other experiments, by Federal and
state support—so that these men will not be under obligations
to anybody. They should not be censored as to what they shall
say or can keep from saying about their results.

I believe there is a great future for these lands. This is the
first effort I know of where we have had represented in confer-
ence so much talent, men that are deeply interested in the out-
come; where the Government representatives of the Department
of Agriculture, the Colleges of Agriculture, the State Depart-
ments of Agriculture, the land owners and the railroads and the
bankers, all of these people who would be materially affected,
both in a material way and in the advancement of the public
welfare, have tried to put their heads together.

Now, let us not be deceived by trying to take short-cut
methods. Let us be candid with one another, and with the
prospective farm owners, and let them see that we are going
to solve these questions. Enough has been tried to make the
outlook very encouraging. Enough information has been
brought out to show that there is a lot more to do; that this
is not plain sailing; and that if everything was known that the
men want to know you would not be here today. The fact
that some of your lands have been offered and have not been
taken is an indication that you are not able to tell the pros-
pective purchasers what they want to know. They are not
going to listen to you very well until you are able to tell
them, and then be able to stand by your statements. Until
we have the information that will enable us to look a man square
in the eye and tell him with a clear conscience that he can do
this, and he can expect so and so, and here are the difficulties

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 105

to be overcome, and give him a frank statement of what he might
expect, you will not get very much development or utilization
of these lands; but when you are able to do that, and you can
tell by experience and! facts that the land might do this or that,
you will do well in selling lands.

In formulating your plans I hope you will lay a broad foun-
dation; work out a plan by which the men that are permanently
in this kind of work may correlate their efforts with the Federal
authorities and state authorities and the people who have their
money in the land, so they can work together on a permanent
basis. Until we make such arrangements we will work with a
dissipation of our energies and loss of money and time; and so,
in formulating your plans I hope you will make ample provision
for experimental data to be obtained by impartial men, to extend
over a sufficient period to eliminate great variations in seasons,
so that due attention will be given to selecting original areas
that will be as typical of large areas as possible; that that infor-
mation shall be given without restriction and without limitations
to those that will be interested in it; that it will be financed
on a basis that will not make anybody feel under obligations to
keep something back. I believe when we do that we will work
out a plan by which these lands will offer very attractive propo-
sitions for a great many people.

I only want to give you one illustration of what I mean. We
have been talking today about rich lands and poor lands. Rich
land and poor land are simply relative terms. We say poor land
when we ard thinking about the production of cotton, and it
means one thing; and we say poor land when we think of the
production of sweet potatoes, and it means another thing. If I
were to go to Alexandria, for instance, which is on the border
line of the long leaf pine country and I wanted to grow corn
on the north and the alluvial land on the south, and I would
say, “Which is the best land, over there on the hills or over here
in the bottoms” and everybody would say, “Over here in the
bottoms; you can’t grow any corn on hilly land.” But suppose
I wanted to raise sweet potatoes, and I ask, “Where can I raise
the best sweet potatoes—over here in the sandy loams or over
there in the Red River bottom land,” and the man would say,
“You can raise much better potatoes on the hill land than you can
on the stiff soils,” and therefore that pine land is richer for you
than the Red River bottom. That is simply an illustration of the

Much Prelim-
inary Work
Necessary

Where

“Poor” Lands
Are “Rich”
Lands

Vicious Legis-
lation Retards
Development

106 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

indefinite meaning of the terms in which we speak. I hope you
will go ahead and keep this work up until this problem of gaining
adequate information regarding the cut-over pine lands is
solved.

Mississippi’s Part 27 Cut-Over
Land Development
By Dr. E. R. Lloyd

Director of Experiment Stations of the State of
‘Mississippi

I have been somewhat amused at the apparent incompatibility
between Dr. Piper’s ideas of the cut-over land and the ideas of the
other gentlemen. It seems to me that Dr. Piper was talking about
one type of cut-over land and the other gentlemen were talking
about another type, and both correct from their different points of
view.

We have a vast deal of cut-over land in Mississippi which is
really splendid agricultural land. We also have a great deal of
cut-over land in Mississippi which is hardly worth while as agri-
cultural land, and Dr. Piper was entirely correct when he said that
on this poorer type of soil we cannot grow very much of a crop
and to make a good pasture will be both difficult and expensive.
While on the better type, which has a good red-clay subsoil, we
can grcw many profitable field crops besides lespedeza and Ber-
muda for pasture.

In developing this cut-over territory it seems to me, Mr. Chair-
man, that the first thing to be done, so far as Mississippi is con-
cerned, is to repeal some legislation we already have. These lands
will never be developed through individual effort; they will be
developed by corporations with money ; but so long as we have such
laws:-on our statute books as we have today, these cut-over lands
are not going to be developed very rapidly. And it seems to me
with an organization made up of some of the best business men of
the country something might be done if the proper effort was made
to repeal the vicious laws which now retard progress in the state’s
development. We desire to see these lands developed on a per-

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 107

manent rather than on a speculative basis. One of the serious
troubles with Southern agriculture today is its unstable character.
If some practical plan could be worked out by which agriculture in
all its phases could be stabilized and conducted on a safe and sane
basis, it would be the most profitable business for the greatest num-
ber of our people to engage in.

When the cut-over lands are developed it will necessarily be
on rather a large scale, and live stock offers perhaps the safest re-
turns, since with live stock we can handle the maximum amount
of land with the minimum amount of labor, while with crops the
conditions are reversed.

We are working in a small way through our Extension De-
partment of the Agricultural College of Mississippi and our
Branch Experiment Station at McNeill in Pearl River Coun-
ty with the small farmers in the cut-over territory. Our purpose
is to help them develop their small farms on a permanent basis by
combiring live stock with crops.

The plan we suggest is for each small farmer to have five dairy
cows, two brood sows, twenty-five sheep, twenty-five head of poul-
try, and then plan his crops so that feed enough to carry all live
stock will be produced, with a small surplus for sale. The bankers
and business organizations in many counties have agreed to
finance these small farmers, and our demonstration agents will
help plan his crop rotations and teach him the best methods of
handling his live stock as well as assist him in marketing his sur-
plus products.

We do not expect very large areas of this cut-over land to be
converted into small farms immediately, but we think this a begin-
ning in the right direction.

In the past the absence of cheap money and long-time loans
prevented many from going on the farm. but since the passage of
the Federal Farm Loan Act we find the interest in farming increas-
ing. While I consider the passage of the Federal Farm Loan Act
one of the most constructive pieces of legislation passed in recent
years, I also think that cheap money is a menace to the masses.
Cheap money on long-time payments is very alluring, and 1 fear
too many will avail themselves of the opportunity to borrow money
without having first carefully worked out plans for its safe invest-
ment. I think every man who borrows money should be required
to submit in writing a carefully thought out plan for spending the
money and have this plan approved by a competent committee.

Financing the
Small
Farmer

The Good and
Evil in Cheap
Money

Better Grades
of Cattle
Needed in
South

108 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

What Georgia Is Doing /o
Encourage the Utilizing of
Cut-Over Lands
By John R. Fain

Agronomist of the College of Agriculture of the
State of Georgia

Gentlemen, I am with you today because President Soule, of
our institution, was detained at home on account of a campaign
we are carrying on in Georgia at this time. He asked me to ex-
press to you his regret at not being able to be present.

I would like to say to you that our institution is represented
because we thought this was one of the big constructive pieces
of work being undertaken in the Southern states. I will try to
present to you as briefly as I can some of the things that the
College of Agriculture is trying to help in development.

We fancy that the College of Agriculture should be some-
thing of a clearing house for information’for the people of the
state, and that we should get together that information for them
and be able to present it to them, and we bring it to your atten-
tion as some of the work we are trying to do. Therefore, I am
going to use a few charts I have here for this purpose.

These figures were compiled from census reports and from
estimates by President Soule. I am not going to take your time
up to any great extent. We have a considerable number of live
stock in the South; but the principal trouble is its quality and
low value; and I might use these figures from the State of
Georgia. I will say that in the fifteen Southern states, in the
six years from 1910 to 1916, the beef cattle decreased something
like three-quarters of a million. It struck me, in listening to the
discussion yesterday, that a great many of those cattle could
have been maintained on some of the seventy-odd million acres
of land in this country.

Now, outside of the quality there is another factor, and that
is loss from disease and exposure in these Southern states.
Take the state of Georgia. We believe in presenting to the peo-

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 109

ple the actual conditions. We think that because we sometimes
have a mild climate that the loss doesn’t amount to anything.
Run down that column: Loss from disease, cattle, 25 per thou-
sand; from exposure, 25 per thousand; sheep, from disease, 31
“per thousand; from exposure, 31 per thousand; swine, from dis-
ease, 71 per thousand. These are the figures from the North
Atlantic states, much lower than from Georgia. If we are going

to do anything with the live stock business, we must reduce that
rate of loss.

This is the status of the live stock industry in Georgia,
showing there has been a decided increase in number in our

state. The large increase there is from hogs. The increase from
the other animals does not amount to very much.

Now, as to the replacement, taking the state of Georgia:
The average of horses and mules compares very favorably with
the average in the country as a whole, but, unfortunately, those
are the things we buy. We buy most of our horses and mules;
we do not raise them. The average value of our cattle is $16.20
as against $35.88 in the rest of the country; sheep, our value is
$2.80 as against $7.14; swine, $9.00 as against $11.73.

Another line of work we are trying to carry on is something
of the food problem. Here we have three foodstuffs: Silage
and cottonseed meal give the greatest production of butter. This
year we are trying out cottonseed meal, peanut meal and velvet
bean for dairy cattle, to be presented to the people another year.

This chart indicates something of the relative number of the
blooded cows and the good cows that will be required to make
the same profit. We have good dairy cows that make as much
profit as 41 of our average dairy cows in the state. Another
condition we are up against is the relative food value of differ-
ent crops that we can grow.

Now, as to the question of what we can do with live stock.
This is in the Coastal Plain region. This is a statement of the
value of live stock at the Agricultural College. They started in
September, 1907, with $1,917 worth of live stock. They have
spent from that time up to June 1, 1916, overe$9,000. The value
of live stock in June, 1916, was $17,000. Here is an item I call
your attention to: For the purchase of live stock we spent over
a thousand dollars a year, with sales of live stock to June, 1916,
amounting to $14,000. The average increase in the inventory

Losses from
Disease and
Exposure

One Good
Cow Worth
41 Poor Ones

Best Silage
Foods for
Coastal Plain
States

Experiments
With Grasses

110 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

has amounted to about $1,700. So far it has been a pretty good
financial proposition.

Now, as to the work of the College in taking it to the people:
This is a summary of the work by the county agents. Our,
county agents have inoculated hogs and cattle for cholera to the
number of about 65,000. The pure bred animals purchased
through the county agents and the specialists of the Department
of Agriculture, who are co-operating with these men, has
amounted in the past year to over 7,000 head brought into the
state; and that is where we are trying to correct the low valua-
tion in live stock.

Now, in regard to the food proposition: We have been ad-
vocating the building of silos over the state of Georgia, and we
are advocating, as a crop for the Coastal Plain, a mixture of
kaffr corn and sorghum. We have suggested the red head
sorghum and the black kaffir corn.

The silage and velvet bean, we believe, solves the problem
of carrying the animal in the Coastal Plain region at least
through the winter months. The problem, as we see it, is that
it is a limiting factor in cattle production in the Coastal Plain
region, and it is a limiting factor especially in the months of
July, August and September. Now, if we can solve that prob-
lem I believe we can help establish on a permanent basis the
cattle business of the South.

We started out to make an inventory of what we had and
what could be utilized, and we have a young man who is spend-
ing part of his time studying the growth of the Coastal Plain
section; and, incidentally, there we found one man who had
been for the past fifteen years utilizing a pasture of grass and
lespedeza with apparently pretty good success. That probably
will not be adopted except in a limited area, but in that area it
might be a solution of the problem. At the present time we are
recommending the carpet grass, as Dr. Piper suggested. The
only two grasses we have found, of the ordinary tame grasses,
that justify continuous work with them is the red top and
meadow grass. In one case we have gotten good results from
work of that kind. -

We have two areas in the Coastal Plain in which we are
trying to study in a similar way the forage crop situation for
that section of the state, and we hope before a great while to be
able to increase this and to do more work.

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 111

Now, just a word on a proposition that was brought up here
yesterday, and that was the size of farm that is going to be profit-
able on these cut-over lands. We had submitted to us not a
great while ago a plan to buy some of this cut-over land, fence
it off in forty-acre tracts, build a barn and house, and sell it to
prospective settlers, and they asked our opinion on it. That let-
ter was referred to me to answer, and I answered it in this way:
“We have made a survey in the southern part of the state which

howed that the men who were cultivating fifty acres or less had

“a labor income of about $200. The men cultivating 200 acres

had an income of between’ $600 and $700. Would you rather
take a chance of getting your money back from the man who
made $200 or the man who got $600 or $700?”

We are also co-operating with the railroads in developing a
few farms along their line of route where their scheme is this:
The railroads go to this man and say, if you will follow our in-
structions we will guarantee you against loss up to $200. They
come to the College and ask us to outline the work, and that is
being carried on under the supervision of one of the graduates
of the College and is paid for by the railroads. This work has
just begun, and we hope in a year or so to have several more of
these farms.

It might be of some interest to you to know what some of
the men grazing this cut-over land are making. We have a rec-
ord of one man who is cultivating 750 acres. He is renting, in
addition, 1,000 acres of cut-over land for pasture. His record
showed a labor income of $6,000, 36 per cent of that coming
from his live stock. By gathering information of that kind the
College hopes to be, in a way, of some help in this development.
(Applause.)

Co-operating
With the
Railroads

Nation De-
mands More
Meat Produc-
tion

112 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

Beef Cattle and Hogs

By George M. Rommel

Chief, Animal Husbandry Division, United States
Department of Agriculture

It seems to me that the question of meat production in the
South is one of the most important questions which the nation
has before it today. I will not burden you with a great many
tiresome statistics, but I want to point out a few of the high
lights of our meat trade at the present time. In the fiscal year
ending June 30, 1914, we exported less than seven million pounds
of fresh beef. In the next fiscal year we exported over 170 mil-
lion pounds of fresh beef; and’ in the last fiscal year over 231
million pounds; the value of our meat exports in these years grew
from 143 million dollars in 1914 to 266 million dollars in 1916. In
the fiscal year 1914 we imported a normal amount of wool—245
million pounds. In the fiscal year 1916 we imported 525 million
pounds. Furthermore, I am told, not officially, that the meat
ration of a soldier in the trenches in Europe is ten ounces per day.
There are something in the neighborhood of 25 million soldiers in
that section being fed better than they were ever fed before in their
lives. The United States is already planning to put an army of two
million men in the field, all of whom will be fed as well, if not
better, than the armies of the nations of Europe. This enormous
increase in our meat exports and in our wool imports has largely
been brought about by the demands of warfare, and I candidly say
to you, is there any problem which could more earnestly engage
our attention than the question of how to meet this demand with-
out starving the civilian population and allowing them to go with-
out proper food and clothing?

Now, gentlemen, I come to the question of beef production,
and in approaching this question I wish to make my position
exactly clear so that what I will have to say will not be misun-
derstood.

It seems to me that a great many of the speakers who have
been discussing the question of the utilization of these cut-over
lands have been thinking on too small a scale. I make that state-
ment in no spirit of criticism, but as a statement of fact. If
there is one thing, Mr. Chairman, for which this convention has

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 113

been remarkable, it is the seriousness, the earnestness of discus-
sion and the directness with which the speakers have approached
the point. We have had an unusual absence of what we are
pleased to call “hot air.” Now, at the risk of offending in this
very respect, I wish to indulge in a few figures. The acreage,
as generally agreed upon, is 76 million acres of cut-over timber
lands on the Coastal Plain and contiguous territories. That
doesn’t mean much ta me, because I can’t think in millions;
some men can, but I can’t. But when I ran through a table
showing the acreage of the states in the South I was staggered.
Do you realize that that acreage is half the acreage of the entire
state of Texas? Do you realize you can take the entire state of
Florida, add the state of Georgia and take a chunk out of South
Carolina, and you would have an acreage representing the acre-
age of these cut-over lands? Furthermore, your secretary told me
at lunch today that that acreage is being added to at the rate of
10 million acres a year, and that ultimately we will have added to
the 76 million acres which we now have an acreage of 250 million
acres, a total that is larger, gentlemen, than the present unallotted,
unused, unassigned, undeveloped acreage of the public range in
the West; an empire, if you please, in extent; in area equal to
almost any ten of your Southern states; and nothing is being
done with it. Now, this Conference, as I understand it, has
been called to consider a constructive plan of development. I
cannot tell you how much I appreciate what Dean Dodson said
on this subject—when a man who stands as he does in the state
and nation stands before you and tells you what he told you,
then any damn Yankee that comes down from the North can feel
pretty safe in taking such a position. (Applause.)

I grant you, gentlemen, the correctness of the position set
forth in that splendid paper written by Mr. Graves, the Chief
Forester of the United States. This problem has three phases—
reforestation, grazing and agriculture. What is being done now
in reforestation? You know better than I do. What can be
done in agriculture? The statement has been made here, uncon-
tradicted, that only 15 million acres—only one-fifth of the present
available area—are suitable for agricultural development at the
present time. What are you going to do with the other four-
fifths? You are not reforesting it. It seems to me that leaves it
open to either one of the three possibilities, straight farming,
cattle raising or sheep raising.

Cut-Over
Lands Cover
an Empire

Cut-Over Area
Increasing
Ten Million
Acres a Year

What Shall
We Do With
It?

Where Agri-
culture is Im-
practicable

Live Stock
Raising Will
Solve
Problem

114 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

Now furthermore, just for the sake of illustration, suppose
that the entire 76 million acres were available for agriculture,
and suppose that we tried to get into effect that splendid ideal
of the government’s public land policy—a family on each forty
acres and each family supporting itseli—suppose you could
realize that ideal. Dividing the 76 million by 40 acres leaves you
1,875,000 tracts, and will anyone tell you where we will get 1,-
875,000 families to settle this land on a forty acre basis? It
would be impossible. This problem is now. We can’t look
25 or 50 years hence when we may have a surplus of farmers.
Furthermore, we can’t go to the cities and bring men from the
cities to settle on these lands.

That brings me to another point: If there is one thing that
the United States is going to learn from its entrance into the war
it is that we are no longer provincial; we are coming to learn
that we have an obligation owing not only to our neighbors in
our country, but that we owe an obligation to the world itself.
We are coming to learn that we cannot take from another without
giving something in return. We are not getting any more immi-
gration; it stopped at the beginning of the war. About a month
before I left Washington the statement was published by the
Bureau of Immigration that a large emigration from the United
States was expected’ when the war closed; that the steamship
agencies already are swamped with bookings for people to go
back to their countries and carry the atmosphere of freedom back
to the lands where they were born. We cannot confidently look
to immigration as a source of settlers for cut-over lands. That
compels a line of development closely related to present available
labor supplies. It seems, therefore, that the development of
these lands on a strictly farming basis is a matter of the some-
what cistant future. The most promising immediate develop-
ment is along live stock lines, particularly with beef cattle and
sheep. :

‘Now then, understand that when I make this statement I am
making it as an animal expert, but I have tried, as well as any
specialist can, to see this matter in a broad, comprehensive light;
but I cannot get away from the idea that the one plan for devel-
opment at this time, on these cut-over timber lands, is to develop
live stock raising on a comprehensive and broad-minded scale. This
territory is what you might call a virgin territory. It is closely:
analogous to the great plains of the West fifty years ago. The

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 115

land is there, and the first thing to do in this development is to
follow the most promising line that offers.

There has been only one speaker at this Conference—and
I make this statement without any spirit of criticism—there has
been only one speaker who has even hinted that the question of
labor is going to cut any figure here. We know what we can do
in the way of raising crops for hogs. There is a lot of informa-
tion on the success of live stock farming under intensified condi-
tions, such as Mr. Enochs described; but, gentlemen, you are talk-
ing in terms of 76 million acres, not in terms of 160 or 320 or 640
acres. You are dealing in big things. It is a tremendous propo-
sition. This is no child’s play; it is a man’s game; and it is a game
that will call for all the brains and intelligence that can be brought
into it.

Meat production in the United States has not been keeping
pace with the increase in population. Without burdening you
with a large array of statistical information, I will simply call
your attention to the number of meat animals in the country in
1900, 1910 and 1917.

In round numbers there were reported in the 1900 census
seventeen million dairy cows and fifty million “other” cattle, the
latter being principally beef cattle. In 1910 there were twenty
million dairy cows and forty-one million other cattle. In 1917
there were twenty-two million milch cows and forty million other
cattle.

We observe that there has been a considerable increase in
the number of milch cows, from seventeen million to twenty-two
million in seventeen years, an increase of almost thirty per cent.
On the other hand, in the case of beef cattle there has been a
decrease of over nine million head, or eighteen per cent.

Of sheep, the country possessed in 1900 sixty-one million
head; in 1910 fifty-two million head, and in 1917 forty-eight mil-
lion head, a decrease of thirteen million head. In the case of
swine, on the other hand, we see an increase. In 1900 there
were sixty-two million head; in 1910 fifty-eight million head; in
1917 sixty-seven million head, a net increase of five million head.
These figures are taken from the census figures, and from the
estimates of the Department of Agriculture. An accurate statis-
tical comparability is impossible, on account of the different con-
ditions under which the two censuses were compiled, the dates at

Nation’s
Scarcity of
Beef

Sheep
Decreasing;
Swine
Increasing

116 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

which the figures were gathered, and the different systems used
in. obtaining the figures. However, light is obtained on the same
subject from the reports of meat animals slaughtered under fed-
eral inspection at packing plants throughout the country. The
following table shows the number of establishments and the total
number of animals inspected at slaughter under federal inspection
annually from the beginning of inspection in the fiscal year 1907,
up to and including the fiscal year ended June 30, 1916:

NUMBER OF ESTABLISHMENTS AND TOTAL NUMBER
OF ANIMALS INSPECTED AT SLAUGHTER UNDER
FEDERAL INSPECTION ANNUALLY, 1907-1916.

Fiscal Year Establishments Cattle Calves
1907 708 7,621,717 1,763,574
1908 787 7,116,275 1,995,487
1909 876 7,325,337 2,046,711
1910 919 7,962,189 2,295,099
1911 936 7,781,030 2,219,908
1912 940 7,532,005 2,242,929
1913 910 7,155,816 2,098,484
1914 893 6,724,117 1,814,904
1915 896 6,964,402 1,735,902
1916 875 7 404,288 2,048,022

Swine Sheep Goats All Animals
31,815,900 9,681,876 52,149 50,935,216
35,113,077 9,702,545 45,953 53,973,337
35,427,931 10,802,903 69,193 55,672,075
27,656,021 11,149,937 115,811 49,179,057
29,916,363 13,005,502 54,145 52,976,948
34,966,378 14,208,724 63,983 59,014,019
32,287,538 14,724,465 56,556 56,322,859
33,289,705 14,958,834 121,827 56,909,387
36,247,958 12,909,089 165,533 58,022,884
40,482,799 11,985,926 180,355 62,101,391

There were 7,621,717 cattle slaughtered for inspection in the
year 1907; in the year 1910 this number had increased to 7,962,189,
from which point there has been a tendency to decrease, until
the year 1915. The number slaughtered in the year 1916 was
7,404,288, which is 200,000 less than in the year 1907, The
slaughter of calves is not significant. The slaughter of swine,

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 117

on the other hand is profoundly significant, a general tendency
to increase being noticed from the year 1907, when 31,815,900
head of swine were inspected, to the year 1916, when 40,482,799
were inspected, an increase of almost nine million head. Sheep,
on the other hand, show an increase to the year 1914, when 14,-
958,834 were inspected, from which time the decrease has been
pronounced, a total of 11,985,926 being reported for the last fiscal
year, as against 9,681,876 in 1907. The total number of animals
inspected at slaughter has increased from 50,935,216 in 1907 to
62,101,391 in 1916, 77.62 per cent of this being due to the increase
in swine slaughterings.

Up to the outbreak of the great war, our population was in-
creasing at the rate of twenty-five per cent per decade. The sig-
nificance of these figures is therefore apparent. There is no doubt
that our producers of beef cattle are doing everything which is
economically possible at the present time to increase the output,
but they have not yet overcome the effects of the depression of
ten years ago. The increase in pork production, which has been
rapid during the last ten years, is all that has saved the country
from a most serious meat shortage. The per capita consumption
of meat in the United States has actually decreased during this
time. Any head of a family on a moderate income can bear wit-
ness to this fact.

The entire problem is an economic one. Confining our atten-
tion solely to beef and pork production, we may observe that
hogs are much more economical animals to produce on the farm
than beef cattle. The classic investigations of Lawes and Gilbert
showed that a steer required 777 pounds of digestible organic
matter to make 100 pounds of increase in live weight, whereas a
pig required only 353 pounds of digestible matter to make a sim-
ilar gain. Expressed in another way, Jordan has shown that the
pig returns 25 pounds of marketable product for each one hun-
dred pounds of digestible matter consumed, of which 15.6 pounds
are edible solids, whereas a steer returns only 8.3 pounds of mar-
ketable product, of which only 2.8 pounds are digestible solids.
This greater economy of production for feed consumed accounts
for the large increase in pork production on the high-priced lands
of the corn belt, while beef production there has been almost at
a standstill.

Cattle, however, are a necessity in economical farm manage-
ment, when large quantities of unmarketable roughage are pro-

Hogs Prevent
Serious Meat
Shortage

Economy in
Pig Raising

Hog Produc-
tion in South
Increasing

118 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

duced. The high-priced corn belt farms produce tremendous
quantities of corn stover and large amounts of straw. Formerly
these products were largely wasted, but the necessity to get re-
turns on the heavy investment now requires their conservation.
The silo, the stover shredder, rations in which straw forms an
important part, and other methods of conservation have become
necessary. Nothing takes the place of cattle in so utilizing
coarse, unmarketable forage. Whether the cattle will be used
for beef production or dairy production depends entirely upon
labor, marketing and transportation conditions.

The problem of the economy of pork production in the
South is solved to a large extent. The increase in the number of
hogs in Southern territory has been a striking feature of the
agriculture of that section during recent years. One of the most
interesting reports of this character is found in the percentage
of hogs in the country on January 1, 1916, as compared with Jan-
uary 1, 1915. At that time there were fourteen states which re-
ported an increase of ten per cent. or more in the number of hogs
on January 1, 1916. Of these fourteen states, only two were
strictly corn belt states, and of the remaining twelve, five were
Southern states, namely, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama,
Louisiana and Texas. The increase during the last calendar year
was not so pronounced, largely on account of the high prices for
hogs prevailing during the year 1916, but there is no reason to be-
lieve that the tendency in Southern states to increase the number
of hogs has yet reached its maximum.

For convenient reference I am including here a table of
figures from the Department of Agriculture, showing the increase
in the number of hogs in Southern states from 1914 to 1917.

NUMBER OF HOGS JANUARY 1.

1914 1915 1916 1917 Increase
Maryland .. 332,000 349,000 359,000 359,000 27,000
Virginia. . . 869,000 956,000 1,023,000 1,023,000 154,000

W. Virginia. 367,000 374,000 378,000 380,000 13,000
N. Carolina. 1,362,000 1,525,000 1,550,000 1,550,000 188,000
S. Carolina. 780,000 819,000 870,000 920,000 140,000
Georgia. . .. 1,945,000 2,042,000 2,348,000 2,585,000 640,000
Florida..... 904,000 949,000 996,000 1,100,000 196,000
Tennessee. . 1,320,000 1,501,000 1,531,000 1,485,000 165,000

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 119

1914 1915 1916 1917 = Increase

Alabama. . . 1,485,000 1,559,000 1,715,000 1,850,000 365,000
Mississippi. . 1,467,000 1,540,000 1,617,000 1,698,000 231,000
Louisiana. .. 1,398,000 1,412,000 1,553,000 1,584,000 186,000
Texas... ... 2,618,000 2,880,000 3,197,000 3,229,000 611,000
Oklahoma... 1,352,000 1,420,000 1,491,000 3,372,000 20,000
Arkansas.... 1,498,000 1,573,000 1,589,000 1,575,000 ‘77,000

Total. . ..17,697,000 18,890,000 20,217,000 20,710,000 3,013,000

The control of hog cholera is no more difficult in the South
than in the corn belt, but the control of parasitic pests, both in-
ternal and external, requires more careful attention than in the
North. Economical pork production in the South is based on the
use of forage crops and the proper use of these crops in rotation
helps materially in handling the problem of internal parasites.

In many sections peanuts are largely used for grazing hogs,
resulting in the production of an oily pork. Mast-fed hogs have
long been subject to “dockage” on sale. Now the peanut hog has
joined this tabooed company and all Southern hogs reach North-
ern markets under suspicion. So long as the fresh pork market
is as strong as it is at the present time, this condition does not
preclude profitable hog production. Sooner or later, however, the
problem must be solved, and methods of finishing devised which
will harden the meat of hogs raised on forage crops which pro-
duce fats with low melting points. This is undoubtedly the most
serious problem in Southern pork production. A similar problem
was satisfactorily solved by Danish and Canadian scientists, and a
number of investigators in the Southern field, notably Gray, of
North Carolina, are now engaged upon it. There is no reason
to believe that it will not be solved in due time.

The first great problem in Southern beef production is tick
eradication. This problem is now fairly on its way to the half-
mile post. Needless to say, the second half will be made in much
better time than the first. It must be admitted, however, that the
first territory to be cleared of tick infestation was the territory
which was most promising for cattle production, or in which
a certain amount of cattle production has been in progress for
a considerable time. From one standpoint, the easy work has
been done, and the territory still under quarantine includes some
sections in which tick eradication work will be extremely difficult.

Problem of
Finishing Be-
ing Solved

Tick Being
Eliminated as
a Factor

Tick Eradica-
tion and the
Cattle Pro-
ducing Terri-
tory

120 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

To offset this difficulty we may observe that full ten years have
been taken to accomplish what has already been done. A large
amount of this time has been consumed in educational propa-
ganda. The education which the country has received as to the
value of tick eradication will undoubtedly go a long way toward
overcoming the natural obstacles which confront the eradicators
in the territory still under quarantine. The wisdom of the policy
of the past shows clearly, and the merit of the movement is
now generally recognized. With the majority of men, women
and children in the South now recognizing the importance of get-
ting rid of the cattle tick, a much larger amount of the effort of
the next ten years can be spent in active tick eradication work.
The tick-free area has now reached the sea coast and by the end
of the present calendar year we may expect to see released from
quarantine at least one state which was in 1906 entirely tick-
infested. This event will add to the impetus of the movement in
other states and state-wide tick-eradication laws will not only
appear on the statute books of all states where tick quarantine
exists, but they will be sincerely and energetically administered.

We are thus rapidly adding to the country’s tick-free terri-
tory. However, the common assumption that the eradication of
the cattle tick automatically adds just so much area to the cattle-
producing territory, is not exactly true. A large portion of the
territory which has been released from quarantine during the last
ten years has always produced cattle of sorts, but in much of the
territory from which the tick is still to be driven out, the profit-
able production of beef cattle has been practically unknown.

Let me make myself exactly clear on this point. I admit the
fact that in some sections which are primarily pasture sections,
beef cattle have been profitably produced where ticks have been
present and the infestation light, and considerable progress has
been made in breeding up native stock by the use of purebred
bulls. It is also a fact that in some sections where the “piney-
woods” cattle are common, the owners have made a profit. It is
still possible, no doubt, for a few individuals to make a living
from cattle of this type, but such a business, regarded in the
broad light of economics, cannot be said to be profitable as an
industry. If the proper charge had been made for the use of
the land over which these cattle grazed, the profit in their pro-
duction would probably be reduced to zero.

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 121

Methods of finishing cattle for market have been well worked
out in certain sections of the South, and the possible profit by
some of these methods was definitely shown, while the land on
which the work was done was still under quarantine. We must
admit, however, that a large portion of the area below the original
quarantine line is not yet ready for the fattening of cattle. Until
corn is produced in quantity and cheaply, or until other finishing
feeds equally cheap and equally efficient, are produced, the raising
of beef cattle for finishing elsewhere must be the chief feature of
the beef business of the South. This is particularly true of the
‘cut-over timber lands, and it is this territory which I have in
mind in making the foregoing remarks concerning the econom-
ical production of beef cattle in quarantined territory.

What do we really know about the cattle raising possibilities
of these cut-over timber lands? The fact that piney-woods cattle
range over them with little or no charge for the range, proves
nothing from a business standpoint, except that the climatic con-
ditions do not inhibit the growth of cattle. I might also say that
the fact that men have reached a considerable degree of success in
the production of pure-bred cattle in the South on cut-over timber
lands proves only one thing, and that is that the South can pro-
duce just as good pure-bred beef cattle as any other section of
the country, but it sheds very little light on the question of the
utilization of 76 million acres of these lands. This is a ranching
problem, a grazing problem.

If I may digress a moment, I venture the opinion that the
presence of these native cattle in considerable numbers will be
found to be an advantage when conditions are ready for the
systematic development of an economic cattle raising industry.
These native cows are hardy, acclimated, and will become a
splendid foundation on which to build the cattle industry of the
future. This native blood responds quickly to crossing with well-
bred bulls, and in the course of a few systematic crosses, high
grades will result which will be quite valuable as feeders.

This much we know, but before we can advise capital to
invest extensively in the cattle business on cut-over timber lands,
we must be sure that the cost of making these lands suitable for
cattle production will not be so great as to prevent the enterprise
from being profitable under proper management. I understand
that the cost of ridding the land of stumps has been pretty well

South Can
Produce
First-Grade
Cattle

Native Cattle
an Asset

Sees South as
Nation’s New
Cattle Coun-
try

More and Bet-
ter Pasturage
Essential

122 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

worked out. The cost of fencing can very readily be ascertained.
These and similar points being determined, we are at once face
to face with the question of the productive value which these
lands may then have for cattle grazing. By this time you are
probably of the opinion that I am a doleful prophet, and that I am
throwing cold water on the idea of developing these lands for cat-
tle production. Far from it. I have for more than ten years main-
tained that our most promising future source of considerable
increase in beef cattle production in this country is in the South-
ern territory south of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi rivers.
The Western range has reached its capacity. The increase in
production in the corn belt has not kept pace with the increase in
population, and in order to supply the corn-producing sections
with feeders at reasonable prices we must look to development in
the South.

Regarding the territory as a whole, the cut-over timber lands
are by nature promising for cattle producing purposes. But these
cut-over timber lands at present do not produce cattle econom-
ically, and they will not produce cattle economically until the
grass-producing possibilities of these lands are thoroughly dem-
onstrated.

Granted, then, that for a somewhat long time to come, cattle
raising rather than cattle fattening will prevail in the South as a
whole, it is apparent that after tick eradication, the problem of
most pressing importance, particularly in the cut-over timber
country, will be the maintenace of the herds which will be estab-
lished on the tick-freed areas. This maintenance problem has
two phases—the pasture period and the wintering period. The
pasture problem must be solved before the promised development
of the Southern cattle industry becomes an accomplished fact.
Not only in the cut-over timber lands, but elsewhere throughout
the South, the pasture problem presents itself as the most im-
portant feature after the tick eradication problem is solved.

The botanical features of native Southern forage plants are,
of course, well known. The adaptability of certain imported
ones is also fairly well understood, but there is a very great deal
to learn of the relative merits of different plants, their behavior
when pastured, their proper management under pasture, and their
productive value as pasture plants.

Just one question is a fair example of the importance of
these problems, and this one question crystallizes everything

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 123

which I have said on this subject. How many acres of cut-over
timber land are necessary to carry a cow through the season? Do
you know? I do not, and I have never met a man who does.

By way of explanation, let me say that this was written
before I had the pleasure of meeting our good friend, Mr. Thomp-
son, of Texas. Mir. Thompson was the first man able to give me
an intelligent answer to that question. He said yesterday that
when they started on that 60,000-acre tract in Trinity and Polk
Counties, in Texas, they estimated they would carry one cow on
every fifteen acres; but he says that he has found they can almost
cut it-in two, and now they estimate that around seven to ten acres
will be required to keep a cow for the season.

The first thought which an investor should consider before
going into cattle raising in these sections, is this very question.
It therefore seems incumbent on all of us who are interested in
this problem to bend every effort to bring about a speedy accumu-
lation of accurate information on the pasture question, and the
problem should be studied under different types of conditions,
each type related to the whole, so that when we have accumulated
data, it will not be fragmentary, but each part will fill a niche in
the construction of the entire structure.

The wintering problem does not give one nearly so much
concern as does the problem of pasturing through the growing
season. The wintering problem can be solved by foresight. We
are apt to overlook the fact that during the short winter in the
South, losses among cattle may be quite as serious as on the
ranges of the West, unless owners have fortified themselves with
a sufficient supply of feed to carry the animals through. Under
the best climatic conditions, cattle of the age of yearlings up,
will lose from fifty to one hundred pounds during the winter
when forced to subsist on cotton-stalk fields and cane brakes.
When winter conditions such as occurred during the winter of
1916-17 prevail, heavy losses result. Thousands of cows died in
the South during the past winter. The weather had something
to do with these deaths, but shortage of feed was the principal
cause. All this loss might have been prevented if one of two
things had been done: First, if the owner had not stocked up
with more cattle than he had feed for; second, if he had taken
precaution to provide sufficient feed in advance to carry the cows
through the winter. In any cattle enterprise on cut-over lands,

Seven to Ten
Acres toa
Cow

Plenty of
Feed in Win-
ter Essential

Systematic
Study of Pas-
turage Prob-
lem Urged

How Prompt
Results May
Be Obtained

124 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

selected areas can doubtless be found on which feed production
can be economically carried on to produce a sufficient quantity of
hay and silage to carry the cows through the winter. Where an
owner is caught with more cattle than he has feed for, he is in a
serious predicament. A sufficient supply of silage and hay, silage
and cottonseed meal, or even of hay alone, would have been cheap
insurance against the losses of last winter.

As a constructive suggestion, it is advised that the pasture
problem be attacked without delay in a systematic, thorough and
practical manner, co-operatively by the agronomist and the animal
husbandman. This plan need not be unduly expensive. It should
be carried out in a simple, thorough way. Any studies which are
made should be made under field conditions. They should be sys-
tematically located and carried on at a sufficient number of points
so that the influence of different types of soil, topography and cli-
mate will receive adequate attention. Furthermore, there should be
such a co-ordination of effort that the results obtained at any
given point will shed light on the problem as a whole. We
are all agreed, I take it, that the problem is urgent. It is
therefore necessary that results be obtained promptly which
will answer the questions of most pressing importance in a
minimum of time. No plan should be adopted which will
necessitate a large amount of preliminary detail work in the
way of providing equipment and facilities. Sufficient num-
bers of cattle should be used to make each experiment in it-
self of commercial importance. That is to say, in the case of
stockers, the number should be at least a carload in every ex-
periment; in the case of studies on the maintenance of a breeding
herd, a herd with a minimum of at least fifty cows, should be
used, so that at least a carload of cattle would be produced by
each breeding unit each year. The methods and equipment used
should be such that successful results can be immediately applied’
to the business on a large scale. The experiments should be
planned primarily from a business standpoint, and none should be
attempted which do not promise in all probability, under com-
petent| management, to show a profit. All records should be kept
with systematic care and precision by the methods now commonly
accepted as standard for such work. The record keeping feature
of the work is not properly chargeable against the cattle on
experiment and constitutes the principal item of overhead ex-
pense. Properly handled, the receipts from sales of cattle used

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 125

in such a series of experiments can be made to pay a large pro-
portion of the expenses of the work.

The Chairman: Are there any inquiries?
A Delegate: Is it necessary to stable cattle in the South?

Mr. Rommel: Not necessarily. It is always an advantage
to shelter cattle in storms. I have always insisted on this: If
you give an animal a dry place to sleep, shelter from the storms,
and plenty to eat, you will get along all right through the winter-
time; and all you need is a simple shelter for the cattle, as they
ought to have a dry place to sleep, and where they will not be
exposed to storms. These storms which you have down here are
almost as severe on the cattle as the more severe storms in the
more northern sections.

A Survey of the Live Stock

Situation
By Dr. Andrew M. Soule

President of the College of Agriculture of the
State of Georgia

Statistics are unpalatable to the average man. They do not
seem to appeal to his imagination. They are too matter of fact
and not sufficiently spectacular to interest him. Yet their consid-
eration is basic to ascertaining the true status of any business or
industry. The general dislike for statistics is in large measure
due to the difficulty of their ready assimilation. To understand
them requires careful study, and this the average farmer or busi-
ness man has not been ready to bestow upon them, because like
the English, he has always muddled through somehow. This
indifference to statistics accounts in large degree for our woeful
lack of a proper appreciation of the true economic situation which
confronts us as a people. We are surprised and startled when we
learn that the food supply has become circumscribed and that the
cost of living has advanced in such an alarming manner. It has
been much easier in the past to follow the false reasoning and
“spread-eagleism” of the orator or to swallow bodily the absurd

False Philos-
ophy Danger-
ous

The South’s
Part in the
Nation’s Live
Stock Indus-
try

Live Stock
Values Double
in Six Years

126 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

explanations offered by the demagogue until at last we have
reached a point where these things no longer act as palliatives
and we are face to face with the necessity of studying and solving
economic questions through the exercise of the highest intelli-
gence and skill which we as a nation are in position to bring to
their correct solution. I have no apologies to offer, therefore, for
the statistical data presented in this paper, as I consider it nec-
essary to the elucidation of the discussion which follows.

A survey of the live stock situation must, of necessity, deal
with the past, present and future conditions and possibilities of
this industry in the South. In this connection, it is proper to state
that this discussion is based on a consideration of the number of
live stock held on the farms in the following fifteen states as taken
from the 1910 census: Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North
Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee,
Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas.

Animals in Southern States 1910.

Number Value
Dairy COWS. . occ cece cece eee ene 5,651,000 $149,462,000
Other cattle:-s. c-.n2 see wecaeeann 4 13,795,000 216,993,000
SHEEPs nk Sia oe sew esteem 7,196,000 25,574,000
SS WANT 50s ie due hts Rane ardiw aie Nea 18,374,000 80,670,000
Total sused-eécio ha esse heise is 45,016,000 $472,699,000

Animals in United States 1910.

Number Value
Dairy cows.) steiner sea ouk's 20,625,000 $706,236,000
Other cattle... 0... 2... eee eee ele 41,178,000 793,287,000
SHEC Pye is Gidea ieee neaen een 52,447,000 232,841,000
CWiINes as 5. <br Renae aan 58,185,000 399,338,000
Totals oe peek patience 172,435,000 $2,131,702,000

It appears that in 1910, there were 45,016,000 head of live

stock, worth $472,699,000, owned on Southern farms.

At that

time, there were 172,435,000 head of live stock on all the farms in

the United States, worth $2,131,702,000.

It appears that a little

more than one-fourth of the live stock owned in the United States

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 127

was in the South, while they had a value of less than one-fourth
of the total value of all the animals owned in the United States.

On January 1, 1917, according to the Bureau of Crop Esti-
mates, the live stock in the Southern states numbered 48,171,000
and were worth $877,643,000. The number of animals in the
United States was 179,553,000, worth $3,961,527,000. There was
an increase for the country as a whole, therefore, in numbers, of
7,118,000, and in value, of $1,829,825,000. In other words, while
the increase in live stock as a whole is relatively small, the value
almost doubled.

Animals in the Southern States 1916.

Number Value
Daity COWSs 466 gee he done vanes 5,889,000 $276,085,000
Other Cattle: a: esa cdiwisnee sarees 13,005,000 365,747,000
Shee pe i ane stad aiew era doe eee ces 6,978,000 37,047,000
SWAG eke Se acto canted iolabislaed ath casa oeeceala 22,299,000 198,764,000
48,171,000 $877 643,000
Animals in United States 1916.

Number Value
Dally COWS: 4 eevee saa dies Aes 22,768,000 $1,358,435,000
Other cattle occcx. ceucea aca aie 40,849,000 1,465,786,000
SHEED a sna. eraae ken bina 48,483,000 346,064,000
OS Willers eeererucana as cea ues 67,453,000 791,242,000

179,553,000 $3,961,527,000

During the six years under discussion, the number of animals
in the South increased by 3,155,000, as compared with 7,118,000
for the United States. There was also a very substantial increase
in value, amounting roughly to $405,000,000. In the matter of
gain in numbers, the South more than held its own, but did not
make much progress as compared with other sections of the
country in an increased valuation of its live stock. An analysis of
the figures shows that there was quite a substantial gain in the
number of dairy cows, amounting to 238,000 head. In the number
of beef cattle there was a loss of 790,000 head. Sheep also de-
clined by 218,000. Hogs increased by 4,025,000 head. It is grati-
fying to observe that the hog industry is being recognized at

Swine as a
Mortgage
Lifter

Decline in
Beef Cattle
and Sheep

Room for
150,000,000
Sheep in the
South

128 : The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

its face value, and that this line of animal husbandry is being
systematically advanced throughout the South. The hog is a
mortgage lifter in the truest sense of the word, and will pay the
farmer as large a return on his investment in as short a time as
he can obtain from any other class of stock. As a means towards
increasing the food supply and adequately feeding our own peo-
ple, building up the income of our farms, and enabling us to di-
versify and rotate our crops in a satisfactory manner and reduce
or overcome the losses which the boll weevil may cause in various
states, let us encourage swine husbandry in every legitimate man-
ner. If we do this, many of our most difficult problems will be
satisfactorily solved.

It may be surprising to many that there should have been a
decrease in beef cattle of 790,000 head. This is a grave economic
mistake and must be corrected if the South is to become perma-
nently prosperous and successful. It is all the more regrettable
that this decrease in beef cattle should have occurred in view of
the great success which has attended the campaign for tick eradi-
cation, and the relatively large area which has been set free as a
result of this work which has been carried forward by the federal
Bureau of Animal Industry, in co-operation with the several
states. The decrease in the number of sheep on Southern farms
is also to be greatly regretted. There is no explanation for such
a condition save the fact that the worthless cur has been allowed
to flourish at the expense of the “golden hoof” of the sheep. In
England sheep are grown by the millions on lands similar to
thousands of acres unadapted for general cultivation to be found
in the South, yet which are susceptible of producing a fine variety
of grass and forage crops. In England sheep are raised for
mutton and the wool is a surplus crop. There is no reason why
this industry should not be established on similar lines in the
South. Where Great Britain, with an area of 120,000 square
miles, maintains, roughly speaking, between twenty and twenty-
five million head of sheep, we in the South are maintaining less
than seven million on 899,747 square miles. On a comparative
basis, the South should be maintaining over 150,000,000 head of
sheep, or between five and six for each inhabitant. At the present
time, England is maintaining one sheep for each two of her popu-
lation. Is it any wonder that the cost of living should be rapidly
increasing ; that meat should become in some senses of the word
scarce and so high-priced that the average individual cannot use

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 129

it freely; or that the cost of woolen clothing should reach such
exorbitant figures? The writer likes dogs, believing them to be
one of the most wholesome and desirable of all pets, but the dog
should not be given free range to destroy what should be one
of the country’s most important industries. We have literally
thrown sheep to the dogs. When will we come to our senses and
confine or destroy the worthless cur and give the golden-hoofed
sheep a chance to aid in the agricultural emancipation of the
South and in the restoration of much of our worn and gullied
lands which now lie practically idle? Surely this situation can
not continue much longer. It is too much out of joint with the
times. Surely some Moses will arise to lead us to see the light
and act in a rational manner towards the solution of this question
and the establishment of sheep husbandry on some basis com-
mensurate with our opportunities and the needs of the South and
the nation as a whole.

The question naturally arises as to the relation of animal
husbandries in the South compared to the population as a whole.
In other words, what are we doing towards providing ourselves
with animal food as compared with other sections of the country?
As already pointed out, the area of the fifteen southern states is
899,747 square miles. The area of the United States is 3,026,789
square miles. The South, therefore, comprises practically one-
third of the total area of the United States. In 1910 the popula-
tion of the United States was 91,972,266, and of the South,
28,855,939, or a little less than one-third of the total population.
We possessed, according to the figures of 1916, about one-fourth
of the dairy cows, about one-third of the beef cattle, about one-
seventh of the sheep, and about one-third of the hogs owned in
the United States. Therefore, in spite of the substantial increase
shown in the number of swine in the past six years, we are barely
holding our own in the matter of maintaining our animal indus-
tries as compared with the rest of the country. It behooves us
to realize this situation and take steps to avert the crisis which
will shortly confront us| unless something radical towards en-
couraging and developing our live stock industries is accom-
plished very soon.

The population of the United States in the last sixteen years
has increased by more than 26,000,000, or 33 per cent. In the
past six years, it is believed that the numbers have increased by
more than 10,000,000. There has been no such proportionate

Throwing
Sheep to the
Dogs

Warns South
of Food Crisis

‘Heavy Ex-
ports to Con-
dinue After
War

Tick Eradica-
tion First
Essential

130 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

increase in the number of our farm animals, yet meat and dairy
products constitute 37 per cent. of the average diet, cereals 31 per
cent., sweet and Irish potatoes 13 per cent., vegetables 8 per cent.,
and fish 2 per cent. The amount of beef, veal, mutton and pork
available per capita has fallen from 248.2 pounds in 1899 to 219.6
pounds in 1915. The production of butter and cheese per capita
has fallen from 23.6 pounds in 1899 to 21.1 pounds in 1909.
The production of fish, cereals and Irish potatoes has fallen off
since 1899, while poultry, eggs, sweet potatoes and citrus fruits
have shown an increase, which, of course, is very encouraging
insofar as it goes. Under the stimulus of war abroad and extraor-
dinary prices, thé exports of meat products for 1916 will prob-
ably be 2,000,000,000 pounds, together with 602,000,000 pounds of
fats and oils. The imports of these two items amount to prac-
tically nothing as compared with the exports. Hence, we face
another danger of decreasing our meat supply through the de-
mand abroad, which it is reasonable to suppose will continue
until the end of the war and for some years thereafter. This is
but an added reason why we should develop and promote our
animal industries in every possible way. Feverish activity along
this line is what we need. At the same time, we should avoid a
boom or speculation or irrational development because all of
these things will re-act unfavorably on the industry in the long
run. At the same time, it does not appear that the Southern
people as a whole realize the true inwardness of the existing
situation or fully appreciate the opportunities which it offers to
them.

Among the things which need to be done to place our animal
industries on a thoroughly constructive basis is the complete
eradication of the cattle tick. Commendable progress is being
made along this line. This work was begun in 1906, through the
efforts of a small group of men associated with Southern agricul-
tural colleges and experiment stations, and if laurel wreaths were
given to those deserving them, theirs would have been bestowed
long ago. Ata time when everyone considered the eradication of
the cattle tick a dream of the imagination, these men inaugurated
the work on a scale which demonstrated its feasibility, and
through persistent effort, won the sympathy and approval of
Secretary Wilson, Congress and the Federal authorities to the
support of this work. The South will never be able to pay the
debt of gratitude it owes to Dr. Tait Butler, Prof. H. A. Morgan,

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 131

Prof. W. R. Dodson, Prof. B. W. Kilgore, Dr. Cooper Curtis and
the other men who were associated with them in the inauguration
of this wonderful enterprise. Already ticks have been eradicated
from 294,014 square miles of territory since 1906. In other
words, over forty per cent. of the originally infested territory has
been cledned and forever rid of this miserable parasite which
caused losses estimated at $40,000,000 a year to the live stock
owners of the South. In Georgia, for instance, fifty-five counties
are now free of ticks and quarantine regulations are being en-
forced in thirty-eight others. It is only a matter of three to five
years until practically every one of the infested states will have
been cleaned up, and when that time is reached, the Southern
stockmen ought to join in a grand jubilee of thanksgiving.

Next to the eradication of the tick, efforts should be made
looking to the checking and elimination of disease and parasites.
For instance, much can be done towards reducing losses from
hog cholera which amount now to millions of dollars annually.
Tuberculosis can also be controlled and in large measure, stamped
out. This disease causes a loss in the United States of $25,000,000
a year. According to the following table, the losses of live
stock in Georgia, mainly from disease and exposure, may be con-
servatively estimated at $5,247,520. The total number of animals
lost in the year indicated was approximately 269,480 head. Of
this number 258,480} were meat-producing animals so that the
losses resulted chiefly in cutting down the meat supply and in-
creasing its cost to the consumer.

Losses of Live Stock in Georgia for Year Ending April 1, 1916.

Number. Average Value. Total Loss.

Rotates ss Tekaaativeees 11,000 $150.00 $1,650,000
CHAS ka Danese: 41,800 25.00 1,045,000
Chieti a cannasenieaosas 5,560 3.00 16,680
CWihe uckis goers 211,320 12.00 2,535,840

otal a cantatas 269,680 $5,247,520

Applying these figures to the South. it will be seen that for
the fifteen Southern states the losses amount to between 75 and
100 million dollars annually. Surely, it would be worth while
on the part of the different states to spend something for educa-
tion, and thereby train a generation of veterinarians so that the

Disease and
Parasites
Cause Heavy
Losses

More Veteri-
narians
Needed

The Agricul-
tural College
.as a Factor

132 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

stockmen might have their services at a reasonable cost. The
stockman himself should receive sufficient training to be able to
diagnose many of the more important diseases and give the nec-
essary treatment. This is particularly true in the case of swine,
which the farmer can successfully inoculate against cholera.
We have not realized the nature or extent of these losses as land
owners, and certainly the consuming part of our population have
not understood the situation or they would have demanded a
measure of relief along the lines indicated and which can only be
done through the medium of the more liberal endowment of our
agricultural colleges and the training of experts to perform the
necessary public service welfare work with animals. We also
need to educate a generation of stockmen. The stock business is
a comparatively new industry. It is much more complicated
than that of cotton farming. When one comes to deal with living
animals, subject in many respects to the same diseases and
troubles which afflict the human race, skill in management, feed-
ing and handling becomes absolutely essential. A live stock
husbandman is not made over night. The successful feeders and
breeders of England and Scotland have followed the industry
from generation to generation. The owners of breeding animals
in those countries are highly educated and scholarly men, and
they have the most reliable and capable herdsmen with wide ex-
perience in the handling of animals in charge of their herds and
flocks. We must, therefore, encourage our boys to go to agricul-
tural colleges and obtain the fundamental and technical training
necessary, and then arrange for them to obtain such additional
practical information as may be necessary on selected stock
farms. When this is done we will have started the industry on
the high road to success, because it will have been established on
a correct scientific basis, which is the only lasting foundation on
which to build any superstructure.

That we need education along this line more than in other
sections of the country is evidenced by the fact that 25 head of
cattle out of every 1000 die from disease and 25 from exposure;
31 sheep out of every 1000 die from disease and 31 from exposure;
71 head of swine out of every 1000 die from disease. These fig-
ures apply to the Sunny South, with an equable climate, long
growing season and the other favorable conditions which per-
tain here. On the other hand, in the North Atlantic states,
where seasonal and climatic conditions are as unfavorable as

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 133

they could be in any section of the United States, only 19.9
cattle in 1000 die from disease and 3.6 from exposure; of sheep
25.2 die from disease and 9.2 from exposure; of swine 27.5 die
from disease.

That we can make rapid and substantial progress if we ap-
ply ourselves to the task properly is shown by what has been Georgia an
accomplished in Georgia in the last few years. According to the Example to
census figures of 1910 we possessed animals of the several classes ‘he South
to the number and value indicated below:

Number. Value.
FI GPS6S8 35° due ake eee eona nla 120,067 $14,193,839
MileSi 3: sasiucciasenbeutetr an 295,348 43,974,611
Beef and Dairy Cattle......... 1,080,316 14,060,958
Sheep: & Shc uiarst acute 187,644 308,212
SWailes 4 abeacekalwedainedias 1,783,684 5,429,016
EOtalow sasereeax eae kadenas 3,467,059 $77 966,636

According to the Bureau of Crop Estimates the figures for
1916 are as follows:

Number. Value.
TPOrseSs eke an ee eewes 127,000 $ 16,383,000
MiuleSia.4 seyelwnaaw et iewe aes 324,000 52,812,000
Beef and Dairy Cattle.......... 1,104,000 . 26,579,000
SHEED. kg chien ew eeaalis 150,000 420,000
SWANGS ap tears. o sobs ied wee dees AE 2,585,000 23,265,000
Totaly iti ca ween e 4,290,000 $119,459,000

The increase in numbers for the period mentioned amounts
to 822,941 and the increase in value to $41,492,364. Part of this
increase in value is attributable to the better grade of live stock
and the higher market values pertaining, but a very considerable
amount of it is due to the greater number of animals now owned.
For instance, horses and mules show an increase, beef and dairy
cattle a slight increase, sheep a falling off, but swine an increase
of 801,316, or well on towards the million mark. This is a very
notable increase to have occurred in a period of six years. More-
over, where these animals had an average value of $3.04 in 1910,
they now have an average value of $9.00, showing that the qual-
ity has been greatly advanced. In other words, the increase in

Boys’ Live
Stock Clubs
and County
Agents
Praised

Grass a
Friend and
Asset to the
Farmer

134 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

value of swine in Georgia in six years amounts in round numbers
to about $18,000,000.
This gives some idea of the forcefulness of an educational
campaign organized and conducted along certain lines. While
all of the increase is not.attributable to any one agency, the boys’
live stock clubs have exerted a marvelous influence by creating
a renewed interest in swine husbandry in inducing the fathers to
purchase pure-bred animals for them, and thereby raising the
quality of the stock kept on many farms. Naturally, the various
organizations concerned have endeavored in every way to en-
courage the use of preventive serum, with the result that large
numbers of outbreaks of this disease have been checked at the
start, and hundreds of farmers taught how to use the serum
properly. The county agents are undoubtedly to be credited with
having accomplished a work along this line worth millions of
dollars to the swine owners of the state. They were the men on
the ground when the outbreaks occurred and their prompt action
and public service work in this direction cannot be too highly
commended. I have no doubt but that they have done an equally
important work in every other Southern state.

Among the things which must be done is to teach the South-
ern farmer to quit fighting grass. Grass should be his most val-
uable friend and most highly prized asset. The cotton farmer
has been taught to fight grass from infancy; therefore, it seems
that he is unwilling to have any of it on any part of his land
whether he devotes it to cotton or not. One can not grow and
maintain live stock successfully without grass. It is needless to
enter into detail as to the great variety of grasses and clovers
which may be provided for summer and winter grazing and
which would shortly clothe our hills and prevent their erosion if
given opportunity to do so. They would also add materially to
the carrying capacity of the land, shorten the length of time we
would have to stall feed our animals, enable us to improve the
quality of our live stock, and give us the necessary succulent food
for the cheap maintenance of live stock in the summer which
silage affords in the winter.

Speaking of the educational campaign, it is proper to state
that hundreds of silos have been built in Georgia in the last few
years as a result of the work done by the animal husbandry di-

vision and the extension force of the State College of Agriculture.
Plans have been furnished to thousands of farmers and they have

‘The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 135

been aided in ‘erecting the necessary structures. They have also
been advised as to the crops to grow and as to the methods of
feeding to follow, with the result that the silo is now regarded by
many as an indispensable factor in the maintenance of beef and
dairy cattle on an economical and practical basis. Only a begin-
ning has been made in this direction, however, for the time must
shortly come when there will be thousands upon thousands of
silos in every Southern state if we are to develop our live stock
business to the degree which is necessary and essential.

Only a word can be said in this connection relative to the
feeding of live stock, but it is along this line that more failures
are recorded than in any other direction. Self-criticism is not
pleasant, but if we realize that for the most part we are “babes in
the woods” when it comes to the question of feeding, we will
make progress all the more rapidly. The problem of animal
nutrition is a complicated one from every point of view. One
must understand the composition of foodstuffs, and the anatomy,
physiology and requirements of the animal body for maintenance,
for growth and for work. One must understand how to combine
foods in order to promote digestion and circulation; in other
words, how to lubricate the machine most cheaply and success-
fully. The animal in the stall corresponds to the knitting ma-
chine in the mill. It may or may riot do effective work. It all
depends on the manner in which it is set up and manipulated. It
must be adjusted and oiled and lubricated. The animal must be
fed and watered and cared for properly if expected to produce a
profitable return. As to the amount of foodstuffs available, our
supply may be limited in some respects, but we can produce silage
ad libitum, and this can be fed with success for six months of the
year. Summer pastures can be provided by the farmer who has
the ambition to do so. Grain crops of a great variety may be
had to use as concentrates. We can increase our yields of corn,
oats, peanuts, soy beans, velvet beans and cotton seed meal. No
section of the country may be better supplied with the variety
of foodstuffs essential to the proper nourishment of all classes of
live stock than the South. It is a question of choosing from the
rich field of possible supply and combining nature’s gifts in the
proper manner. :

That the feed problem is a determining factor in economic
production is shown by the following example: A dairy cow fed
on a ration of 36 pounds of silage and 6 pounds of cotton seed

Helping the
Farmer Build
Silos

The Science
of Proper
Feeding

Rations That
Double
Profits

High - Grade
Cows Pay
Best in the
End

136 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

meal produced a profit of $51.75 from butter when sold at 30
cents a pound. When fed on a ration of 36 pounds of silage, 7
pounds of hay and 5 pounds of mixed grain, the profit at the same
sale price was $37.15. When fed on a ration of 12 pounds of
silage, 10 pounds of hay and 10 pounds of mixed grain, the profit
fell to $24.43. In other words, one ration was more than twice
as profitable as another. This example will apply with equal
force to the economic maintenance of horses and mules; beef and
dairy cattle, sheep and swine. The feeding of live stock may be
a gamble at present, and, if so, the cards stack themselves against
the owner every time. Intelligence and skill and the essential
knowledge on which correct nutrition is predicated must be pos-
sessed by the successful stockman. I emphasize, therefore, the
necessity of encouraging hundreds of boys in the South to take
the necessary courses of instruction in our agricultural colleges
that they may become acquainted with the science and art of an-
imal nutrition and become experts in the handling of live stock.
Until this is done our progress will be of the more or less blun-
dering variety and our losses will be so frequent as to discourage
rather than promote what in the very nature of the situation
should always be one of our most important and constructive in-
dustries.

The stockman must give consideration to quality in his ani-
mals. If he is not willing to do this he cannot hope to succeed.
The South is very backward in this direction. We are securing a
very small return, for instance, from the dairy cows we maintain.
In fact, a large per cent of them are unprofitable. It may not
seem credible to every person, but it is true nevertheless that a
cow giving 300 pounds of butter fat in a lactation period made
the same profit as forty-one cows each yielding 131 pounds of
butter in a lactation period. The reason for this lies in the fact
that it costs so much to maintain an animal. The food consumed
in maintenance is not used for productive purposes. A cow of
limited assimilative capacity can only utilize so much food. We
may feed her more than a given amount but she wastes the bal-
ance. She is not an economical manufacturer of milk and butter.
We must get rid, therefore, of the thief in the dairy herd, and we
should remember that there are thousands of them. The same is
true of our beef cattle and our sheep and swine. We must get rid
of the scrub stock, the slow developer, and the animal which can
not eat an unusually large amount of food and assimilate and

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 137

digest it to advantage and manufacture therefrom some food sub-
stance of value to the owner and to the human race. We must
come to understand that animals are just as individualistic as hu-
man beings and we must get rid of the low-grade stock we pos-
sess if we are to be successful and prosperous as live stock farmers.

The importance of this matter is illustrated in the following
table, which shows the average value of different classes of farm
animals in Georgia, in the United States, and in the states where
the particular class of animals have attained the highest value.
Georgia figures have been used because of the readiness with
which they may be applied to the conditions prevailing in the
other Southern states concerned:

Average Value of Live Stock.

Georgia. United States. Values in Other States.
Horses. . ..... $127.00 $102.94 Maine $152.00
Mules.......... 163.00 118.32 New Jersey 169.00
Rhode Island 77.00
Dairy Cows .... 37.00 59.66 Nebraska 68.00
Wisconsin 65.00
Illinois 43.30
Beef Cattle ..... 16.20 35.88 Nebraska 44.30
Montana 53.10
Iowa 8.80
Shéepis \cchaces 2.80 7.14 Nevada 8.20
Idaho 8.20
Connecticut 17.50
New Jersey 17.00
Swine..........-. 9.00 11.73 Maine 16.60
Iowa 15.50
Nebraska 14.00

Dairy cows in Georgia are worth on an average $37.00 apiece;
in Rhode Island $77.00; and in the United States $59.66. In
Nebraska they are worth $68.00, and in Wisconsin $65.00. Wis-
consin is one of the greatest dairy states, and one can understand
why their cows are so much better producers than ours as shown
by their average value. Wisconsin farmers do not come to Georgia
or the South to buy high-producing dairy animals, but we go to
them for this purpose. There is no reason why, by the use of pure-
bred sires, the elimination of unprofitable animals, and the proper
feeding and maintenance of our cows, we should not make

Scrub Stock
Must Go

Average
Value of Live
Stock

Pure - Bred
Sires Mean
Successful
Farms

Natural Ad-
vantages of
the South

138 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

them worth $65.00. It should be possible to add several million
dollars to the value of our dairy herds every year by the process
indicated. In a state like Georgia, for instance, we should be able
in large measure to replace the losses which the weevil might in-
flict on us through the improvement of our dairy cattle. It would
not break us to do it. We have the money and the brains and the
intelligence. All we need to do is to study this proposition as
seriously as we have studied cotton production. Then, educate our
boys, use pure-bred sires and utilize the natural facilities which
we possess to attain the end in view.

Take the case of beef cattle. They are worth $16.20 apiece in
Georgia, and in the United States $35.88. In other words, our
beef cattle are of a low grade. They dress out about 40 per cent
of the live weight. It takes them about a year or so longer to
mature than it should. They do not finish out advantageously.
When shipped to consuming centers they class as little better than
scrubs for the most part. In Montana the average beef animal is
worth $53.10, in Nebraska $44.30, and in Illinois $43.30. Montana
beef cattle are worth more than three times as much as Georgia
beef cattle. This has been brought about through the use of the
pure-bred sire, the elimination of the scrub, and a state-wide cam-
paign of education.

The facts presented above apply with equal force to sheep and
swine. As a result of the boys’ pig club work and other educa-
tional forces which have been brought into play, swine in Georgia
are now credited with an average value of $9.00 as compared with
$11.73 for the United States. In Connecticut they are worth
$17.50, or almost twice as much as in Georgia; in New Jersey
$17.00, and in Maine $16.60. In this connection it is important to
remember that the highest priced animals in the United States in
many instances are in states which can not produce half as many
food crops as Georgia, which do not raise anything like the same
quantity or variety of concentrates, and where the climatic condi-
tions are most unfavorable. The people in those states are only
able to compete with the South in the production of live stock be-
cause of the special study they have made of this business; because
of the greater skill and care with which they feed and handle their
animals; and because of the high premium they have placed on
quality which has been attained through the use of pure-bred sires.
These lessons should sink deep into our hearts, because they con-
stitute the keystone over the arch of success as it applies to ani-

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 139

mal production. The foregoing figures illustrate a point which I
desire to again re-emphasize in that we can recoup ourselves for
losses due to the boll weevil invasion by improving the quality
of our live stock and by directing attention to the development
of animal industries. There is no reason, for instance, why we
should not increase the number of hogs to three million in the
course of a-couple of years, thereby adding from this source
alone several million dollars annually to the revenue of our
farms. In the course of four or five years we could increase the
value of our beef and dairy cattle by a similar amount, thus giv-
ing us in a short time an offset of twenty to twenty-five million
dollars to replace any losses incident to weevil damage.

The latent possibilities of live stock industries are nicely
illustrated by what has been accomplished on the College farm
at Athens in the past few years. This farm was little better
than an abandoned plantation when taken over in 1907. The
figures presented below show the value of the live stock at that
time and at subsequent periods up to June 1, 1916:

Value of live stock on College farm Sept. 1,

WOOL eect Sch Speen e ORLA AAG LR Genes $ 1,917.00
Expenditures for live stock from Sept. 1,

1907, to June 1, 1916................ 9,683.60
Value of live stock June 1, 1916.......... $17,310.00
Sales of live stock Sept. 1, 1907, to June 1,

19162. Sete bo Ware se eee e48e 13,377.95
Net increased value plus sales above ex-

penditures for purchase of live stock. . 19,087.35

$30,687.95 $30,687.95

Average amount expended yearly for live stock...... $ 1,075.95
Average annual sales of live stock................... 1,491.98
Average net yearly increase in inventoried value of live

SEOs aioe erie cenoned neha bein ieee he ane eae 1,710.33

As is shown, the farm started with $1,917 worth of live
stock. There has been expended for the purchase of live stock
during the past nine years $9,683.60. The sales of live stock for
nine years amount to $13,377.95, while the value of the live stock
as inventoried on June,1, 1916, was $17,310.00. The net increased
value plus sales above expenditures for the purchase of live
stock, therefore, totaled $19,087.35. An accurate record of the

What Has
Been Done on
an “Aban-
doned” Farm

Percheron
Mares Suc-
cessfully
Grown in the
South

Two Year -
Old Hereford
Steer Sells for
$123.50 to the
Butcher

140 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

number of animals purchased and handled and the manner in
which they have been disposed of has been kept on the College
farm since the work was first started. This will give some idea
of what can be done on a farm organized along the lines indi-
cated. What has been done here can be done by hundreds of
other farmers who will make the business of live stock breeding
a specialty and study the various problems involved therein in
an intelligent manner. It is worth while noting that while
$1,075.95 was spent for the purchase of live stock each year, the
annual sales amounted to $1,491.98, and the average net yearly
increase in the inventoried value of the live stock to $1,710.33.
This is a line of activity which the young men of the South
should engage in, and everyone who has the welfare of this sec-
tion of the country at heart or who is concerned about reducing
the cost of living or supplying our markets with an abundance
of choice meat and dairy products will lend his encouragement
to the promotion of this industry.

It has been thought by many that Percheron mares could
not be maintained successfully in the South. On January 1,
1911, a team of grade mares was purchased by the College of
Agriculture for $470.00. They have done the same amount of
work as any team of mules would have performed in the past
six years. Colts to the value of $1,137.50 have been sold from
them already and there is a filly on hand worth $100.00, making
the gross return from these two animals $1,237.50, or more than
two and a half times their original purchase price. In the mean-
time they have earned their board and keep. The man who can-
not keep Percheron mares on his farm should not attribute it to
climatic or soil conditions, but to carelessness in the matter of
feeding and general management.

That our beef industries can be rapidly and profitably built
up is illustrated by the fact that a long 2-year-old grade Here-
ford steer weighing 1,450 pounds was recently sold to an Athens
butcher at 8.5 cents a pound net, or for $123.50 cash. This steer
was two crosses removed from a native cow that cost $17.00. It
took a little over six years to produce him. When slaughtered
he dressed out 64 per cent of valuable meat. He cost the butcher
11 cents a pound dressed. The same butcher purchased a car-
load of steers at 5.5 cents. They cost him hung up on the hooks
10.75 cents a pound, but the high-grade Hereford steer sold for
5 cents a pound more all around, and hence he was a far more

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 141

profitable animal to handle. The butcher who purchased him
with misgivings has since visited the College and wants to know
when we will have some more like him. He has been educated
and has learned that quality is a matter of surpassing moment in
animals. Persons who ate the meat are anxious for some more of
the same character. There are 100,000 farms in the South where
the same class of animal can be produced under the same con-
ditions in a period of six years, starting with a pure-bred sire on
native stock. It may be interesting to know that Hereford steers
sold as long yearlings by the College attained an average weight
of 1,010 pounds and sold at $80.50 a head cash on the farm.

There never was a country offering greater opportunities to
live stock men, but in this connection it should be remembered
that it takes a keen, analytical, constructive business man to
run a live stock farm just as well as it does to run a law office, a
hardware business or a manufacturing enterprise. If this fact
can be borne into the consciousness of our people the founda-
tion will have been laid on which to build up animal industries
of proportions calculated to serve the present and future eco-
nomic needs of the South, and to a reasonable degree, the nation
as a whole.

Business
Methods
Needed in
Live Stock
Farming

Stop “Playing
With Agricul-
ture”

142 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

The Animal Industry of the

South—Past, Present and
Future
By Dr. W. H. Dalrymple

Professor of Veterinary Science, Louisiana State
University and A. & M. College

The subject assigned to me, or rather to that distinguished
scientist, Dr. Jno. R. Mohler, Assistant Chief of the Federal
Bureau of Animal Industry, whose place I am presumed to fill
on the programme, is a very large one, and one that it would
be impossible to adequately cover in the limited space of time
allotted to its discussion.

As regards ‘the past of animal industry in the South, I do
not believe it would aid us much at this time to dwell to any
extent on the conditions that are behind us, unless it should be
to utilize our remembrance of them, along with what we know
of the present, to help us build more solidly for the future.

There is one thought, however, which appeals to me very
strongly, viz., that if we expect to make the most out of our
great agricultural and live stock possibilities in the future we
will have to consider and treat them in a much more serious
manner than has been the case in the past, or aS some seem to
view them even at the present time.

Or, to quote a recent remark made by a prominent British
agriculturist, as he views matters at the present time in that
country, and which, in some degree at least, may apply to us,
viz., “We can play with politics, with industry, with law, and
even with the consuming fires of civilized (?) warfare, but if we
value the future of our country, and of our race, we cannot any
longer afford to play with agriculture.”

The great cattle ranges of the West are rapidly being placed
under cultivation to meet the demands of an ever-increasing pop-
ulation, both natural and through immigration, and which may
be largely added to after the world is again at peace, who have

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 143

to be provided with occupations, and whose stomachs have to be
filled. In fact, one of the greatest economic problems confront-
ing us at the present moment is, how to increase the producing
capacity of our soils, and extend our cultivable areas to the ut-
most, even to our home gardens and backyards, not only to keep
pace with our present-day requirements under normal conditions,
but to meet a most abnormal state occasioned by our participa-
tion in a world’s conflict. The call for the highest standard of
efficiency in the production and conservation of food does not
come only to the American farmer, but the cry today comes
from everywhere, for the mobilization of the world’s agricultural
resources, so that the people of different continents may not
suffer for lack of the necessities of life.

For some time, however, we have been brought face to face
with the problem of the high cost of living, even before the pres-
ent international crisis became so acute, and we have heard of
many attempts, theoretical and otherwise, to reach an intelligent
solution. Might we not, with appropriateness, ask ourselves the
question: If agricultural conditions in the South had, all of
these years, been in keeping with her possibilities, in the pro-
duction of the daily necessities of our people, in the matter of
food supplies, both animal and vegetable, would conditions, as
we find them today, have been likely, even with the world in a
state of war? I am inclined to think not!

I believe, however, that the South will, before many decades
have passed, be the great stock-raising section of the country,
more particularly the meat-producing animals, and will, after we
stop “playing with agriculture,” be able to furnish both food for
our people and enough, and to spare, of the feed crops necessary
to develop and maintain a largely increased animal population.
In short, it is our belief that, ultimately, the South will have to
come to the rescue in preventing the risk of any serious break
in the equilibrium of our food supply, should that ever occur;
and I also believe that she will be fully equal to the occasion.

Up to the present, however, and in a general way, our
Southern country has not even approached the point of maximum
production, either in food crops, or in the number or quality of
our live stock, to be able to successfully compete with other
more advanced sections in the great metropolitan markets. And
even if she had, especially in her cattle production, there are

World De-
mands More
Food

The South as
the Nation's
Hope

The Tick a
Disappearing
Menace

Now is Time
for South to
Act

144 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

considerable areas from which her animals would be excluded
from such markets because of Federal restrictions imposed on
account of the presence of that most expensive pest, the cattle tick.

It is gratifying to know, however, that total extermination
of this parasite is a question of only a few more years of co-
operative effort; and its accomplishment lies at the very foun-
dation of our general agricultural prosperity in the future.

True, the cattle tick has militated very seriously against our
progress in the production of improved cattle; but our chief ob-
struction, which I believe is now generally conceded, has been
our almost universal system of single-cropping.

Doubtless, and on account of the world-wide need for cot-
ton, this system has, temporarily if you will, brought large re-
turns to our people.

But, under such a system, in which every other necessity of
the farm and home has had to be purchased and paid for out of
those returns, has the fertility of our soils been increased; has
it increased their power to produce, or otherwise enhanced their
value? I think not!

On the other hand, had our general farming system been
more along the lines of diversification and crop rotation, includ-
ing cotton, necessarily, and, of course, live stock, and with in-
telligent fertilization, with increased yields of both cash crops
and those for consumption by our farm animals, and with a suf-
ficiency of the latter crops to bring to prime market condition
the meat-producing animals, such as cattle, sheep and hogs, and
through them to market the farm feeds and forages at enhanced
values, conditions might have assumed a very different aspect.
In short, had such conditions prevailed, these many years, and
with the South on equal footing with other sections of the coun-
try, with reference to our great markets, is it reasonable to pre-
sume, even under present abnormal conditions, that the cry
about high-priced necessities would have had to be so vigorously
proclaimed all over the land?

But up to the present time it may be said that the South has
scarcely been reckoned’ as among the purveyors of the nation’s
food supply.

This condition, however, has got to change; in fact, is doing
so gradually, if not as rapidly as perhaps one could wish. At
the same time, it is our humble, but candid, opinion that by

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 145

taking full and immediate advantage of present opportunities,
and with the further possibilities incident to the utilization of
our extensive areas of unused and uncultivated land, the South,
in a reasonably short period of time, should not only be able to
clothe our people with her cotton and wool products, but should
have a large share in the feeding of them with the cereals and
their by-products, and with toothsome meat from her well-bred,
well-fed, and high-grade cattle, hogs and sheep.

We occasionally hear the remark that the South is a splen-
‘did “poor man’s country,” on account of the ease with which a
living may be made.

Such a statement might be construed into a reflection upon
our past, or, in some cases, our present, farming methods. And
yet it is a most eloquent indorsement of the fertility of our soils
that they have been able to even support such methods. But
what would be the result did our lands receive the treatment
which would be bestowed upon them by a more intelligent sys-
tem of husbandry; where the farmer made a more thorough
study of his profession or calling; made a business of farming
rather than a means to eke out a mere existence; who built up
his soils; aimed at maximum production; varied his products,
both in field crops and in live stock; kept up with the markets;
rotated his crops, and strived to produce nothing but the very
best his land would yield, and that the market demanded? To
try to even picture to ourselves the prosperity of our Southern
country under such conditions would be practically impossible.

And, yet, it is just such conditions that we must aim to real-
ize, if we may hope to obtain to the full the results which our
opportunities and possibilities have placed within our reach.

Live stock is an absolute necessity on every well-regulated
farm, not merely out of sentiment, as some still seem to think,
but as a necessary adjunct to the business, that can be employed
as local factories, if you will, through which the cheaper raw
materials grown may be converted into high-priced finished
products, in the form of high-class beef, mutton, pork, etc., which
can be marketed “on the hoof.”

In fact, one could scarcely imagine a more inharmonious en-
terprise, or a more discordant undertaking, than an otherwise
modern farm holding without its due quota of improved live
stock of different varieties.

South a Land
of Infinite
Possibilities.

The Necessity
for Live Stock

Forage Crops
Abundant

Many Useful
By-Products

146 ‘The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

And yet, even today, it is not an uncommon sight to see
nondescript animals occupying valuable space, on many of our
farming properties, that are forced to eke out a precarious ex-
istence, as best they can, or die in the effort.

We all must admit, however, that the climate of the South
is ideal for live stock husbandry, in all of its departments, from
the growing of the food crops to the finishing of the product for
market.

Forage crops, in great variety, grow with a luxuriance that
would “tickle the palate” and “whet the appetite’ of the most
fastidious and epicurean of our herbivorous animals.

Among the legumes, it is only necessary to mention alfalfa,
which may be used for grazing, for soiling, or for hay. Les-
pedeza, our great Southern clover, which makes a most valuable
hay, and enhances the value of our pasture when mixed with our
native grasses. The cow pea, the soy bean, the velvet bean, the
clovers and some of the vetches, etc., all furnish abundant and
nutritious food for live stock.

In short, the South has, or can have, a superabundance, both
as to quantity and variety, of these most valuable nitrogen-
gathering, soil-improving, and protein-producing forages, so im-
portant for the upbuilding and maintenance of soil fertility, as
well as the nutrition of animal life on the farm.

In some sections of the South pasturage may be secured
practically the year round by sowing almost any of the small
cereals as catch crops, after the staple crops have been harvested,
which yield abundantly during the fall and winter months, and
furnish succulent food at a season of the year when such is in
greatest need.

Silage crops, also, in addition to corn, such as sorghum, etc.,
and root crops of different varieties, produce. with great abun-
dance, and may be used to supply excellent succulent feed for
cattle, hogs and sheep, after ordinary pasturage has been de-
pleted by the summer’s grazing.

But while that which we have enumerated might appear as
more than sufficient to meet all practical needs in the matter of
live stock feed production, it is by no means all. In addition.
there are the important by-products from our cotton fields; and
in some parts of the South, those from our rice industry, and
from our sugar cane fields and factories.

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 147

With such possibilities, then, in our feed production, our
abundance in cereal crops, our many nutritious hays, and other
roughage supplies, our winter pasture crops and natural grazing,
although much of the latter is yet to be availed of, and in the
rich concentrates in the by-products of our cotton, rice and sugar,
if the future of stock raising in the South should not appear
bright, even to the most casual observer, one is inclined to won-
der where else he would go to satisfy his desires in that branch
of husbandry.

That all varieties of farm animals do well in the South, it is
only necessary to state that all of the principal breeds, and kinds,
are already represented, including horses and mules, beef and
dairy cattle, hogs and sheep. And not only so, but each has its
organizations, in the different states, specially devoted to im-
provement and greater development of the breeds.

In addition to the increasing interest being displayed in our
live stock production, most, if not all, of the Southern states
have taken steps to protect, from the ravages of fatal animal
diseases, this important industry. I refer to the enactment, by
the different states, of suitable live stock sanitary legislation,
and the creation or appointment of boards or commissions to see
that it is carried into effect.

Such legislation not only affords protection to the live stock .

interests of a state, but it gives encouragement to prospective
immigrants who expect to make the production of live stock a
feature of their farm practice.

There is one very important project, vitally connected with
the live stock business, which should not be overlooked in these
remarks.

Hitherto, one of the chief drawbacks to the live stock in-
dustry, especially in the more southerly states, has been the
inaccessibility of the best markets, which has militated consider-
ably against the more profitable disposal of stock, and, neces-
sarily, has discouraged many producers.

This unfortunate state of affairs will very shortly be cor-
rected, however, by the erection and establishment of a large
packing plant in the city of New Orleans, which will be oper-
ated by the enterprising firm of Morris & Company.

Such a plant will not only care for a large amount of our
surplus stock, but will afford an immense stimulus to greater

Legislation
Fosters Live
Stock Raising

Providing
Markets for
Live Stock

Every Facil-
ity Available

Cheap Money
a Help

148 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

-and better production on the part of our people; and we trust

will prove entirely profitable to those responsible for the estab-
lishment of the new and important enterprise.

I believe all of us must be convinced of the South’s unex-
celled possibilities in live stock production, of which many of
our people have already taken advantage, with profit to them-
selves.

We already have an abundance of food materials for animals
that would surprise even a Northern or Western stockman, and
these are capable of large increase.

We have broad acres of unoccupied fertile lands which
simply await the touch of the intelligent husbandman in order
to spring into full fruition, and add more wealth and prosperity
to our Southern country.

We have representatives of almost every breed and variety
of live stock, and an increasing interest constantly being mani-
fested in their greater development.

We have adequate legislation, in practically all of the South-
ern states, to afford protection against the fatal diseases to which
farm animals are susceptible, and which gives encouragement to
those engaged in the industry.

We have our State Boards of Agriculture to look after and
foster the industry from the standpoint of the state.

We have our State Colleges of Agriculture and our Experi-
ment Stations, and our various branches of Agricultural Exten-
sion Service, all bending their efforts to educate and inform our
citizens, and encourage and increase interest in this great work.

In short, we not only have the materials to work with, but,
in addition, various and important agencies laboring, in an edu-
cational way, for the good of the cause; and which are being
more and more taken advantage of by our people, and through
which advancement is being made.

And we now have one of the most valuable aids to the stock
grower in the development of his industry, viz., the privilege of
the use of money, which he may obtain on reasonable terms,
through the medium of the recently established Federal Farm
Loan Banks.

One would naturally imagine, therefore, that all of the needs
of the South had already been amply provided, and that nothing
more was necessary but to go ahead and prosper; and in a meas-

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 149

ure that is quite true. However, while possession of the raw
material is of the first importance, we cannot expect to make
the most out of it unless we intelligently employ the appropriate
tools or machinery through which to bring it to a state of per-
fection in the finished product. And so it is with our possibili-
ties; they are not going to benefit us as they should unless we
use every effort, and take advantage of every opportunity, to
develop them to their highest state of perfection.

In emphasizing one or two of our most important needs, as
I see them, I will say, in the first place, that we must double our
efforts to wipe the cattle tick from off the map of the Southern
states. This is a fundamental necessity in connection with the
future success of our cattle industry at least, and that is perhaps
the most important.

In the second place, we need more and better live stock
through which to market our food crops, and help increase and
maintain the fertility of our lands; and we need our own people
to devote more time and study to the rational and business sides
of animal husbandry and general farming.

In the third place, we need an open market, anywhere and
everywhere, and at all times, especially for our cattle, which will
depend solely, however, upon the total extermination of the cattle
tick from the Southern states, and upon which, likewise, depends
the improvement of our cattle, through the influence of improved
animals, particularly males, that can then be imported from the
best herds of the country; and

In the fourth place, we need more immigration of the de-
sirable, intelligent and industrious farmer-stockman class, whose
life and business experience have hitherto been devoted to the
branches of stock raising and general agriculture, which we be-
lieve the South stands in greatest need of, at the present time,
for her general agricultural upbuilding.

Good object lessons are, in great measure, what we require;
and this is, I believe, the kind of help we need, and want, to
assist us develop our great natural resources, and, as we all be-
lieve, our unparalleled possibilities.

In summing up, therefore, I believe we can pass over the
past of the live stock industry of the South; but we can say that
the present is encouraging, and that the future seems bright.

Present
Encouraging
and Future
Bright

150 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

At this momentous period of the country’s history, in fact, in
the history of the world, I would like to close with a brief statement.

Owing to the unfortunate international conditions existing, the
cry of the world today is for food, and yet more food; and just how
long this cry may last, from both combatant and neutral peoples,
it is impossible at this time to form anything like an accurate
conception.

The man on whom the world has always had to depend for its
food supply, and the only one who is now able to satisfy the present.
and perhaps future, demand for the necessities of life in the matter
of food, is the Farmer. The farmer, therefore, who puts forth his
utmost effort to make the proverbial two blades of grass grow where
only one grew before, is just as much a patriot, and defender of
his country, as the private in the trenches, or the “jackie” on the
quarter-deck.

Consequently, and as an imperative national duty, it should
behoove every owner and occupier of land to utilize, to the very
utmost, every available inch, so to speak, in the production of more
and more food, both for man and beast, in order that not only our
own people, but the world at large, may not continue to suffer in
consequence of any shortage; and in order that our producers may
be stimulated to maximum efforts in this direction, and that they
may not be forgetful of their responsibilities, they should keep
continually reminding themselves, by having emblazoned on their
banner that now famous patriotic slogan, “Your Country Needs
You!”

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 151

The Railroads’ Interest in
Cut-Over Land De-

velopment
By D. C. Welty

Commissioner of Agriculture, St. Louis, Iron
Mountain and Southern Railway

Mr. Chairman:—lI sincerely regret that the urgency of food
production preparedness work and the rapidly progressing planting
season prevent my remaining over another day and, as you have
stated that I would be called upon during tomorrow’s session, I
ask the privilege of a word in behalf of one of the railroads which
probably has as much cut-over land along its right-of-way as any
one road in the South; and as secretary-treasurer of the Railway
Development Association, which numbers among its members the
development men of 90 per cent of the railroad mileage of the
United States, I want to say in their behalf that we hope tomorrow’s
meeting will not close without some definite action on the part of
the cut-over land owners and for the purpose of putting their vast
holding to some productive use.

We have listened to many able addresses upon Southern agri-
cultural possibilities and the agricultural problems of the cut-over
land areas, but, gentlemen, if I understand the situation correctly,
you are here to consider ways and means of marshaling the forces
of the cut-over land owners, so that these owners can, in co-opera-
tion with the Department of Agriculture and other development
agencies, put this knowledge into practice, get people happily located
on the land and develop the country. I also believe that reforesta-
tion of the poorer lands justifies energetic consideration.

Every speaker has mentioned that he is an optimist as to
Southern agricultural possibilities, both as to live stock and food
production. It is true that there is no great accumulation of ex-
perience or data to eliminate every doubt, but it is quite evident
that there are great pessibilities. These possibilities have been
ably covered by Mr. Piper, Mr. Rommell, Mr. Tracy, Dr. Dodson

Definite
Organization
Urged

Railroads
Anxious to
Assist

Settler Must
Be Liberally
Financed

152 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

and others who have addressed us, and these gentlemen and their
associates and assistants are available to put most efficient and
profitable agricultural practices in effect. The agricultural depart-
ments already know and are practicing the things which will make
for success, and this knowledge simply must be put in practice and
much agricultural demonstration work done. The great problem
lies with you men who own this land—most potent of possibilities
but at present inactive, unused, covered with stumps and rapidly
being covered with underbrush.

It is a question of financing and farsighted business adminis-
tration and agricultural demonstration in which each with the help
of existing agencies will have to solve his individual problems,
and in which, collectively and as an association, you can most eco-
nomically do much of mutual benefit, and for each other as in-
dividuals.

The railroads have for years seen the timber cut and shipped
away leaving idle land, and just as the lumberman faces the end of
his cutting and cessation of profitable activity unless his land is util-
ized, just so do many railroads face unprofitable operation unless
these lands are exploited and reforested and developed by settle-
ment by good and successful farmers. The development men of
the railroads realize the importance of the situation and have given
the subject much thought, as is evident by the fact that practically
every railroad is well represented at this meeting. I see at least
twelve railroad development men here who are vitally interested,
and all ready to do their part when conditions justify energetic
co-operation.

Some people think that there is at present no demand for cut-

cover land, but that is not the case. Our Colonization Department

has for months had unfilled demands for Southern cut-over land,
and it would be a simple matter to stimulate the demand for such
land were the railroads to get vigorously behind the movement;
but, gentlemen, it will take more than exploitation and agricultural
advice to successfully colonize the cut-over land area.

First, all must appreciate that the colonist is no longer a pioneer.
The day of isolation, the squirrel hunter, the log cabin and rail
fence are past. In this day of high-priced labor the settler will not
undergo unnecessary hardship and the man with enough energy
to move to a land of greater opportunity will not put up with slow,
inefficient methods. Furthermore, the land-seller, community,

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 153

county, state and nation can no longer afford to let men individually
hack away on the old-fashioned land-clearing methods.

If a settler is'an asset, it is a business investment to do such
things as will get him started economically and efficiently and, as
in this day and age, he won’t come unless we do make conditions
attractive, we have no alternative. The successful, present-day
colonization methods tend strongly toward paternalism.

The colonization project must be liberally financed in order to
enable selling with small initial payments and deferred payments
extended over a long period of years with reasonable interest. The
average immigrant has little money and what he has can be utilized
best for the operation of his farming efforts rather than for large
payments on the land. If the land is not good security for the de-
ferred payments, especially with the colonist on it and improving
it every day, the project is not worthy of consideration.

Again liberal financing is necessary because at least one-half
and in all cases as much as possible of every farm unit that is put
on the market should be cleared and ready for crop as soon as the
colonist locates, and experience has demonstrated that if part of
the farm is fenced by the buyer and a house and barn built, which
he can pay for in his deferred payments, that is a great attraction.
It also takes money to carry on the demonstration work which
will guide his efforts most efficiently.

Schools, churches, stores and community centers all must be
made available in one way or another. It all takes money and
liberal financing is justified and of utmost importance.

Another fact that must be given due consideration is that the
land-selling business has been developed by specialists into a busi-
ness in itself. It might almost be termed a science, and the land
owners individually and collectively will sooner or later appreciate
that success depends upon either paying for considerable costly ex-
perience, if they handle the sales themselves, or must pay a fair
price for the expert services and the tediously built-up organiza-
tions of those who have specialized upon land-selling.

The problems of organization and administration which con-
front each land owner individually are very great and no one of @oloperation
you can afford to study them out alone. Therefore, I hope this Necessary to
meeting will not close without some form of co-operative associa- Best Results
tion being inaugurated.

Productivity
of Cut-Over
Lands
Already Dem-
onstrated

154 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

At various times large land owners in our territory have dis-
cussed with me the possibility of developing their lands but it has
always seemed to me that the fundamentals should be worked out
co-operatively. Especially in the matter of land-clearing is much
investigation necessary, and the expense of such an investigation,
which would be equally valuable to all, should not be a burden to
any one owner. Neither is it to be expected that any one state
should do it for all the other states. If the Federal Department
would do it, well and good, and an association could do well to
bring all possible influence to bear in favor of such an investigation.
However, if it is not done otherwise it would be an excellent activ-
ity for a co-operative organization of cut-over land owners.

Mr. Carl Livingston, of the Forest Products Laboratory in
Wisconsin, and who will address you tomorrow, has some very val-
uable data and has done some great work. I went to Northern Wis-
consin to see one of his demonstrations and I have followed his
work closely. However, only yesterday in talking with me on
the subject he remarked: “You will be surprised to see how slowly
we are progressing in accumulating definite and dependable figures.”
He mentioned the many difficulties which have confronted him, a
specialist in the work. I mention the matter to emphasize the fact
that you should not as individuals try to solve the problem. It is
a.matter you should handle collectively. Just as the implement
dealers have financed the work of farm implement specialists for
some of the state agricultural college extension departments, just
so could you land owners collectively, if you were organized, finance
such investigations as you, after study of the situation, might find
practical. °

It is true that the agricultural industry is not universally
and highly developed upon the cut-over land of the South and
that many details will have to be worked out. However, every
speaker has emphasized his optimism as to the possibilities, so,
bearing in mind the many individual successes we know of on
cut-over land, the great study both State and Federal authori-
ties have made of the subject and their ability to cope with it
when the need arises, let us concede that we can raise the vari-
ous crops that have been mentioned. Let us concede that the
live stock industry has great possibilities on cut-over land, and,
in tomorrow’s session, progress to the great questions of indi-
vidual and collective organization and administration and agri-
cultural demonstration which confront the cut-over land owner.

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 155

I, personally, am engaged in general farming and commer-
cial dairying on cut-over land. I believe the business has great
possibilities, and, in view of my interest in the efforts of many
of my: friends along our line, who have cut-over lands now lying
idle, in the interest of our railroad, which, unless you develop
your land, will have an inactive railroad through your inactive
land, also in behalf of the railroads generally and the many
thousands of people desiring to locate on inexpensive land, I
earnestly hope that these problems will be put to the front to-
morrow and constructive efforts inaugurated. I regret that I
cannot be with you.

(Applause.)

What Florida Is Doing im

Land Development
By James R. Murphy

President of the Florida Land Development and
Colonization Association

On behalf of the State of Florida, which unfortunately is
very poorly represented, I must tell you, if you will bear with
me for a minute or two, what we have done along the lines of
organization. I have no inference to what has been said here
by anyone, but it may in a measure help to solve the problem
that confronts us all.

I have the honor of being president of the land development
and colonization interests of the State of Florida. We have in
Florida, at the present time, 141 recognized land development
concerns. Of that 141, we have 20 of them in our organization
We have an area of land in Florida of some 36 million acres.
Of that 36 million acres we have less than 5 per cent of it under

cultivation. In our organization we have a representation of.

about 3 million acres of land, mostly cut-over land. Florida
has been in the public press through the exploitations of some
of her unfortunate land operators in the past to such an extent
that it was almost impossible for a land operator to make a liv-
ing in the state; and realizing that this existed throughout the

141 Concerns
Successfully
Operating

Government
Lends Valua-
ble Assistance

156 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

country, we organized our land development and colonization
organization, which had for its purpose the standardizing of the
sale of land. The standardizing of the sale of land carried with
it the demonstration of what the land was capable of producing,
and so that organization had to establish demonstration farms.
We searched in every part of the country for all available infor-
mation, and the Departments of Agriculture have been untiring
in their efforts to give us assistance. In fact, they have sent
men down time and again to answer, perhaps, the same question ;
and we in Florida feel greatly indebted to them. They have
taught us what grasses to grow; they have taught us the use and
advantages of the dipping vat; and the lumbermen in Florida have
taken steps for the raising of $50,000 a year, spending $150,000 over
a period of three years, in a statewide campaign of tick eradica- .
tion; and this was through the initiative of the Southern Settlement
and Development organization, co-operating with the Department
of the State and our largest land owners in the state. Mr. P. L.
Sutherland, who represents one of the largest land owners in the
state, has very ably helped the work; and, gentlemen, I have merely
mentioned these facts so as to suggest to the various other states
represented here that in the solution of this great problem we real-
ized, in Florida, that the most necessary step, first, was a state
organization; and we are now ready to step into any organization
that is formed for the betterment of the South.

J. Lewis Thompson: On behalf of the cut-over land owners
who called this meeting, I want to say—and I don’t believe I am
the most intelligent, but I believe I am about the average—I
want to say to you men here today that the reason we are here
is because we do not know. We are groping in the dark. Re-
gardless of our railroad friends—they have always felt like
whenever they wanted to say most anything they went to the lum-
bermen and got by with it. I think our railroad friend there
was talking to me and to these others, because I am used to that
kind of talk coming from the railroads.

I want to say, on behalf of the land owners, that we are in
the dark, and in their behalf I want to say that we have had a
most instructive and the best papers that I have ever heard in
any meeting; and my only regret is that our entire organization
could not have heard every paper read here, because I believe that
before we can go down to the point of forming some kind of an
organization permanently, what we must do is to tell you what

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 157

we have got to do before we can get down to the organization
period; and if our railroad men will stay with us until tomor-
row—and if they are interested in this vast area of 76 million
acres, if they are interested to the point that some of them have
said—no other business could call them away; they can come
in and if we can’t form an organization we will certainly give
them an opportunity to contribute. (Applause.) I am glad that
speech has been made by a railroad man, because I believe it is
time that one railroad was waking up to the needs of the coun-
try and co-operating with us in the upbuilding of that country.
I am glad, too, that he made that statement, because I believe
we will get down to something before we leave.

Demonstration Work on

Cut-Over Lands
By G. E. Nesom

Superintendent of Livestock Extension Work in
Louisiana for the United States Department
of Agriculture

Mr. Chairman, Members of the Convention, Ladies and
Gentlemen :—I promise you that I will not burden you with a
lengthy speech this morning, and that I have nothing prepared
especially for this occasion. I will, in the main, refer to things
that have already been said. Those of you who have read “‘Peck’s
Bad Boy” in your early youth, probably remember the situation
of the man who was good at figuring. After he had exhausted
a good many other topics, he began to figure on the cost of
fencing; and he found that to fence one acre of land it took a
fence four acres long, and cost, after calculating the value of the
materials, and labor, a certain sum; that by quadrupling this
area and making the fenced area four acres, it only took twice as
much to fence the four acres as one acre, therefore reducing the
cost by one-half; and proceeding in mathematical progression,
grew to those enormous proportions by which he finally found
that to fence an area stretching off to the Aurora Borealis, and
eastward to the rising stn, and southward to the Gulf of Mexico,

Right and
Wrong Ways
of Figuring

Demonstra-
tion Needed
More Than

Experimenta-
tion

158 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

and westward to the Golden gate, the cost of fencing a single
acre had been reduced so that a single toothpick would fence it
and leave enough to build a church. (Laughter.)

Now, we might do a little figuring on the immensity of this
cut-over land proposition. Our Chairman told us, on the open-
ing morning here, that there were some 70 million acres of this
land, and that it would produce, under certain conditions, from a
thousand to two thousand dollars’ worth of produce. This is al-
most enough to give every man, woman and child in the United
States a farm of one acre; and if they were settled on those
farms, and each of them produced the minimum of one thousand
dollars, the vast sum of wealth represented by those farms would
be 70 billion dollars; a sum, by the side of which the 7 billion
dollars that our Congress is now being asked to appropriate to
finance our army and our navy and the Allied Nations of the
world, would be merely the usual 10 per cent waiter’s tip.

But this kind of calculation savors of the millennium; it is
the theoretical view. This convention has to do with not only an
average, but with a very practical problem, and the question im-
mediately involved now is that of developing and bringing into
productive use as much of this land as possible on a purely prac-
tical farming basis.

A good many suggestions have been broached here and a
good many ideas have been expressed, which in particular touch
upon vital questions involved in the development of these lands,
and one of those questions is the desirability of more exact
knowledge of how this problem can best be accomplished, both
from the standpoint of pure agriculture, and the still larger ques-
tion that has been less hinted at—that of the business problems
involved.

Now, I want to discuss those two phases just for a few mo-
ments. It has been suggested that we need a lot of experiment
stations—a lot of work to find out some of these fundamental
facts, these important problems, by actual experimental work.
Using the term experiment or experimental research in its
strictest sense, I am of the opinion that you do not need it any-
thing like as badly as you need the simpler process of demon-
stration. If the term “experiment” be limited, as it should be, to
original research, the development of new facts on original scien-
tific lines, I am of the opinion that we know enough of the fun-

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 159

damental facts surrounding these cut-over lands so that it would
not be very desirable to waste any large amount of time or money
in undertaking to do a great volume of original work, because a
large part of that has been done, either in this section or in other
sections comparable with it, which would obviate the necessity of
that experimental work.

We had pointed out to us by a representative of the Bureau of
Soils, for example, the fact that the soil survey, although it is by
no means completed, has covered almost every type of land which
is represented in the cut-over pine belt; and we know a great deal
about those types of land; and the practical question here to de-
termine is whether a given piece of land comes within a given
classification of soil, and then apply the facts already learned
regarding that type of soil to that particular piece of land. I do
not believe, for that reason, in any extensive soil survey, but in
the application of the knowledge we already have of that type,
or that quality or class of soil, which can be applied by merely
determining to what classification any particular locality belongs.

We also know what crops are particularly suited to these
different soil types, and we have those crops growing in the
South—practically all of them that are likely to be very useful to
us in the cut-over district for some time to come. Once we know
the classification of the soil we can readily find, in the existing
publications or through inquiry at the special offices controlling
this work, a large part of the information as to what would be
best to plant under given conditions. I know very well that there
is a longing in the human mind always for that which is new and
novel; and even in the face of the fact that a given crop has not
been produced to any considerable extent, if it has succeeded in
some remote country or in a small area of a limited section of
the United States, many times a person is inclined to go after
that rather than to take that which lies right at our doors, al-
ready tried and found to be absolutely reliable. It is so common;
we see it so often, that we cease to think of its value, but look
at it way in the beyond, like the ultimate end of this great fence.
I believe in utilizing that which we have with us and which
has already proven to be the correct thing, and let these other
things: come by a very slow process, and only adopt them on a
large scale after they have proven their worth.

Now, to come down further to the particular application of
these things—to the utilization of the cut-over pine lands—I

Extensive
Soil Survey
Unnecessary

Live Stock
the Best Gen-
eral Means
for Present
Utilization

Different Sec-
tions Produce
Different Re-
sults

160 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

most heartily agree with those speakers who have said that these
lands must necessarily be utilized for some time yet to come,
in the main, for the production of live stock. I want also to
make a distinction between some of the statements, if made
literally, regarding grazing and farming. I am of the opinion
that the extensive use of cut-over lands for purely grazing or
ranching purposes, uncombined with farming, is not the correct
line for the utilization of these lands. I believe the system which
will bring them into use most rapidly is a system of moderate-
sized farms, where there will be a system of crop production, and
especially forage, and grain production, combined with stock
raising ; and, on the other hand, I do not think we are right in the
reduction of the size of these farms to the small farm to which
some speakers have referred; and more especially, in the remote
sections, of their reduction to 10, 15, 20 and. 40 acre farms, where
such intensive things as vegetable gardens, or even dairying,
cannot be carried on successfully until the country is more de-
veloped. I think a happy medium between the two is what we
should seek.

Now, as to the class of live stock production, I would always
regard that as being a secondary question. The first question
is: What will the lands produce and what can the farmer make
them produce after he has them under his control, in addition
to what they are already producing in their natural state? The
confusion which seems to exist in the minds of a great many
here as to the carrying capacity of these lands, for example, I
think is so great that a few words on that may help to clarify the
atmosphere. I believe one man said 1700 acres did not support
130 head; others have said that after putting as many as one
animal to two or three acres they did not graze off the forage
crops close enough to suit them; and we have had all kinds of
variations, from some who said it takes 5, or 7%, or 10 or 20
acres to carry a cow or cow and calf. ;The reason for this con-
fusion, in my opinion, is the fact that one man is speaking of these
lands under one condition and others under another. The same
lands will vary very widely at different seasons, and from others
under different conditions. We want to think of these lands in
terms of carrying capacity of cattle—they have a rather high
carrying capacity in proportion to the number of plants that
grow and the fertility of the soil. They have a lesser carrying
capacity in the early spring and late summer, and in the late fall

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 161

and bulk of the winter their carrying capacity is so reduced that
if a man speaks of them at that time, it is doubtful whether
anyone could approximate the amount of land it would take to
carry an animal. In fact, I have a letter from a lumber company
in Southwestern Louisiana, in which they put the question to
me, “How much of this land will it take to carry an animal the
year round?” I answered them, in effect, that while it was satis-
factory pasturage in the late spring and early summer, in the
heart of the winter I did not believe their whole parish would
carry a small herd satisfactorily, simply because there is nothing
on that cut-over pine land after the frost has killed it. There
are a few wire grasses; and the cattle having access to the win-
ter-growing grass which we occasionally have, or to the cane
swamps, which are very limited in extent, may do well. Ti con-
fined strictly to the cut-over lands where it is open and the yel-
low pine growth has had full sway, there is so little on that land
in the winter time on which cattle can subsist that the carrying
capacity is reduced almost to zero.

Now, if this problem is to be looked at from the grazing
standpoint, and does not involve forage production and the feed-
ing of those herds‘in the winter time, when the pasturage is at
its lowest ebb, we certainly cannot have a cattle industry which
can be at all satisfactory.

I need not discuss the question of the hog industry, because
it has been considered by everybody in the South that the day
of the range hog is past—that he would certainly have the poorest
chance to graze the year round on these pine woods. It has
produced a type of hog which did not exist before, and which is
rapidly going out. Hog raising is on a better basis now, and we
do not expect anybody to undertake range hog raising in the
pine belt.

But there is another class of animals which has been dis-
cussed—and I do not wish to anticipate what anybody else will
say of the sheep industry—but that should go hand in hand with
the cattle industry, and on the same basis. In fact, I am not
sure if many of these grasses are not better suited to sheep than
cattle. The feeding problem would probably be less serious in
winter, and especially so if Prof. Tracy’s advice is taken as to
providing plenty of velvet beans for winter grazing purposes.

I might discuss this question of forages at considerable
length, but it has already been discussed by representatives here,

Forage Pro-
duction
Essential

Business
Problems
Involved

Tick Eradica-
tion Basis of
Cattle Indus-
try

162 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

dealing especially with the South, and I shall not go into it any
further.

Now, as to the business questions involved. Those of you
who. own this land, have no doubt spent many worried days and
nights trying to devise a scheme by which you could sell those
lands. The average owner of cut-over pine lands in large areas
wants to sell. That is the uppermost thought in his mind. I
do not think that should be the uppermost thought. I think the
first consideration, under existing conditions and viewed from
the business standpoint, is that every owner should desire to im-
prove those lands and make them more valuable than they are,
so that he can get more nearly what they are really worth for
agricultural purposes. We have been told here that pioneering is
not a trait of the modern farmer. I know this is the case with
the American people, and especially when they attempt to work
as corporations or to use large aggregations of capital. I know
that the very small farmer, who has no means and nothing to
work with but his own hands, is handicapped in developing his
farm, because he has neither the means himself nor possesses
the credit to obtain them; and the question of what the land-
owner should do to fit those lands for farming, all the way be-
tween those two extremes, is a problem which has to be thought
out from a business standpoint. There are certain things, how-
ever, which we may conceive as already demonstrated and ac-
cepted facts. In the first place, I want to mention the fact that
these lands belong to the people who hold title to them, and
they have a perfect right to use them for their own purposes, and
they have a perfect right to exclude people who have cattle, for
example, but have no land and raise their live stock by grazing
them on the other man’s land; and that right must not be denied
to the owners of these lands if they choose to fence them; and
there comes in an important question which I think is going to
be at the basis of developing these lands for live stock purposes.
In many sections of the cut-over pine belt, tick eradication has
made splendid progress; in others, we are going to have a great
deal of trouble to complete that process. There are conditions
under which there is going to be great difficulty in getting that
work supported. I think every owner of cut-over land should
insist that his land be freed fram ticks, and if he cannot get the
cooperation of the other people of his community to free that
whole parish from ticks, he can at least reserve to himself the

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 163

right to fence up his own lands and free that from ticks; and if
that was done in some parishes in this state I want to say that
there would be mighty few grazing lands left. Tick eradication
is going to be the basis of the modern cattle industry on these
cut-over pine lands, whether it is done, or is in process, or is yet
to be undertaken. It must be finished before any extensive cat-
tle business can be brought about; because we must introduce
better blood for those herds, or entirely new herds, as one of
our speakers explained yesterday; and I maintain that there are
plenty of men in this cut-over belt who are able to establish
those pure bred herds; we know that, but unfortunately, like
the calculation on the cost of fencing an acre, the average man
is not able to do that, and you must keep within practical bounds
and not go beyond your financial ability in trying to do some-
thing you are not financially able to do, and of which you would
not make a success. The average herd must be improved by
breeding, in order to bring the cattle up to a better standard.
We must not subject them to the nuisance of these ticks, which
will ruin many of them and result in losses we can ill afford to
sustain.

The fencing of these lands, in my opinion, is one of the es-
sentials for their best development. The next problem and the
biggest one of them all, is the removal of the stumps from that
portion of the soil to be cultivated for the production of the
winter feeds; at least, it certainly is desirable that this process
be pushed forward until all the farm shall ultimately be freed
from stumps. These stumps are such a serious obstruction to
modern farming, such a detriment to every process we under-
take, that their total elimination from cultivated areas must be
a prime consideration.

Now, I do not think we are all agreed on how this stump
removal shall proceed. There have been a great many processes
tried; a great deal of data has been accumulated, and especially
by the-people operating these demonstration or experiment farms
on properties of the different companies; but that information
has not been consolidated and reduced to a system so that we
can draw a definite conclusion; and, as someone has hinted, I
doubt if we will ever get much of that information. We do know,
however, that the yellow pine stump is one of the hardest propo-
sitions that any stump puller has ever tackled. There is noth-
ing in the line of stumps near so difficult. We do know that at

Fencing and
Stump Re-
moval

Best Land-
Clearing
Methods Still
Uncertain

Land Owners
Should Ex-
change Infor-
mation

164 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

least in a few instances évery success has attended the burning
of these stumps by that simple process of digging a post hole,
boring an augur hole down through the stump and letting it
dry out, and then building a fire in that post hole so that this
augur hole will act as a flue and will contain so much rosin that
it will readily burn out in most cases.

Now, the men who demonstrated that the average of these
lands could be cleared at a price not to exceed $10 per-acre, by
contract, has attracted a wonderful lot of notice which is of value
from a business standpoint in the handling of this problem. If I
were a farm operator, that information would be very valuable
to me; but we have not yet gotten to the point where we can
get hold of this information at a given time. We are given sorne
of it merely in fragments.

Now I come to another point, which I hesitate to broach and
which I do on my personal responsibility rather than as an of-
ficial of the United States Department of Agriculture. It has
been suggested that some form of organization be perfected here
by which all the information thus developed can be consolidated,
and that definite arrangements be made by which additional in-
formation will be gotten and made available for all parties in-
terested in this great problem. Now, if we look to see what has
been done, we find the Federal Government and. the several
States are only touching this problem very lightly. Some of
them have several experiment stations and demonstration farms
and have developed certain information which can be had for
those particular localities. There are probably several hundred
lumber companies which maintain demonstration farms and ex-
periment stations, or whatever you choose to call them. I be-
lieve most of them are small demonstration farms where they
are getting a lot of valuable information; but they put that in-
formation in their files in their offices and use it for their own
purposes, and no one else profits by it; and more especially do
we not get that information which is of an adverse nature, and
which sometimes is worth more to us than the positive facts de-
veloped. When you get a warning what not to do, you are just
as well off as when you get information as to what you should
do; because in the one case you positively have a loss, and in
the other you merely have an opportunity to make a gain. If
the interests of these cut-over pine land owners could be con-
solidated in such manner that all the information, both pro and

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 165

con, developed on all these demonstration farms could be con-
solidated and then be distributed to everybody concerned, it
would make a fine lot of information well developed; and this is
one of the things I would suggest as being desirable. Now, it
is probable that if this series of farms were looked over, we
would find that they were not ideally located so as to cover all
types of the cut-over district. We had reference yesterday to the
Orangeburg Sand and others of the Greenville clay type, all of
which represent more or less distinct types of country. Are
these farms so located that we could get data from all classes of
them, in case they were all consolidated, and the data were pub-
lished in some bulletin or other consolidated form? In my
opinion, we would have to go a little further and have a central
clearing house, through which it would be more certain that all
types would be represented. Some system might be arranged
for buying some of the present farms which adequately repre-
sent the work on different types of land.

I would rather call these demonstration farms than experi-
ment stations. I believe they ought to be under a consolidated
management. I believe their management should have the best
agricultural talent that can be had. I know some farmers trying
to demonstrate facts regarding cut-over pine lands today, where
their work has been to a large extent vitiated, due to the fact
that their failure has been brought about by men from other sec.
tions, who may have been an eminent success, but who are not
competent, with all due respect to their success otherwise, to
handle the question of agriculture in this section with which they
are probably not familiar. The new system of demonstration
farms of this kind should be under the control of men who know
agriculttre primarily.

Now, I want to go one step further and suggest a practical
means by which this can be done, and I will illustrate it by say-
ing that a few years ago, when the Hawaiian Islands were at-
tempting to develop the sugar business along modern lines, they
sought the world over for some information. The Louisiana
State University at that time had about the only sugar school
and experiment station that was doing very much, and I violate
no confidence when I say that Louisiana did not look with a
great deal of favor on seeing the Hawaiian Islands go into the
sugar field, and they didn’t go out of their way to give the
Hawaiian planters any particular information. They soon re-

Suggests One
General Man-
agement

Early Diffi-
culties of Ha-
waiian Sugar
Industry
Solved by Co-
operative
Association

One Cent an
Acre Means
$750,000

166 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

solved that if they couldn’t get any information regarding their
own industry in their own Islands, they must get it at their
own expense.and in their own way; and after conferring and
consulting for quite a while, they decided they would establish
it on a thoroughly business principle, which would hold good
as long as they chose to perpetuate it, and which would give
certain returns; and the system agreed upon was that every
manufacturer of sugar in the Hawaiian Islands, who chose to
become a member of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association,
should ship his sugar or report his sugar through the Associa-
tion, in Honolulu; and that he should pay into the treasury of
this Association the sum of 25 cents on every ton of sugar which
he turned out from his factory. This sum of money was con- ;
solidated and used by their agricultural board for the establish-
ment, maintenance and operation of the Experiment Station,
which was to send out information regarding the sugar industry
in the Hawaiian Islands. This fund, in a few years, had reached
fifty and then ninety thousand dollars, and now it is a hundred
thousand dollars. They have one of the best sugar experiment
stations in the world and they are doing splendid work. In
later years they have correlated it, more or less, with the Gov-
ernment work, and thus, to some extent, the information which
they are developing there is available to other people; but, in
the main, the facts developed have gone, in published form, and
in letters, circulars and otherwise to the members of this Asso-
ciation; and to this day, whenever they have anything which
they think might be used by the other fellow to their disadvan-
tage, they give it only to their members.

Now, if these gentlemen who own these lands, desire to
institute a system which will work for the common good of the
cut-over pine lands, and to use this same idea—which is entirely
practicable—the raising of the necessary funds by a very small
assessment against the lands, they can do it. You can soon see
what 1 cent an acre would mean on this 75 million acres—$750,-
000. One-tenth of a cent an acre would give you $75,000, if all
the land were included. 1 don’t know how much you might want
to raise, but if you could raise any such sums as that, some work
could be developed which would give you much of the informa-
tion you seek, and which is so badly needed; at least, the con-
solidation of existing facts and their application to your par-
ticular problems.

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 167

Before closing, I will say, in a brief way, that I have been
watching these cut-over lands very closely during the past three
years, and in my opinion they are a splendid agricultural re-
source, with wonderful possibilities. I do not mean to say
they will compare with our richer lands in Louisiana or Mis-
sissippi, but I do say they are valuable agricultural lands that
are quite capable of sustaining a large population and capable
of producing ari immense amount of wealth by a production
which will compare very favorably with the average lands of
the South; and I trust that the examples already set by many
concerns and individuals in demonstrating their possibilities, and
bringing them into practical use, especially at this stage of the
great crisis, will not be delayed longer than is absolutely neces-
sary, and that you will bend your efforts towards making them
contribute their part towards the support, not only of the Gov-
ernment in times of peace, but more particularly at this eminent
crisis. I thank you. (Applause.)

S. F. Morse: I just want to drive home a very important
point made by Dr. Nesom, by a concrete instance. The point I
mean was, that there was, to a large degree, enough practical
experience and demonstration to enable us to determine what can
be done and to formulate a plan for the development of these
lands.

The experience which I wish to state is this: About three
years ago, in the State of Arizona, when they started the agri-
cultural extension work, we found ourselves covering a large
area of land about which we knew nothing. At the outset, as I
just stated, we found we had no experimental data for the de-
velopment of these large areas of land. What were we to do?
These lands had many settlers on them and they were crying out
for information. We didn’t bother with the experiment sta-
tion; we cut loose and got busy and found out what they were
doing in other states and in other parts of the country where
conditions were similar. We investigated the live stock business
and got different experiences, and then we worked with the
farmers and gave them this experience. The result is that to-
day, where we were previously shipping in sack lots, we are now
shipping in carload lots; and that has only been within a period
of three years.

That was done, as Dr. Nesom has suggested, by taking the
‘different conditions in other parts of the country, and of the dif-

Wonderful
Possibilities
in Cut-Over
Lands

The Distinc-
tion Between
Experimenta-
tion and
Demonstra-
tion

168 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

ferent states and the Federal Government, and giving that in-
formation to the farmer in practical form. The point was:
That information had to be passed through a central source, and
translated into terms of practical application to the local con-
ditions, and that is what you people have today. I simply want
to give you confidence in this proposition.

_ Dr. C. V. Piper: There is a very important distinction be-
tween experimentation and demonstration. You cannot demon-
strate a thing until you know it. Do you get that? Now, I
think my friend’s ideas are not very far off, but I don’t like his
confusing two words, experimentation and demonstration. If I
understood the speakers right yesterday, they think that with
the information we already possess live stock farming on an ex-
tensive scale on these cut-over lands can be made successful.
They had in mind the establishment, under practical conditions
and with a minimum expense, a place where all these pieces of
knowledge could be put together and then cited. I submit to
you that this is an experiement station, not a place of demonstra-
tion. If we had the knowledge we could go ahead and do it. I
call that demonstration. Then there would be no need of the
meeting here today. The experiment station that I had in mind
and that Dr. Nesom had in mind are pretty nearly one and the
same thing; but until we have the knowledge, you cannot call it
a demonstration. It is a very important distinction; and I
think we will get our minds confused if we confuse experimen-
tation and demonstration.

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 169

How Louisiana Is Solving the
Reforestation Problem
By M. L. Alexander

Commissioner Department of Conservation,
State of Louisiana

How Louisiana is solving the reforestation problem by the
actual growing of trees was told the Cut-Over Land Conference
of the South by Hon. M. L. Alexander, Commissioner, Depart-
ment of Conservation, State of Louisiana.

“On the State Forest Reserve at Urania, La., a forest is
being made again,”’ said Mr. Alexander. “Not a wild tangle-
wood of shrubs and seedlings, but of real trees. Trees that will
make lumber of a superior grade are growing on fields that dur-
ing the Civil War period grew cotton for blockade running to
England. Here we have trees of every age that were not of the
virgin forests, but sprang from them, and in which the hand of
man has but assisted nature.’

The speaker declared that one of the first results of the ex-
‘periments was to discover that, not forest fires, as had at first
been supposed, but the razorback hog, was responsible for the
fact that the prized long-leaf pine had for many years failed to
reforest itself.

“Mr. Hardtner’s investigations,” he continued, “proved that
the kernel of the long-leaf seed is oily, rich in nutritious matter,
and palatable to the hog. When the seedlings are one year ‘old
the root and short stem are spongy, sweet and tender, and it is
amazing how many seeds, seedlings and saplings a razorback
can finish up in a half a day’s work, one hog averaging five seed-
lings a minute. The seed of the short-leaf and loblolly are very
small, and neither these nor the seedlings are relished by the
hogs.

“On the preserve we now have 2,500 acres inclosed with a
hog-proof wire fence, 2,500 acres under an ordinary fence and
2,900 unfenced. In the hog-proofed area the long-leaf pine seed-
lings are numerous, in the regularly fenced area there are a very

Razor-Back
Hog a Menace

Longleaf
Seedlings
Survive Fire

Profits in Re-
forestation

170 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

few, and in the unfenced tract there is not one—a complete de-
struction of the seed crop.

“Experiments have been made of burning over tracts by
setting fire to the sedge grass that grows very heavily on the
preserve. It makes a very hot fire, but from actual count from
50 to: 90 per cent of the long-leaf seedlings survived the con-
flagration, and in a few days the ‘buds put forth new green
straw, and they are healthyi and vigorous today. The fire would
burn off the seedlings’ straw close to the ground, but the bud is
evidently green enough to survive the scorching, and a two or
three-year-old seedling will survive the fire much better than the
year-old ones.

“Mr. Hardtner and I are convinced that reforestation of
long-leaf is impossible where the hog roams at large rooting up
the seedlings; we are convinced that fire does not do as much
damage as was thought, but notwithstanding all this we are op-
posed to fire at any time and do not advocate its use. If forest
areas are to be burned over to remove dried grasses, let it be
done in the proper season—the winter following a rain that has
soaked the ground. Very little damage will be done then.

“We have long advocated the leaving of one or more seed
trees to an acre when the lumberman fells the timber for his
sawmills. This is truly a method of conservation, and if ad-
hered to by lumbermen will soon have the cut-over area re-
forested with seedlings. If these seedlings are properly pro-
tected and the young trees thinned as they grow, the forest that
will take the place of the original will yield even richer returns
in from fifty to sixty years.

“If this method of reforestation is carried out, in forty years
one may expect to have a good stand of timber on forest lands,
hardly ready for the millman’s saw, but good thriving trees
ready for lumbering during the next ten to twenty years thereafter.

“At Urania it is being demonstrated that it is just as easy
to grow 50,000 feet of timber to the acre in sixty years by as-
sisting nature as it is for unaided nature to produce 5,000 feet
in the same period. And thinning does not mean endless ex-
pense for the tree farmer, for we have demonstrated on the State
Forest Reserve, using a 2l-acre plot of short-leaf and loblolly,
that proper thinning gave 180 cords of wood, 555 tram ties, and
200 posts worth $258.75 at a laboring cost of $205.00, a profit of

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 17)

$53.75, or $2.55 an acre. This sort of profit is sufficient to pay
all taxes and incidental expenses.

“Accurate measurement has been taken of the trees in the
different lots, photographs taken, and in some cases every tree num-
bered and recorded so that comparative figures will give abso-
solute proof of the growth from season to season. Our method
is to let nature take its course in the matter of seeding for re-
forestation. This is very satisfactory and there is no expense of
tree planting by hand to deduct from the profits when the lum-
ber is sold. With long-leaf pine seed crops are infrequent and
several years elapse between the crops. This is not so with
short-leaf and loblolly; therefore, reforestation on denuded areas
with these species is not difficult if seed trees have been left
standing, as a crop can be counted on almost every season. At
Urania our records show that there was no crop of long-leaf
mast in 1912, a hundred per cent crop in 1913, a 5 per cent crop
in 1914-15, and a 50 per cent crop in 1916. In virgin forests of
long-leaf, the seed seasons are sometimes five or ten years apart,
but vigorous young pines in denuded areas bear seed more fre-
quently and abundantly.

“A record made on an acre in one of the experimental plots
shows 251 trees ranging three inches and under to 22 inches D.
B. H. will yield at the present time 13,544 feet. By adding four
inches to the growth in 20 years it will yield 42,388 feet. Stump-
age now sells at $5 per thousand feet, but twenty years from
now we will be safe in presuming that it will sell for $10 a
thousand, or $423.88. If converted into lumber and delivered to
Northern markets it will be worth at least $1,200. Mr. Hardt-
ner’s recapitulation is that the cost of growing timber will be
around $2 a thousand feet.

“Thus have we met the reforestation problem in Louisiana
and our theories have been sound, as our results indicate. We
can show you that timber can be grown on timber land at a
profit. We can demonstrate that lumber that has long been
supposed not to perpetuate itself does so if enemies are removed.
We have a healthy regard for the dread forest fire, but we have
also learned that it is not so bad as we have been thinking it.

“We also believe that the owner of cut-over land will find it
to his advantage to go timber farming, and that all cut-over land
does not necessarily have to be plowed under for crops until

Growing a
Forest at $2 a
Thousand
Feet

Distillation
Plants Make
Stumping
Profitable

The Question
of Marketing

172, The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

there is need for this land, and that the interim can be profitably
spent in working out reforestation.”

Mr. Alexander declared that before reforestation can be suc-
cessfully carried out, existing methods of taxation on timber
lands would have to be radically reformed.

Some Problems of Colonizing
Cut-Over Lands

By H. A. Weare
of Mobile, Ala.

It was not my intention to take any’active part in this pro-
gram: here, but I would like to make a few remarks covering an
experience of sixteen years in which I have been handling and
studying cut-over lands in the Gulf Coast territory. My specialty
is handling timber lands, and I believe it is always necessary to
handle cut-over lands as well. What really brought me to my
feet is the remark Mr. Alexander just made in reference to the
distillation plants.

In making a study of these cut-over lands and how to handle
them, I have concluded that these distillation plants should
really be put in with every proposition. What does it mean?
It means that the man clearing up his own land is really helped,
as he gets a good market for his stumps.

Another question not dwelt upon very much is the question
of marketing your products. In looking around and observing
the different farmers in the Gulf Coast territory I have had every
farmer tell me, “We have no difficulty in producing crops, but
we do have a hard time in finding a sale for them.” That is
something that must be taken up and considered in connection
with settling your land. You can bring people down here from
the North and produce the stuff, but you must give them an
outlet to sell it. When I first came South and started buying
some of these cut-over lands, my! friends told me I was very
foolish. That was sixteen years ago. They thought it was abso-
lutely no good. To illustrate to you what some men thought

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 173

of it, I know one man who sold 50,000 acres and stated to me
later, “I slipped in 10,000 acres of cut-over land at the same
price and they never noticed it.”

In determining why I thought these lands would have a
value, in going around I would find that one farmer was raising
velvet beans and other fine crops; I would find another man
who had cow peas; another man produced a big crop of Irish
potatoes; and in that way I found, scattered all around, where
they were producing practically all the different things we have
heard mentioned here today. I have seen that for years. It has
all been demonstrated. I really believe that is the way you will
get your land settled. It is very difficult to go to Iowa and
bring those good farmers down here and settle them in the
wilderness. You will find that most localities in this country
require three sets of people, before the good substantial farmer
arrives. Another thing is that we are all getting good roads and
automobiles, and though you are eight or ten miles out in the
country you can still keep in touch with things.

In selling these large tracts I have noticed one great diffi-
culty has been that so many of the colonizers do not care any-
thing about what becomes of the men after they sell them a
tract. That is one of the greatest difficulties. I have sold a
good many large tracts, and I have observed that in 60 or 70
per cent of the cases it is just that way. They don’t seem to
care where the man lands after he gets there. That is all wrong.
You must look after the man and see that he is taken care of.

Proper Care
for the Col-
onist

.

The South’s
Advantages
for Dairying

Some Essen-
tials to Suc-
cessful Dairy-
ing

174 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

The Dairy Industry of the
South
By C. W. Radway

Dairy Specialist, Bureau of Animal Industry,
United States Department of Agriculture

There are several reasons why the dairy industry should be
prosperous in the South. The South is well adapted, I believe,
to successful dairying. One of the reasons for this is the climate.
The barns or buildings that are needed are less expensive than
those needed in the North; and the climate is such that we can
depend upon pasture for eight months out of the year. I might
state there that some people are trying to depend upon twelve
months of the year, and those people are the ones making a failure.

We have been doing some record work and testing and
weighing milk all over the state, and for the past four months
we have not been able to find any piney woods cows producing
much butter fat. Another thing is that forage crops can be very
easily raised here in the South. But, however, with all these
advantages, there are some essentials to the dairy business that
must not be overlooked. One of these essentials for success is
efficient dairy cows. Second, is sufficient home grown feed; and
the man that comes down here with the intention of going into
the dairy business must see to it that he is locating in a place
where he can grow forage for his cattle. It will not do to start
a dairy farm where you can grow nothing but strawberries or
rice. If you intend to start the dairy business on such land you
are going to fail. The third essential, to go with these other
two—the cow and the feed—is the man. A man has to under-
stand how to take care of a cow, how to feed that cow, and how
to make a good product, whether he is selling whole milk, cream
or making butter; and in connection with this milk problem, or
with the dairy products, one of the main things is quality. Those
people in Louisiana making good butter have no trouble at all
in marketing it. Those people making a poor product find that
product is not wanted. We have several instances here in
Louisiana—one man at New Iberia cannot supply the demand.

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 175

He could sell three times as much butter as he is making at the
present time. The Ruston Creamery, at Ruston, Louisiana, can-
not fill half the orders they have at the present time, and the
same is true of the New Iberia Creamery.

There are several advantages to be derived from dairying.
The first advantage, which should appeal very strongly to every
Southern farmer, is that the dairy, well conducted, improves the
soil. A dairyman in North Louisiana, on cut-over lands, who
started in about six years ago on land that was producing less
than one-third a bale of cotton to the acre. He saved the ferti-
lizer from that dairy and put it back on the land, and today he
is producing as much cotton on half the ground he did six years
ago. In other words, in six years’ time, with the intelligent use
of the dairy and his by-products, he has doubled the productive
capacity of that farm. Another thing is that it furnishes a mar-
ket for crops, as some of the crops that cannot be marketed be-
cause of the small quantity and the distance to market. If a
man has only a few tons of pea vine hay or soy bean hay, and
cannot get it to the market, the best market is the dairy cow.
Again, he may have some forage crops that are not in market-
able condition, some that are poor in quality. That can be used
for feeding and put right back on the soil. One instance of this:
At New Iberia a man used cane tops for silage—not that I would
advocate cane tops for silage, but it helps out in his feeding, and
is one of the by-products of the cane.

A man that makes a good quality of product, butter or cream
or whole milk, is sure of a market; but.the quality must be good.
I might state at this time that in any whole milk industry, a
great improvement can be made by more winter dairying. In
that way a more uniform supply can be furnished in the cities.
Last November and December some of the places along the
Illinois Central were shipping only about half what they are at
the present time, which, you see, is not the best way of doing.

Some of the farmers claim they are not making money in
the dairy business. There are some reasons for that. First, the
cost of production is too high; and there are many cows in this
state that are not paying for the feed they eat. The second
reason is the lack of system in feeding. If you investigate some
of the good farms, you will find that every cow in that dairy is
getting the same amount of feed, regardless of the amount of
milk she produces. Third, you will find there is no economy

The Cow as a
Soil Improver

Dairy Prod-
ucts Com-
mand Ready
Market

Reasons for
Dairying Fail-
ures

Results from
Good and
Poor Cows

An Example
of,. Successful
Dairy Opera-
tion

176 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

in the labor. Much of the work may be saved; much of the work
may be done to better advantage by doing things a little dif-
ferent, and possibly locating a little differently. Fourth, is poor
equipment. Many of you are not sufficiently equipped to handle
the milk and get it to market in good condition. Fifth, is the
cattle tick, which will be.spoken of later; and we trust that the
cattle tick will be eradicated in a very short time. Also, one of
the most vital things is the lack of home grown feed. Among the
farmers we have visited within the past three or four months,
those people having no home grown feed were contemplating
selling their dairies because they could not afford to buy feed
from the market.

Now, these apparent disadvantages are being overcome.
One of the best ways of farming here is by getting better cows.
It is essential that we have this. We have a farmer at New
Iberia who just bought a few cows. One of them had a year’s
record of 600 pounds of butter fat. When you compare that with
a cow producing 100 to 150 pounds, you may see the difference.
Another .way is by weeding out the poor cows by herd record
work. One of the dairies in the northern part of the state had
35 cows. It started the record work there a little over a year
ago, and three or four months ago we began selling cows that
were proving they were not paying any profit. After eight cows
were sold, and by better feeding of the remainder, we sold as
much milk as we had from the original 35. By this record work
better methods are being introduced; better care is being taken
of the milk; better feeding is resulting; better care of the cows;
and it gives the farmers a better chance to plant for home
grown feed. This record work along the dairy line, I believe, is
the most important part of the work that we do. I might say
that the Live Stock Extension Service is supervising the record
work of some of the dairies in this state, and some interesting
results are found.

Two years ago a visit was made to a dairyman. After ex-
plaining the advantages of keeping records of each individual
cow he decided to keep a complete record of his herd. Each
cow’s milk was weighed each night and morning and a butter-
fat test was made once a month. Each cow was charged with
the feed she had eaten. At the end of the year four cows were
sold that were making no profit at all. The second year cane tops
were used with corn for silage. Four cows were added to the

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 177

dairy to make 50 (the original number). Last year, by the use
of cane tops and home grown feeds, $300 was saved on feed and
more butter fat was produced than the year before from the same
number of cows. When the record began at that dairy the aver-
age butter fat production per cow per year was about 170 Ibs.
At present the average is about 240 lbs., and at the end of this
year all cows not making 250 lbs. of butter fat will be sold. By
systematic feeding, business methods, and home grown feeds, this
man has saved $300 per year on feed; at the same time has in-
creased the butter fat production per cow 70 Ibs. per year. This
is an increase of about $30 per cow or on 50 cows this record
work has been worth $1,500 to this man. This is not the only
improvement he has made; he has increased the fertility of
this soil until other farmers around him are commenting on the
excellent crops on his farm.

This work of record keeping is being carried on with several
other farmers with excellent results. One dairyman at Monroe,
La., last week found that three of his cows were making more
profit than the other nine. It is essential, with the high price of
feed, that the dairyman feed only cows that are capable of turn-
ing that feed into butterfat and leave a profit. With the ad-
vancing prices of dairy feeds it is fast becoming necessary for
the dairy farmer to “weed out” all unprofitable cows or else he
will find the dairy on the wrong side of the ledger. Many dairy-
men are planning on more home grown feed than they have
ever raised before. They are very wise to do this under the
present outlook. Some of the dairymen who have been raising
their own feed are setting the pace in the dairy business for the
rest of the farmers. One man on the cut-over lands has been
in the dairy business for about five years and each year he has
increased the amount of home grown feed. Last year he built
a silo and raised corn for 50 tons of silage; in addition he has
sufficient soy beans and pea-vine hay to feed all the stock
through the year. All the grain he had to buy was a little cot-
tonseed meal to help balance up the ration. This dairyman is
one of the most prosperous men in that portion of the state.
This year he is planning on building a new house with the sav-
ings from. the cream checks (and he saved a little each month
because he did not have to swop his cream checks for feed).
This man used his land to help feed his dairy and he used his
dairy to help feed his land. The two are working well together,

Three Cows
Worth More
Than Nine

To Succeed,
Dairyman
Must Raise
His Own Feed

178 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

and the crop production is getting bigger each year. He is well
pleased with the results from the dairy and knows that the dairy
and the land must work together. When we consider that this
man started with little or no capital, on a poor farm, with no
buildings worth speaking of, we must realize that he has been
following a safe method. His method or prime object has been
to build up the land by the use of the dairy fertilizer, to grow
all the roughage for the dairy, and as much of the grain as pos-
sible; he has also practised rotation of crops to good advantage.
The results of this system is being noticed by other farmers in
that locality. Several are beginning to follow the same method.
It has been clearly shown that feed crops can be grown on the
hilly lands and on the cut-over lands and must be grown if the
farmer ever expects to make a success. He must also realize.
that the land cannot do its best without live stock on it; that the
dairy in particular will build up the land faster than can be done
by any other method; also he must realize that in keeping the
dairy he must grow his own feed, or at least all the roughage
and as much of the grain feeds as possible.

Last year we spent a good deal of time on the worn out
cotton lands of North Louisiana urging the farmers to plant
velvet beans. We had some difficulty to get them to try this
plan. Several tried velvet beans, however, and this year the
difficulty is to get enough seed. Some of the dairymen who did
not raise their own feed are going out of the business ; those who
raised their feed are making good. The difference between the
dairyman who raises his own feed and the one who buys his feed
is the difference between success and failure. As the prices of
feed stuffs advance, this difference becomes greater. It is im-
perative that we urge in every possible way the dairyman to
grow his own feed. Our whole campaign at present is “home
grown feed and better cows.”

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 179

Some Suggestions for Dairy-
ing o7 Cut-Over Lands
By N. P. Hull

President of the National Dairy Union

As your chairman says, I have come a long way—came.
down from Lansing, Michigan. I have been interested in dairy- .
ing all my life; started in to milk cows when I was knee high to
a June bug and have followed it all my life. I have come South
to tell you about the dairy business and how it ought to be ap-
plied in the South. I will tell you that story in ten minutes. I
can talk pretty quickly, too. Perhaps you want to know why:
Up in Michigan we manufacture 72 per cent of all the automo-
biles made in the United States. We don’t use them all there but
we test them all there. These automobiles run up and down and
all around, and the people there are divided into two classes—the
quick and the dead. (Laughter.)

I am not going to say all I had in mind to say to you. I
have heard a great deal about the wonderful fertility of the soil
and the wonderful opportunities in the Southland. I have
traveled over this Southland considerably, as well as over the
other lands—practically all the other states. In my work con-
nected with the National Dairy Union, and as President of the
American Dairy Farmers’ Association, and connected with sev-
eral other associations, I have lectured on dairying from one
ocean to the other, and for two years to the Canadian Govern-
ment. So I feel I have.at least had an opportunity to know
something about dairying. I have also had an opportunity to
know something about conditions in the different sections of the
United States.

I might repeat again—I have heard a great deal about the
opportunities of the Southland. I am running a dairy in Michi-
gan, and a great many other people are. We are buying carload
after carload of cottonseed meal grown upon the land of the
South. We pay $1.00 for your cottonseed meal for feeding to our
dairy cows, and from those dairy cows we send the butter back
to New Orleans and sell it, and we sell you two dollars’ worth

Muking a Dol-
lar Bring Two
in Return

180 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

of butter for every dollar’s worth of cottonseed meal we buy
from you. Your land grows that cottonseed meal; it takes the
fertility from your lands; you send it to us, and we feed it to
our dairy cows, and sell it back to you for $2.00. That may be
good business for you in the South, but I don’t see how it can
be. We are satisfied if you are. But you ought not to be satis-
fied, gentlemen. It means that the man who tills the land here
in the South should not blight the land he tills, and too many of
you fellows liere in the South have been blighting your land until
it is not as good and attractive land as it was a few years ago.
You ask me how I know? I don’t know just about this par-

’ ticular vicinity, but I do know about several other vicinities, and

Dairying
Makes High-
Priced Rich
Lands

Three Kinds
of Cows

I dare say it is true in this part of the country.

Now the solution. In my judgment—and I know it is true
in every other section—you go to the richest and highest price
land in Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan, and you will find that the
industry that made that high price and made the farmers that
handle that land so prosperous, was dairying. You go into the
cut-over land of Michigan and find a man who is improving the
fertility of those farms, to make them productive, and you will
find he is improving them by the industry of dairying. It is true
on high priced and on low priced land. Why? Because the cow
will take the product of your farm and convert it into more dollars,
carrying a larger percentage of profit than any other animal that
walks on four legs. She has done it in the past and will do it in
the future.

As one of the speakers said, there are certain essentials that
must be observed on the farm. First, you must have a good
cow. There are in the State of Louisiana, as well as in every
state, three kinds of cows. One kind of cow takes her feed, and
digests it, and under the law of her nature she converts that into
beef. That is a beef cow. It doesn’t make any difference whether
she is Hereford, or Shorthorn or Angus. If she converts that
into flesh she is a beef cow. Another kind takes her feed and
assimilates it, and because of the law of her nature she converts
that into milk, That is a dairy cow; and it doesn’t make any
difference what breed or color she is; if by the law of her na-
ture she converts that into milk, she is a dairy cow. Another
kind of cow takes her feed, and God only knows what she does
with it—she neither makes meat nor milk with it. (Applause. )

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 181

I want to say to you gentlemen just remember that little
message from the men of the North—too many of you fellows are
spending your lives growing that cow that is in the third class.
She should be got rid of. You are keeping too many cows that
came too near to being born steers. (Laughter.)

I promised I wouldn’t talk over ten minutes; I have two
minutes more. As I said, I am President of the National Dairy
Union. It was organized especially to protect the good cow and
the product of that cow from vicious and unfair competition of
the socalled substitute, oleomargarine. I just want to drop
this little word to you before I leave. In our work in Washing-
ton we found that the Congressmen and Senators from the South
are usually against us and with the oleomargarine fellows. I
just want to say this to you: I want to ask why your represen-
tatives are against the dairy cow and honest dairy products; why
your men say that the man who manufactures oleomargarine is
just as good and has just as good a right as we have. Let me
ask you why it is that a man colors butter? To make it look
exactly like what it is. Why does a man color oleomargarine?
To make it look like what it is not, and so that he may sell it at
the price of butter, which, it is not. You are getting swindled both
ways. I want you to think about that, and stand with us of the North
to protect the cow. Probably you have several million dollars that
you want to buy oleomargarine with. Instead of doing that, go into
the dairy business; feed out your own cottonseed meal, and your
velvet bean and other products that you grow; return the ferti-
lizer to your farm, which will enable you to have better farms
as the years go by. You will find that that good old cow will do
more for you than any other animal that ever walked on four
legs. I thank you. (Applause.)

Oleomargar-
ine a Menace
to Dairying

Early Work
in Tick Erad-
ication

182 . The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

Tick Eradication
By Dr. E. I. Smith

Inspector in Charge Bureau of Animal Industry,
United States Department of Agriculture,
Baton Rouge, La.

In taking up the subject of “Tick Eradication,” I will briefly
outline the history in the State. In 1906 the State of Louisiana
began its first work in tick eradication. At that time there were
two Parishes which started work along such lines; that is, Lincoln
and Claiborne, and. it is believed that they commenced operations
largely because the State and Government urged them for the
purpose of seeing what could be done in Louisiana; and if the
results were satisfactory it might have a tendency to encourage
the other Parishes to do likewise. After a few months Lincoln
Parish decided to withdraw her co-operation on account of so
much opposition developing in her borders; but Claiborne Parish
continued until 1912, when they were released from quarantine.
For some reason or other Claiborne Parish did not furnish the

_ proper co-operation, and the State and Bureau officials bore

Popular
Approval
Necessary

most of the expenses, and, as a result, when the Parish was
released they failed to appreciate the advantage of taking care
of the local infestation left in the Parish and enforcing the law
when necessary. In this connection, I regret to state that they
were placed back in quarantine the first day of March, 1917, with
the same status relative to the cattle tick as any quarantined
Parish in the State.

This vividly illustrates one prominent point: Notably, any
Parish or County in any State which starts tick eradication with-
out the co-operation of the people is an absolute failure. In such
cases more harm will result than good, because people believe
that the officials higher up are endeavoring to make them do
something which is not for their interest.

This year we had a few Parishes that were very anxious
to commence systematic tick eradication, and the Police Jury
called us into conference, asking our advice, and at the same time
stating how many vats they had, and in what position they were

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 183

financially. After taking into consideration their financial con-
dition, and the small number of vats in operation, we plainly said
to them, “Gentlemen, you are not ready to commence active
work in tick eradication; you have not the sufficient number of
dipping vats, and your financial condition is not in a shape to
allow you to fully co-operate throughout the season. You
should wait until you have the last number of vats completed,
and sufficient money so that you will be able to work for the
best interest of the Parish, for the purpose of securing the best
result. It would be folly for us to attempt to co-operate with
you at this time, as it would waste both Government and State
funds.”

Last year we worked systematically in eight Parishes, and
this year we are working in the same manner in nineteen
Parishes, and it is our fondest hopes that these Parishes will
be released from quarantine this fall. They are giving excellent
co-operation and the people, as a whole, are lending their splendid
influence to the work and doing all in their power to see that
the cattle tick is completely eradicated.

Last year the State Legislature passed a law which pro-
vided that tick eradication must be taken up over the entire
State not later than the spring of 1918. Mississippi, Arkansas
and Texas have also passed State-wide tick eradication laws.
His excellency, the Governor of Arkansas, told you yesterday
that they had vigorously legislated against the “Tick.” Such
action means that within the next three or four years there will
be no cattle ticks in the States which are taking such strenuous
action against the tick, or, if there are any in existence, it means
that they will be located and absolutely under control. The tick
must go. History has taught us that it does not belong in this
country. It was first brought from Spain to old Mexico, and
from there it has rapidly spread over the southern states; par-
ticularly, where the climatic conditions would best permit its
multiplication. It is the southern people, with their splendid
co-operation, who have decided that the tick is a nuisance;
and they have further arrived at the conclusion that it is not
only a misfortune but a disgrace to allow such an infernal para-
site to destroy such a possibility of greater cattle raising in the
South. It is possible to hinder tick eradication, and it is also
possible to set it back a little; but, gentlemen, it is absolutely
impossible to completely stop tick eradication. In other words,

“The Tick
Must Go”

Opposition
Fast Disap-
pearing

184 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

it is a road-roller. Last year our records show that we had
1,516,900 dippings of cattle in the State of Louisiana under
supervision. That, you will see, is working a hardship on the
ticks when you have over one and a half million dippings in eight
Parishes in one season. You will readily see what the final
results will be this year, we are going much over that, as our
territory is larger and the work will be more extensive. In this
connection I beg to state that last year we dipped the cattle
every twenty-one days, which did not give us the satisfactory
results desired. This year the Live Stock Sanitary Board have
decided that all new Parishes engaged in the work of systematic
tick eradication must dip their cattle every fourteen days. This
action will prove two-fold; that is, it will mean the eradication
of the tick in one season in any Parish, provided the people
co-operate, and, as a result, will conserve the Parish, State, and
Government funds. So far the people are taking very kindly
to the fourteen day dipping, and we anticipate very little trouble
in carrying out such procedure this year.

In 1906 the Federal Government started tick eradication and
at that time they didn’t have any dipping vats and I don’t sup-

pose there was a dipping vat in existence. All disinfection of

cattle was done by the greasing method with a stick and a
swab saturated with grease and they were able to place a little of
such solution on each animal. In this connection, you can
imagine what kind of a job that would be if we had to grease
a million and a half cattle in one season. It would take more
than one season to do it, and when we get through the results
would not be satisfactory. Of course, by this method various
states succeeded in eradicating large areas from the ravages of
the cattle tick, but such areas were located mostly in counties
where one could quite easily find the cattle, but, if you under-
took such a piece of work in many sections on this Cut-Over
Timber Land, we would meet with nothing but failure. The
people at that time, along in 1906, 1907, 1908, didn’t know much
about tick eradication, consequently they were very skeptical.
The question was frequently asked, “Could it be done?” And,
of course, there were certain classes that were quick to answer
“No,” with the explanation that we had ticks on every animal,
both wild and domestic, and it would be impossible to maintain
a quarantine over the wild animals. Today, the people look
upon the matter in a very much different viewpoint, and the

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 185

question they are now asking to the State and Bureau officials is:
“When can you send a trained man here to supervise tick
eradication in our locality?” Such requests are coming in al-
ready, at such a rate that we are unable to furnish supervisors at
once to every Parish and County ready to work.

Next year the new state-wide Tick Eradication Law for
Louisiana goes into effect, which means that this State will be
a leader in the complete elimination of the cattle tick. When the
State Legislature passed the law they very unwisely, for some
reason or other, perhaps on account of shortage of finances, did
not provide a sufficient amount of money to carry out the work-
ing of the law. The Governor of Arkansas told you yesterday
that they had appropriated $50,000 in their State to wage war
against the cattle tick. This State hasn’t but about $10,000 to
do what they expect to do with $50,000. If the people of Louis-
iana are enthusiastic enough to pass a state-wide law for the
eradication of the cattle tick, they should go before the Legis-
lative Committee on Finance and demand that the proper ap-
propriation be made. Other Southern States engaged in this
work are furnishing large sums to meet all the demands of the
work. Many Parishes in this State are carrying on tick eradi-
cation with their own funds without any assistance from the
State. One Parish, particularly, in this State has built some-
thing like fifty public dipping vats within the last thirty days,
and the State is unable to contribute one dollar towards such
progress. A great many Parishes in Louisiana have been unable
to do systematic tick eradication this season because they did
not have the funds, and in this connection I believe there should
have been some organization, perhaps financed by lumber in-
terests, that could furnish each Parish with a sufficient amount
of money to enable them to commence active operation. I be-
lieve, Mr. Chairman, that this would be a very co-operative
movement as it would help the Parish in question, and the
money so loaned would be drawing a reasonable rate of interest.
I have in mind one Parish in the northern part of the State where
the Police Jury were willing to co-operate with the State and
Bureau force for the purpose of eliminating the cattle tick, but
they were absolutely unable to borrow money to conduct the
work, and in this connection it is reasonable to believe that the
law permitted them to borrow money, otherwise they would not
endeavor to carry out such a program; besides, it is further evi-

More Money
Needed to
Carry on
Work

The Evil of
the Open
Range

186 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

dent that their credit was good. They had the disposition and
the desire to work with us, but they didn’t have the money, and
if there had been some organization in this State that could have
furnished them the money at a reasonable rate of interest they
would have been working systematically at this time and un-
doubtedly be in a position to be added to the free area this fall.

One gentleman this morning struck the keynote, I believe,
on this cut-over timber land proposition, when he said that these
lands ought to be fenced. Such lands are raising cattle for
people who do not own an acre of land. They own the cattle
and, apparently, depend upon charity for the privilege of grazing
them, and when you talk to such individuals about dipping their
cattle they are inclined to develop opposition. Those are just
the menacing conditions that exist over the cut-over timber land
territory, and, you know, a menace located here and there may.
seriously interfere with a great organized effort. These people
have no business to raise cattle, graze them on somebody else’s
property, and then keep up an opposition against a great piece
of constructive work like tick eradication. If these lands in such
sections in the South were fenced we would expect no opposi-
tion from the individuals who were using such lands, and it
would also prevent, from a certain extent, the destruction of a
number of dipping vats which has been going on within the last
few. months. A number of them have been dynamited in this
State—I think about twelve or fifteen—and an equal number in
Mississippi. Dynamiting, of course, is very destructive, and
undesirable in such instances. But, after all, it is a large adver-
tising factor, because it starts the people talking about something
they never gave serious attention to before; that is, it separates
the good fair-minded class from the criminal element to such an
extent that the better class condemns such lowdown principles
as the destruction of public property.

The cut-over timber lands are indeed great. Only day be-
fore yesterday I was riding through Washington Parish, which,
of course, gave me the opportunity to observe carefully the cut-
over timber land section, and as one rides through such country
he cannot help from being impressed with the better appearance
of the country. The land is of a rolling nature, well watered and
dotted here and there with little dense forests which can be con-
trolled or allowed to spread. The character of the soil appears
to be equal to the average and as Doctor Dodson told you this

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 187

morning the expression “poor land” has no place in our vocabu-
lary, and does not mean anything. I think, if some of these lands
could be fenced in, cattle put on them in charge of competent
herdsmen under the supervision of lumber corporations there
would be great rewards gained, not only in a financial way but
as an advertising medium. I know right now where there are
over 6,000 head of cattle going out of this State within the next
thirty days to Texas. It appears to me that they could be used
to an excellent advantage on some of our cut-over timber lands
in Louisiana. It would be a great advantage and I think an
excellent investment to try and do something like that, partic-
ularly at this time of the year when the grasses are excellent.
So, gentlemen, if there is anything you can do along the line
just indicated, do it.

Another speaker said this should be observed from a mili-
tary standpoint; that is, preparedness in the way of raising more
food products. We may need preparedness today, but we will
need it a year from today just as much, if not more. Conse-
quently, it is never too late to get ready. Any effort, by any
organization, in the way of financing this cause would make you
gainers in the end. The State of Louisiana, we hope, will be
free from the dreaded cattle tick within the next three or four
years. In the outset there has been released over 300,000 square
miles, which represents nearly one-half of the territory quaran-
tined on account of the existence of the cattle tick. That, I
think, is a very good record. It has been accomplished through
the splendid co-operation of the Southern people, who have spent
two dollars in this cause for every dollar spent by our United
States Government. I thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the time
you have given me. (Applause.)

Cattle Sent to
Other States
for Fattening

300,000
Square Miles
in Louisiana
Released from
Quarantine

Experiments
the South May
Profit By

188 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

Stumps and Their Practical
Removal.
By Carl D. Livingston

University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis.

I had prepared a talk before this Conference on the sub-
ject of “Stumps and Their Practical Removal,” but after listen-
ing to every word that has been said here at this.Conference for
the last two and a half days I have decided to change it, and
instead of talking in technicalities to tell you, first—or rather to
analyze the land clearing situation roughly from an engineering
point of view; second, to show just how we tackled this problem
in Wisconsin and the good results we got from it; and third, to
suggest, if I may, how the Southern states can profit by our ex-
periences and our mistakes.

The modern engineering methods and modern engineering
tools have not been given as much importance in the subject of
clearing lands as they should be. Modern engineering practices
will play a very important part in the development of our cut-
over land regions; but I would like to make a statement right
now that may forestall some criticism. What I will say in re-
gard to cut-over lands is due entirely to an experience in the
Lake states and on the Pacific Coast. I don’t say that the novel
methods that we have worked out in Wisconsin can be wholly
adopted by the South; but I do believe the methods of investiga-
tion and demonstration that we have been using are of interest
to you.

Now, stump lands—TI believe it will be generally admitted
by those, especially, who own them, that they are not generally
sought after by those people who desire new homes in cut-over
lands. -Now, why is this the case? The answer is easy—it is the
stumps. It is the fear of the stumps that keeps people from the
cut-over lands. If there were no stumps the Lake states or the
Pacific Coast or the South would have no more of a development
problem than do Illinois or Iowa.

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 189

Why are people afraid of the stumps? Is it not because the
methods used have been so cumbersome and the tools so primi-
tive and used for sq many generation’ that the people, gener-
ally, have gotten the idea that making a home in ctit-over lands
means long, slow years of laborious back-breaking toil? Now,
is not that the case?

The reclaiming of Western lands by irrigation is just as
hard; it is almost as slow; it is practically as costly in leveling
them and getting irrigation in; but the people generally do not
recognize that fact; it has not been given the publicity which
cut-over land has; and, therefore, people going out into a new
country will go to those places in preference to the cut-over
land area. Even the artists recognize that clearing land is hard,
laborious work. In the National Library, at Washington, there
are seven or eight semi-circular paintings in the ceiling that
depict various home scenes—religion, art, etc—and the artist
for labor has shown a picture of a man with a grub hoe, trying
to grub out a fairly sized stump, and if that isn’t labor I don’t
know what is. Such things no longer exist in land clearing, but,
like a lot of other fears and superstitions, it will take some real
education and rural demonstration before those ideas can be rid
of in the minds of the people who are coming in and who already
are in these cut-over lands.

We have shown in Wisconsin that we can reduce the cost,
reduce the time and reduce the drudgery of land clearing, and
we feel that just in the proportion that we have done those
things, we have made the cut-over lands popular and desirable.

An organized effort, directed along engineering lines, will do
a great deal to demonstrate to the people that such is the case,
and a clearing house where all this information can be gathered
together, inspected, and, if found good, given publicity; and if
found bad, condemned; if such an institution can be formed, a
clearing house, it will have more value than any other one thing,
in my opinion, that can happen to the cut-over lands.

As evidence of these statements, I wish to offer the work of
the Department of Agricultural Engineering at the University
of Wisconsin. A year and a half ago a special branch was or-
ganized, the sole purpose of which was to deal with problems
connected with clearing cut-over lands. Previous to that there
was no exclusive agency in the Lake states where any man could

Drudgery of
Stump Re-
moval Ended

How Wiscon-
sin Began
Organized
Efforts

Free Informa-

.tion Service

for the
Farmer

190 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

get any land clearing information of value. The new fellows
coming into Wisconsin—there are five thousand a year—those
new fellows had no place to go where they could get any reliable
information .on land clearing subjects. It was something like
the Dark Ages before arriving at the common method of pre-
serving ideas. Already we have in Wisconsin, this spring, great-
er activities than they have ever had heretofore; and that, we
believe, in a measure, is a direct result of our work and the work
that we caused to be swung into line.

We gathered from all parts of the country the different ap-
pliances men have used—a piler from Georgia, a hand puller
here, a steam rigger from the Pacific Coast, a side trip from
Minnesota; and if they are any good we say so, and if they are
bad we say so.

As specific illustrations of what we have done in the way of
being a clearing house, I have brought these models along, and
will take a few minutes to show them to you as a specific illus-
tration that there are scattered throughout the country and the
whole earth a lot of perfectly good ideas,.such as these, which
men. have worked, that have helped them to solve their individual
problems; and those little ideas have remained right in their
communities and have never been given any publicity at all.

(A demonstration of the models.)

The way we get those before the public: We make blue-
prints of them and these can be had for a small price. We sent
them out free of charge for a while, until we began to get blanket
orders for six copies of each one.

The materials that we have perfected ourselves, we do not
patent; but we fix it so no one else can obtain it for private gain.
They can use it, but not patent it.

Our largest single effort was to conduct two land clearing
demonstration trains over the northern part of the state. This
was a co-operative enterprise on the part of the railroads, who
furnished the cars and carried them all over their line free of
charge; the stump puller people, who gave us their men and
paid their expenses; the explosive companies paid their part of
it and furnished the explosives; the man on whose farm we
stopped furnished the teams; and the merchant usually gave a
free lunch or some other attraction. Each train had eight cars
in it. We carried a crew of eighteen men. We did the actual

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 191

work in the field. We divided up an area and put a different
kind in each tract and then sent the various different kinds of
equipment on the stumps. We didn’t advocate any method of
clearing. We just showed what dynamite and stump pullers
would do alone and in connection with each other. In the even-
ing we held meetings with the townspeople and with the farm-
ers, in an endeavor to get them to talk about their problems and
their individual problems, and what they could do themselves for
their own salvation. Some of the specific things we accom-
plished were these: We gave a decided interest to the general
land clearing men. We speeded up the work and helped to re-
duce the cost and remove the drudgery, and instituted, or en-
couraged, a follow-up system which is showing results this year
as never before.

I might enlarge upon these points. As far as impetus is
concerned, the whole country seems to be talking about stumps
now and their practical removal. The boys are holding debates
on it in the high schools and forming small clubs and associa-
tions of that nature. The 20,000 people who saw those demon-
strations were enthusiastic over the things they saw. Rural
credits have been greatly stimulated, and now the bankers are
willing to co-operate with the farmers as they have never done
before, in loaning them money for land clearing purposes. They
realize that when he tackles a job of that kind, that bank cannot
make a better investment than to furnish him the means of stay-
ing on his land and clearing it himself. I merely want to cite
one instance of this kind. One of the bank officials said to us
he wouldn’t have a stick of dynamite on his land; “the only
thing I use that for is to blow up the posters you furnish.” Well,
after a demonstration, here is what he came out with: (Show-
ing a poster) “Farmers, let us help you clear your land,” and
they gave four instances where they will lend money: One, for
fencing timber or land; two, for buying stock, dairy or beef;
three, for developing silage or forage; four, for stumping your
land.

Land has always been cleared too slow for rapid develop-
ment, and that is one of the things we tried to show—to increase
the speed. We wrote that if a man didn’t have a team, that a
one-man stump puller would do the work. Horse pullers are
even better than the one-man pullers, because it takes so much
power to pull a stump from the soil and your back has to be

Land Clear-
ing Trains
Demonstrate
Work

Banks Loan
Money for
Farm Im-
provement

Preventing
Waste in Use
of Dynamite

Four Billion
Stumps to Be
Cleared in
South

Machines and
Horses Now
Do the Work

192 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

multiplied so many times that it makes it slower. The horse
stump pullers are equipped with accessories so that you can
move from one place to another rapidly. These things speed the
work up two, three and four times as fast, compared to the old
methods.

The high cost of stump removal has been a very serious
anchor-to the progress of developing cut-over lands. We were
able to show that where the people had been using 40 and 60 per
cent dynamite, we could do absolutely as good work, stick for
stick, with 20 or 30 per cent, and this has resulted in a saving of
from 2% to 6 cents per pound. The lower grades dynamite are
safer than the higher grades, too, and they do better work. They
do less cutting and are less shattering in their effect.

We have heard about this 76 million acres in the South. If
there were in the neighborhood of fifty stumps per acre, there
would be something in the neighborhood of four billion stumps
in the South to be cleared. Now, I say, if ‘that was done with
dynamite, and you have been using 40 per cent, and by the use
of 20 per cent you could save 2% cents a pound, that would be
a tremendous saving. I merely cite that as an instance where
we were able to save the people of Wisconsin many dollars in
the use of this low grade product that would do the same work.

Dollars are the controlling factor in land clearing, because
a man will buy dynamite with all the money he can save. If,
by any system, we can make this dynamite two, three or four.
times safer then he will clear two, three or four times as much
land with the same expenditure; and with the combination of
stump puller, pulling the stump first, and then cracking it—and
one-third as much dynamite is required to crack a stump as to
blow it entirely; that means that the man, with his combination
method and proper equipment, can clear from three to five times
as much land with the same actual cash expenditure.

The tremendous human energy that has been wasted in land
clearing is something appalling. What we have accomplished,
if we have done nothing else, is to almost eliminate the drudgery
from land clearing. I don’t say the work; there is nothing on
earth that will enable you to get rid of stumps without work;
but it is not that slow, back-breaking, monotonous toil. The
outfit weighs about thirty pounds; a man can take that to a
stump; that is not drudgery. He stands still while the horses

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 193

pull the stump from the ground. It is not drudgery to work
with the dynamite he uses; and it is not drudgery to pile the
stumps. It has all passed from the man’s back to machines and
horses, and wherever we have been able to show we have re-
moved the drudgery we have made the cut-over lands popular.
To use a specific instance: On one demonstration a man came
from Iowa to buy land, and he came to the demonstration and
I heard him tell the man who had him in tow that if these men
could clear land with as little back work as that, I can, too; and
he bought 450 acres of land at $25 an acre.

We don’t try to pull green material. From our experience
we find it will cost three times as much to clear green land as
after four or five years. Put stock on it. Work it and seed it
with whatever it grows best, and then put it to sheep and cattle,
or to dairying. Goats are all right; they are the best browsers
there are; and if you have a wide range, all right; but if you
have it fenced you will have to put in a 38-wove wire fence and
barbed wire or they will cut it.

As to the follow-up work: It was apparent that if we ad-
vocated an equipment that would take $200 to buy, it was plumb
out of the realm of a great many of those settlers; if we could
form a small society of three, four or five men—not more than
five—and arrange for the purchase of such equipment as we
would advise, that would reduce the cost to about $40 apiece.
Then we went to the banks and said, “These men want to get
an outfit of this kind; they can probably clear five times as
much land with this equipment as with their older devices”; and
in every case the banks said they were willing to loan money
up to half of that equipment, and three-fourths of the banks
said they would loan all the money.

The Wisconsin Advancement Association, a group of men
who have pooled their interests and paid 1 cent an acre for the
advancement of those lands, organized a campaign for the pur-
chase of stump pullers and explosives. Forty per cent dynamite
had been retailing in the neighborhood of 17 or 18 cents. They
proposed to put in, in carload lots. They have now, together
with the aid of the explosive company, been able to put in
twenty carloads where there had been only cases sold before.
In every case where one of these carloads were going in there
had been only three or four hundred pounds sold during the en-

Deaden
Stumps Be-
fore Removal

Co-operative
Association
Work in Wis-
consin

Farms Now
Cleared in
Few Years

194 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

tire year. Just think what that means. If they can get a com-
munity that will purchase five of these stump pullers they can
get it down to $112 or $150 instead of $175. One of the land
companies there just issued this pamphlet, which came in my
last mail before leaving. In it they describe a clearing method
which they are employing for every five thousand acre unit that
they subdivide. They are setting aside a sum of $7,500 to be
used in the purchase of land-clearing equipment; and all that, of
course, goes over to their purchasers. Another man has already
organized several crews—he has thirty competitive crews—he
has a very large area, and these men are working in a competi-
tive contest, and at the end of the season prizes will be given
them. This greatly stimulates the manufacture and the dis-
covery of a great many devices that would not otherwise be used.

Now, don’t get the impression that we preach any Utopian

-scheme in Wisconsin, where we have some way of getting the

stumps .out without work; but we have been able to show how
the cost of clearing land has been materially reduced, so that
now a man, instead of spending a lifetime, can clear up his farm
in a few years; and we have practically removed the drudgery
from land-clearing work; and we have made the cut-over lands
popular in just the proportion which we have done these things.

I might just take a moment to explain what our future pro-
gram is. We have been able to promote a great deal of interest
in the land-clearing movement, but we have to find out some
more before we can carry our demonstration further; and so
there is a bill in the Legislature for $37,000, which is asked to
be spent over a period of two years in conducting further demon-
stration trains. Our plan is to lay off areas on various soil types
of twenty acres; develop those and keep track of the methods
that are used, and the time and hours of man labor and the hours
of horse labor and the pounds of dynamite. If we can do all
that we will then know which is the best way to clear land in the
Lake states, and have a good idea for other people to follow.

I don’t know whether or not the conditions we have, or the
methods we have developed, will be of individual value to you;
but I do believe that if you follow some of the things we have
done you can expect to get some of the results we have accom-
plished. We have been working for the little fellow because
there are some 50,000 of them already there.

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 195

Now, as to the suggestions I have to offer, if I may: One
is that, first of all, you establish an office similar to the one we
have established. I might say that Michigan, Minnesota and
Washington are establishing offices along the same line. There
surely are in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the other states
devices and information such as we have here, that will help
your men, help your people in just the ratio they have helped
ours. The first thing that ought to be done is to form a clear-
ing house, where this information can be gathered together, and,
if good, passed on. The second—and I might say that this can
best be established with your various Departments of Agriculture
and with your colleges, because the colleges are able to get more
from the manufacturer by way of co-operation than almost any
other single agency—the second would be to use your influence
to provide proper funds for this work to be carried on. Next,
start in with the collective demonstration, showing what is good
and bad practice. You will know, then, what you will want to
do with the investigations end. Try to co-operate, in all ways,
with the banks, the railroads, the manufacturers of dynamite and
the stump puller people. In that way you will get so many
people together that the movement will be given so much mo-
mentum that nothing will stop it.

May I say just one word further? This is a little emergency
poster No. 1 (indicating) that was published by the Wisconsin
College of Agriculture, as a result of the demand for more food.
We have begun to get results from this already; and I have one
or two copies here in case anyone would like to see them. I also
have one or two extra copies of our land-clearing poster. We
have published a report of our land-clearing demonstration
which we will be glad to send to any who care to have it; and
we have in the press a land-clearing bulletin which is composed
mainly of pictures. We feel that if we can depict land-clearing
conditions and methods by pictures, that others can read the pic-
tures whether they can read the English language or not. I
thank you. (Applause.)

Suggests Cen-
tral Informa-
tion Clearing
House for
South

Importance of
Sheep Raising
in the South

196 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

The Sheep Industry of the

South
By F. R. Marshall

Senior Animal Husbandman Bureau of Animal
Industry, United States Department of
Agriculture

Mr. Chairman, after this discussion I am in somewhat an
embarrassing position, but I believe I am complying with the
will of the majority, and will undertake to say, very briefly, some
of the main essentials of sheep raising.

My subject permits me to cover the entire South, but 1
shall not endeavor to do so. I have been interested in listening
to the discussions; and I take it that now we have cleared the
stumps off the land and surveyed the soil; we have established
pastures, and we have eradicated the ticks; I don’t know whether
to say we have established demonstration farms, but we have
debated it.

You don’t need to do all that before you talk about going
into the sheep business. You could have done that without
much of the other, but up to this time, I presume, the sheep
business has seemed to you a rather minor and secondary matter ;
but if you will acquaint yourselves with the facts in that con-
nection and with the methods of utilization of these lands, JI be-
lieve you will no longer agree that the sheep industry is a second-
ary proposition.

I {will explain to you the reasons for those views. In what I
propose to outline briefly, I take it to be the consensus of opinion
of this conference that at least a large part of these cut-over lands
must, for some considerable time, at least, be used for grazing
purposes. I don’t know how much or how long. When you come
to consider a grazing proposition, you have sheep and cattle
mainly to think about.

The thing that has impressed me most in this connection,
and in the conservative constructive thinking along this line, is
a statement made by a gentleman that after he studied the means

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 197

of utilizing his lands, he came to the point where he did not want
to dispose of them.

The possibilities and opportunities in sheep raising are much
less well understood than in cattle raising. There have been a
good many reasons for that up to this date. Those reasons no
longer exist. During the last five years, or two years, the sheep
business of this country has come in on an entirely new basis.
For your guidance in the future you don’t have to study the
history of the question at all.

The reasons for saying you don’t have to study the history
of the sheep business are briefly these: Up to this time the
sheep of the world have been kept on the new lands, where
they could go into the sheep business without preparation, and
because in many cases they would produce and carry nothing
but sheep. That has been the case in our western states, Aus-
tralia, South America and Africa and other countries. In those
areas, however, those conditions have passed. Those grazing
lands are being used for other purposes. Ultimately, no doubt,
they will carry larger numbers of cattle and sheep than they
carried when used for pasture purposes. In the meantime, there
is a very serious shortage of sheep meat and wool the world over.

Those conditions are disappearing and, as a consequence, the
prices of sheep products, especially, have gone up. We face
today a condition where lambs are worth 15 cents a pound on
the hoof. When you consider it is a safe proposition to put a
lamb on the market at 70 pounds, you will understand some-
thing of its possibilities. At the same time it is hard to say,

without having seen the market reports of the hour, what the

prices of wool are. They are very high, but largely because of
conditions that were in evidence before and will exist after the
war.

This passing of the pasturage parts of the country has
been particularly noticeable in our western states during the last
three or four years, and is going further. We still have in the
public domain, as stated by the Commissioner of the Land Office,
something like 280 or 290 million acres of land which has been
used by the stockmen of this country for both sheep and cattle
grazing; and as to a comparison of the possibilities between sheep
and cattle let me make this statement: that with present values
and circumstances, and the adaptability of the country, it is a

World Scarc-
ity of Sheep
and Wool

America Im-
porting Vast
Quantities of
Wool

Cut-Over
Lands Ideal
For Sheep
Raising

198 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

pretty narrow choice, and it is mainly a matter of taste as to
whether the man takes sheep or cattle for pasturage.

Those lands are being taken up very rapidly, and during the
last few months, especially, there have been something like 45,-
000 applications for those grazing homesteads. It is altogether
probable that ultimately again a large part of those lands will
carry more stock than they have now; but I do believe it is
more certain that for a considerable time they will carry much
less stock—they will ship eastward much less cattle and wool
than for some time past. Taking in connection with that fact the
further fact that other countries are in the same position; and
still further the fact that this country manufactured, during the
year ending June 30th last, over 800 million pounds of wool.
While we manufactured that we grew less than 300 million
pounds. The rest came from the countries mentioned. The
consumption in other countries is increasing; the production is
decreasing ; and we are up against a serious proposition. There
is room to dilate as much as one may wish upon the patriotic
phase of the question; but I submit it to you only as a business

proposition, to help meet the demand for an increase of the sheep

population somewhere in this country.

The cut-over lands of Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin
are well adapted to put sheep on them. This increase of lambs
and wool, which must be had, can only come from two sources.
The one we have been thinking of most heretofore is that of the
farms of both this country and other countries. The ‘sheep busi-
ness will increase very materially there, but it will be a slow
increase and it will have to be along lines yet to be worked out.
Outside of the countries not ready for the business, I do not
believe there is any section which is so ready to go quickly into
a considerable wool or lamb proposition as the cut-over lands.
With the opportunities you have, of relatively low production,
I only wish to submit to you that the sheep business, for those
who will understand it and study it froma business standpoint,
is thoroughly safe and practicable.

I am not going to renew, or take part, in any debate as to

‘just how you will get the information other than to say that if

anything has been done by disinterested parties in this part of the
country to show the possibilities of keeping sheep, I very much
regret to say that it has not come to my attention. The nearest

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 199

we can come to getting a line on it or a parallel case is found
in New Zealand. That is too far away to interest you fully, but
I want to call your attention to the fact that there is in New
Zealand a set of conditions that compares closely with those of
the cut-over lands. The soil compares very closely in kind and
the climate and rainfall are the same. Through the pressure
of .circumstances those people residing in that country have
taken up the live stock proposition and provided pastures that
will support live stock all through the year. Where they have
worked that pasture proposition out and studied the live stock
business, they have found that their lands were paying dividends
on their valuation equivalent to $200 an acre. Only there, that
I know of, can you go to find a demonstrated proposition as to
sheep raising, that will show you the actual net expense and
possible receipts on an acre of pasture; and you must also con-
sider that in building up that system they have been under the
handicap of marketing their product five thousand miles away.

Just to what extent and in what way the sheep proposition
can be taken up, I am not ready to state in any detail as yet. It
will have to follow the same general lines I have mentioned.
First, however, as with cattle, the natural or artificial pasture is
the primary consideration. The sheep differ particularly from
the cattle in this way, that a good marketable carcass of lamb can
be raised under pasture conditions without the use of any
material amount of grain. It is possible to produce a useful and
salable carcass of lamb without grain at all. Grain is not essen-
tial to the production of wool, so that with sheep you can have
two finished products from pasture alone. 2

Sheep will not thrive under conditions where their feet are
continually wet. If it is continually wet or swampy, you will
have trouble. They will eat a greater variety of plants than
cattle, but if your main object is to clean up brush you can do
it with goats and you will have a very satisfactory job.

Getting down to the possible advantages of sheep in com-
parison with cattle on this land, you have to consider that the

tick proposition is not serious with sheep. The authorities have.

stated that the sheep are in no way concerned with tick. While
sheep have no ticks, however, they have their own peculiar
troubles, which are less serious in some ways and can be avoided.
The main factor in the trouble of sheep health is that which con-
cerns itself with stomach parasites. There are thoroughly, prac-

Sheep Thrive
Without
Grain Food

Combining
Sheep and
Cattle Raising

Ranchmen,
Crowded in
West, Now
Ready to
Come South

200 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

tical systems of controlling and preventing the troubles from that
source. One of the systems is to give sheep a sufficiently wide
range. Another way is to use the sheep on pastures while the
cattle are not there. I said I would not endeavor to outline a
detailed system: of the proper methods of handling sheep, but
whatever system can be safely attempted early in the game will
necessarily be somewhat along these lines.

I will say that sheep can be used on the same ground with
cattle, to the advantage of both. I know some of you that have
traveled in the West and have read the old-time stories have recol-
lections of the bloodshed in those western countries due to the
feuds between cattle and sheep men, and you will find that a
large proportion of them have been over the possession of the
ground. The solution of the whole question has been found, and
it is this: When sheep and cattle belong to opposite and oppos-
ing owners, their sheep do hurt the pastures; but when the same

man owns both, they get along very well to the advantage of
both.

I don't believe you are likely to make a success in the pre-
liminary stage if you take up sheep raising as a side line. It
can be done with small units, but not with the size of pastures
you are operating with. Sheep are peculiar to people who have
never studied them; but there is nothing about their health,
management or breeding that intelligent study cannot master.
Outside of the fencing proposition and alternating with cattle,
I think the system that has the most immediate possibilities is
that of the straight western ranching proposition; and I believe
that some of the men being crowded out of their holdings in
Wyoming and Montana could be interested in these lands to the
extent of making a fair try of the proposition. If you will do
as those men do you will need a unit of a thousand ewes, and
possibly up to 1,500, but hardly less than a thousand, with a
herder with them day and night. That hélps to take care of the
dog proposition and gives them proper care. That western
herder is with the band all the time. He does not stay in one
place all the time, but keeps them moving around. He works
them that way and he is on watch all the time. By keeping them
on the move the danger of parasitic infection is mainly avoided.
Of course, that involves some expense; and the kind of business
that calls for it is one which keeps sheep both for lambs and
wool. That plan may seem at first to contrast rather poorly

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 201

with existing Southern flocks having anywhere from eight to
twenty thousand ewes with a big loss every year, and represent-
ing a value of perhaps $3.00 each with an income of $1.00; but
with more improved sheep to produce lambs marketable at an
early age as well as wool, even with the extra expense of herd-
ing and attendance at lambing time the net results are much in
favor of the latter plan.

Possibilities of Cut-Over
Lands
By J. A. Evans

Assistant Chief, States Relation Service, United
States Department of Agriculture

Mr. Chairman, I have been convinced for some time that this
meeting is already “fed up” on farming talk, and I am therefore
going to take the liberty of talking to you for a very few minutes
about some other phases of the cut-over land problem that have
suggested themselves to me during the course of this evening.

I have been interested in the cut-over land problem for many
years. For more than thirteen years I have been connected with
the Department of Agriculture in what has been known as farm
demonstration work in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and other
Southern states, and much of our work has been in the cut-over
land sections. I yield to no man in my belief in their possibili-
ties. It should be stated, perhaps, that there are now in the
fifteen Southern states more than seven hundred men engaged in
farm demonstration work, a large proportion of them working
directly on cut-over lands. These agents are engaged in helping
farmers to make their farms more productive and profitable by
demonstrating the actual practice of better methods and the ap-
plication of scientific principles to the farm, and keeping records
of the results obtained.

In preparation for this meeting I addressed letters to more
than one hundred of these special men in cut-over land sections
and secured from them records of actual results on such lands

Phenomenal
Yields on Cut-
Over Lands

Settler Must
Be Adequate-
ly Financed

202 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

and information on various subjects affecting their beneficial use.
It has been demonstrated over and over again on every type of
soil in this region that these cut-over lands can be made very pro-
ductive. On thousands of demonstration farms with all the staple
crops, yields running from fifty to two hundred per cent over and
above the average of the state have been secured. Yields of from
twenty-five to thirty bushels of corn have been usual on such
lands, but many phenomenal yields running as high as two
hundred bushels per acre have been secured. In cotton we have
produced from one-half bale to two bales per acre, and similar
results with every standard crop have been secured.

(In view of such results, absolutely proving the great possi-
bilities of these soils, the question asked by your chairman at the
beginning of this meeting is pertinent. What is the reason these
lands remain unsettled and are apparently so unattractive to the
average investor? I am a Southern man, and I believe-—yes,
know—cut-over lands of the South are destined some day to pro-
vide homes for a great multitude of happy, independent, and
prosperous farmers. But here is the situation. With things as
they are, not one man in ten—and many careful observers with
long experience in cut-over land sections say one in twenty-five
—have any possible chance to go onto these cut-over lands, buy
them, pay for them, and establish a home unless he has ample
resources or some outside means of subsistence, particularly for
the first two or three years. It can’t be done. A gentleman in the
meeting this morning stated—and it is a well known fact—that it
was usually the third purchaser that was able to stay on any par-
ticular piece of land, and he considered this as an unavoidable
condition. What makes it necessary? Simply this: these people
have been brought to the South under almost fraudulent repre-
sentations of what they could do on these lands with little capi-
tal. Inspired by the glowing pictures painted by land promoters
anid sellers, clerks, stenographers, school teachers, preachers and
people engaged in other occupations—not farmers—have been
tempted to invest their little savings and come South in the be-
lief that from a few acres they could wrest an immediate living
and future independence. Practically all their money is taken
from them as a cash payment, and the little left is used up in
moving to their possessions. To go on cut-over land without
capital or without outside help or assistance to try to make a
living is a hopeless task. They fail; they are bound to fail, and
then they go home and “cuss” the country.

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 203

After two or three have thus sunk their little “wads” the third
or fourth man comes along, and, building on the foundation laid
by the loss of capital of the others who preceded him, he may be
able to stick and make a living, and if so, by and by, he develops
a good farm and becomes a successful, prosperous man, because
the possibilities are there. I could take you into any cut-over land
section and show you men who have made a success on these
lands—show you substantial and prosperous farmers having
farms worth from $50 to $100 an acre, some perhaps who would
not take $100 an acre for their farms—built up from these cut-
over lands. But they purchased these lands for something like
what they were worth and on long credit. They paid, perhaps,
$2 or $3—or at most $4 or $5—an acre and while developing the
farms had work in the sawmills adjoining so that they were en-
abled to support their families, and they and their families worked
mornings, nights and holidays in clearing and in otherwise de-
veloping their land. In this way, after a few years their farms
were gotten into shape where they began to produce well and
be real farms. But a settler today on cut-over land hasn’t, as a
rule, the same chance. The opportunities for outside labor at re-
munerative prices are not frequent and for the most part the men
who purchase cut-over lands today have to depend on the land
itself or on surplus capital for a living from the start.

Now you can’t, as a rule, start on cut-over land without capi-
tal or without outside employment or help of some sort, and
make a living on it for the first vear or two. \Vhy? Because as
has been told you—and it is the truth—these lands are naturally
poor, some more so than others. They will grade from fair to
poor but practically all of them are deficient in the three things
that are essential for a fertile soil, that is, humus, or vegetable
matter, phosphorous and nitrogen. In addition to this the
mechanical condition of the soil is generally bad, so that it takes
careful farming with proper rotation of crops and the use of
legumes to build them up and it is not until after two or three
years of this kind of handling that they begin to produce well.

As an offset to these disadvantages, on the other hand, is our
wonderful climate, good seasons, the great variety of crops we
can grow, including legumes or soil building crops, and the re-
sponsiveness of most of these soils to right treatment, the rapidity
with which they can be built up and made fertile. You take these
cut-over pine lands, particularly those soils with a deep red. clay

The Reason
for Some Past
Failures and
Successes

Soil Must Be
Built Up

Cut-Over
Lands Poten-
tially Finest
in the World

Method of
Colonization
Suggested

204 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

subsoil and sandy loam top soil, and I stand here to affirm that
there is not potentially a finer soil on earth, one more capable of
being made to produce abundantly—but it takes time, money and
much labor to put it into condition to do so.

I firmly believe, however, that it is feasible to colonize the
cut-over land of agricultural value. There has never been a
time when so many people were looking with longing eyes
toward the South. Thousands of letters are received at the De-
partment annually from all parts of the world inquiring about
different sections of the South and many of them making spe-
cific inquiries regarding colonization projects in the cut-over
land sections. As the majority of these letters find their way to
my desk, I have endeavored for years to keep in touch with
such developments in this section. Wherever I have seen ad-
vertisements of colonization projects I have written for their
literature. I have carefully noted such advertisements in all the
agricultural papers and in other ways have tried to be in position
to give intelligent advice to such inquirers. I am sorry to have
to say that in the great majority of cases my conscience would
not permit me to recommend such projects to intending pur-
chasers. Most of them, as shown by their letters, were people
of small means who were dreaming about building a home in
the South and expecting to invest the savings of a lifetime in
the undertaking. Notwithstanding my interest in this section
of the South, I have felt compelled, as a rule, to advise against
the investments contemplated, and I shall continue to follow this
course as long as conditions surrounding the average coloniza-
tion scheme remain as they are.

What, then, should be done to make this section attractive
to homeseekers and to render it possible for the man with small
means to succeed?

First—The owners of this vast domain should themselves
undertake the handling and disposition of it. As a preliminary
step the land should be surveyed and classified into agricultural
and non-agricultural lands.

Second—Then you should put a reasonable price upon it—
a low price—get down to bedrock. It is unreasonable to expect
to sell such lands at the prices which have been asked, as a rule,
by the colonizers and promoters, prices ranging anywhere from
$20 to $40 per acre. Consider for a moment what the purchaser

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 205

of these lands for farming purposes is up against. The original
price of the land is only a small part of his necessary expenses
in building a home. To grub and clear the land ready for the
plow without removing the stumps will cost him anywhere from
$7 to $10 an acre; fencing, $5 or $6 an acre; necessary buildings,
even of the most modest sort, from $5 to $10 an acre, and then,
if he is to have a real farm, the stumps must be removed so
that he can use improved machinery, and this entails an addi-
tional expense of anywhere from $10 to $25 an acre, depending
upon the character and number of the stumps to be removed.
And, as has been pointed out, one or two years’ cultivation is
necessary before the land can be brought to a fairly productive
state. You can afford to sell these lands at a reasonable price.
They were purchased for the most part with the timber stand-
ing at from 75 cents to $3 or $4 an acre. They are carried on
the tax rolls of the various states today at from $1 to $2 an
acre. Personally I do not believe that any of the cut-over pine
land in its natural state is worth for agricultural purposes more
than $10 per acre, and the greater part of it is not worth that.

Third—It must be sold on long time and easy terms with
practically no cash payment down or for the first two or three
years. These lands will not, as a rule, attract the man with
money. They cannot compete with the prairie lands and im-
proved farm lands in that market. Your purchasers will be, as
in the past, people of small means who are hungering and thirst-
ing for homes, but have not sufficient capital to buy improved
farm lands. They must be sold on such terms that practically
their entire capital can be devoted to improving the land and
getting it into a productive state before much of a payment is
required of them. And then when you have got them on the
land you must be prepared to give them help financially and
otherwise. You should work out some system by which, if
necessary, you can loan them money for buildings, for fencing.
It may be necessary and advisable to loan them money to pur-
chase equipment, particularly a cow or two, a brood sow or two,
and other live stock, and for seed and fertilizer. Once a man is
located on your land you must do everything possible to see to
it that he succeeds, for each success will bring you many addi-
tional purchasers, but each failure will turn many prospective
purchasers away. You may ‘possibly find it advantageous to
clear up large quantities of land and get them ready for culti-

Sell on Long
Time and
Easy Terms.

Stumps as a
Valuable By-
Product

Government
Will Co-oper-
ate with Set-
tler

206 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

vation before putting them on the market. This is a proposition
which is entitled to careful consideration.

I was very much interested in the remarks of Mr. Alexander
regarding the utilization of the stumps and the value of the
by-products which might be secured therefrom. This is a mat-
ter which should be very fully investigated. If, in fact, there is
twenty-five dollars’ worth of by-products in each acre of stumps,
it would be a sin and a crime not to utilize them. It may be
that the inability to settle these lands heretofore has been provi-
dential in order that this vast wealth which otherwise would
have been wasted may be conserved. I was very much inter-
ested in some photographs which were shown me today by Mr.
Redhead. our Assistant State Agent in Louisiana. He tells me
that in Tangipahoa Parish there is a man who at the cost of
$300 has erected furnaces and is converting his stumps into
various by-products. He has found that he can pay all expenses
of removing the stumps and realize a profit at present prices of
$10 to $15 an acre. It would seem feasible, then, for companies
owning large tracts of land to either build plants and remove
the stumps themselves or finance settlers in building these small
plants in order that they might from the by-products of the
stumps not only pay the expenses of clearing their land, but get
an income sufficient to support their families until the farm is
put into condition to begin to return a revenue.

You must also make some provision to see that they are
given the right kind of advice and instruction. Even good
farmers from the North make serious mistakes and frequent
failures when they come South because conditions are so differ-
ent. The one thing I am always careful to advise people from
the North to do in coming South, is to get in touch with the
county demonstration agents and be guided by their advice as
to what and how to plant and how to cultivate and handle the
crop. Provision for safe, conservative advice along this line will
be doubly important to settlers on cut-over land because the
majority of them will have little previous farm experience.

Here is where the Department of Agriculture stands ready
to co-operate with you. Thanks to the Smith-Lever bill, the
Government and’ the colleges are now prepared to extend aid
to new settlers on cut-over lands as never before. They will
shortly have trained, skilled agriculturists in every county, and

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 207

in most of the counties beside, a trained home economics agent
who will be ready and willing to aid new settlers. If you will
can settle upon your lands with a reasonable show of being able
simply do your part and make conditions such that homeseekers
to succeed, we will help them to do the rest.

The Cut-Over Acre—What
Is It Worth?

By William R. Lighton
Fayetteville, Ark.

Producing power is the only real measure of value of any
source of wealth, whether it be a railway, a manufacturing in-
dustry, a mine, or an acre of agricultural land. So, as a matter
of course, we must know producing power before we can judge of
value.

Standard oil stock, steel stock, the soundest industrial stocks
on the list, would be going a-begging if nobody had ever taken
the trouble to find out anything about their earning capacity.
That, and that alone, fixes their worth.

By the same token, the largest! single item in the wealth of
the Southern states, their undeveloped land, hangs heavy and
remains undeveloped simply because there is no general and ac-
curate understanding of what it is able to do. Today, for just
this reason, we are talking about the future use of this land as a
problem. So it is; but the problem does not lie in the character
of the land itself. The trouble lies in the poverty of our knowl-
edge. If the plain facts were known, then there would be no
problem at all. How could there be, in a time when the re-
motest corners of the continent have been searched for new lands
which might be made fruitful even with vast expenditure of
money and labor; in a time when far-off deserts have been pain-
fully reclaimed, when the forbidding semi-arid regions have been
peopled, and when the ceaseless cry of the world is for a supply
of food to keep pace with increasing needs? Yet here are these
lands of ours, countless millions of acres, not unproductive, but
their productive capacity a matter of blind guess-work in the
minds of most of us.

Value of Cui-
Over Lands
Little Known
or Appre-
ciated

Arkansas Cut-
Over Lands
Out-Produce
the Rich Corn
Belt

*

208 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

Well, what are the facts? It will not do to say, in a loose,
free-and-easy way, that the lands of the South are as fertile as
any in the world. There has been too much of that sort of talk.
What we want now is exactness.

But exactness of statement of the facts is very difficult. It
may interest you to know that it has taken many days of hard,
patient digging in dry masses of census tables to gather the few
plain figures I am presenting to you. It has not been possible to
find them elsewhere.

Note that in this comparative statement I am not dealing
with exceptional conditions or unusual cases. I am giving aver-
age figures for whole states over a ten-year period.

For the ten years from 1900 to 1909, inclusive, the state of
Arkansas showed a greater average value per acre of staple farm
crops than was shown by the richest states of the great corn belt.
For those ten years that average crop-value in Arkansas was
$22.04 per acre. Mind you, this does not include cotton, rice,
sugar, fruit or truck crops, but only grain, potatoes, hay and
forage common to the whole Mississippi Valley.

For the same period, Hlinois showed an average value per
acre for the same products of $17.24. In Iowa the average pro-
duction per acre was $14.52; in Indiana, $16.35; in Ohio, $17.62;
in Missouri, $13.54.

This production in Illinois represented a gross return of 18.1
per cent on the average value of farm lands. In Jowa the re-
turn was 17.5 per cent; in Arkansas it was 157.4 per cent. That
is to say, Arkansas land with an average valuation of only $14 an
acre yielded half again as much as the Iowa acre whose average
valuation was $83.00.

What gave the Iowa acre this greater valuation? Not its bet-
ter production, as these figures show. Not its more favorable
location, for Des Moines and Little Rock lie at almost exactly
the same distance from the national center of population, which
is approximately the center of consumption of farm products.
Not better transportation facilities. for Arkansas products reach
the great consuming markets as directly as those of Iowa. In-
deed, the odds are rather in favor of Arkansas in the matter of
access to markets.

There is only one true explanation of the higher level of Iowa
land values. The facts as to the producing power of the Towa

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 209

acre are advertised and thoroughly known; the facts as to Ar-
kansas are unadvertised and wholly unknown. The valuation uf
the Iowa acre is living tribute to the importance of intelligent
publicity.

The time is coming inevitably when the neglected lands of
the South, and not the lands of the Corn Belt, will be the center
of production of the staple foodstuffs. Why? Because acre-
production in the South is greater and production-cost almost
incomparably less.

The good Iowa acre produces in a season only 500 pounds of
pork, at a cost of 4to 5 cents a pound. The Arkansas acre, in the
longer season of the South, produces 1,000 pounds of pork at a
cost of 2 to 2% cents a pound. The Arkansas Experiment Sta-
tion has produced 1,252 pounds per acre at a cost of 134 cents.
On my own farm in the highlands of Northwest Arkansas the
average production-cost of Irish potatoes is from 10 to 12 cents
a bushel. An acre of well-established southern Bermuda grass
pasture will carry six head of grazing cattle over a period of 6 to
8 months, whereas in Iowa an acre of pasture will hardly carry
one grazing animal through the shortest summer season.

These are suggestive and typical items. J wish I had time for
dwelling more fully upon the comparison.

The key to the solution of this cut-over land problem is a
consistent campaign of the right sort of publicity—not for the
fact that low land-prices offer the speculator a stunning oppor-
tunity, but for the bigger fact of producing power. Let that
power become known, and settlement and development will fol-
low with absolute certainty.

About the worst thing that might happen to the South would
be to have the exploitation of these lands fall into the hands of
the speculator or the professional promoter. The best thing that
might happen would be the beginning of intelligent publicity of
the sort which will make its appeal to farmers rather than to mere
adventurers. With such publicity we shall open a plain, straight
way for the soundest of all development, a development which
will be free of all the insanity of “booming,” a development which
will with absolute certainty convert this burden of millions of
acres of unused land into a producing asset of incalculable worth.
In such publicity I see the South’s chief hope for a future whose
soundness will be impregnable.

Towa Profit-

ing by Intelli-
gent Advertis- ;
ing

South Should
Make Its
Advantages
Known

Early History
of. the Sheep
Industry in
America

The Herds-
man Moves
Westward

210 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

Shortage of Raw Material—
the Demand Increasing

By A. C. Bigelow
President, Philadelphia Wool and Textile

Association

Gentlemen, I want to express to you my appreciation of the
honor of having been invited to come here and address this meet-
ing. I have come.1,500 miles for that purpose; and I think you
will understand that I should not have made such a long journey
down here if I had not been impressed with the importance of
this gathering and the importance of that which I wish to present
to you in regard to the agricultural proposition, especially sheep
husbandry. ‘

It is probably worth while to explain to you briefly the de-
velopment of the sheep industry in this country. As you will
readily understand, it was natural that it should start in the
Eastern states, as the original Merino sheep came mostly to us
from Spain in the early part of the last century. The New Eng-
land states in the early days showed quite a rapid development,
and Vermont was at one time a large sheep producing state. In
that state the number of sheep were as follows:

Vermont— Year No. of Sheep
1840 1,681,819
1860 752,201
1880 439,870
1915 47,416

Following the advance westward of population, sheep were
largely kept in New York State, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Dur-
ing the ten years from 1870 to 1880, there were close to 5,000,000
sheep in the state of Ohio. In 1890 the number dropped to 4.-
000,000, while in 1915 they were reduced to 2,100,000. Still ad-
vancing westward, and following the areas of cheaper lands, we
find that Texas had as follows:

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 211

Texas— Year No. of Sheep
1880 3,600,000
1890 4,260,000

But with the advance of the farming element, restricting the
areas of cheap land, Texas dropped in 1915 to 1,600,000 sheep.
In California we find as follows:

California— Year No. of Sheep
1880 5,727,000
1890 3,373,000
1915 1,900,000

During this early period it should be noted that sheep were
kept for the wool product alone. We were educated as a beef-
eating people, and our immense supplies of cattle made beef
cheap. Mutton at that time was an insignificant factor in the
profit and loss account. This situation has now changed com-
pletely. The supply of cattle is decreasing so materially that
beef is advancing greatly. Mutton and lamb have been improved
in quality, and there is a good demand for it today. Results care-
fully taken at the Pennsylvania State College show that the mut-
ton product of sheep represents about two-thirds, whilst wool
today represents about one-third, making wool a by-product; so
that the market fluctuations in wool, which will always occur
to a certain extent, will not have any great effect on the profit
account of the sheep industry.

With restriction of the cheap lands in Texas and California.
the bands of sheep were driven up into the mountainous grazing
limits of the northwestern section, and there we find for many
years a great increase in the number of sheep, especially in the
states of Wyoming, Idaho and Montana. But here, too, within
the last few years, we can find the same cause operating a de-
crease in the flocks—the homesteader, and farmer are coming in,
the ranges are restricted, and production has decreased. In ef-
fect, the whole industry has moved like a great wave, on the lines
of least resistance, utilizing cheap grazing lands as long as they
were cheap, and showing a decrease as soon as they were occu-
pied for agricultural purposes.

The great Northwestern grazing territory, comprising the
states of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Oregon, containing vast
areas of free or very cheap grazing lands, has been the great

Wool, Once
Chief Factor,
Now a
By-Product

Western Graz
ing Area
Constantly
Diwindling

Sheep Raiser
Looks to
South as Fu-
ture Field

212 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

source of wool and mutton production during the present cen-
tury. These four states in 1916, out of the total wool clip of the
United States of 288,000,000 pounds, produced 86,255,000 pounds,
or about thirty per cent.

There has been during the past seven years, however, a con-
tinued shrinkage in the production from these four states, caused
by the overstocking of the ranges. During the session of the
last Congress an Act was passed, opening up the Government
lands in this section to the farmers in tracts of 640 acres. We
sent a special agent into this section, to make a survey of condi-
tions and to locate breeding stock; and the reports we have re-
ceived from him and from other sources, indicate that there is a
great rush of farmers coming into this section, taking up these
640-acre tracts, and in consequence the range is being broken-up
to such a great extent that those who have been maintaining
sheep there are being forced to dispose of their flocks, and the
evidence is conclusive, and our records show, that there will be
a decrease during the next two years of about thirty per cent
from this section. And, moreover, the evidence shows that thére
will be a continuing decline of production from this section for
many years to come. It is quite evident, therefore, that the
population of the United States will be seriously affected by this
rapid decline in this great sheep territory, and there is only one
source left open now from which we can obtain an increase of |
sheep production, and that is in the farming sections east of the
Mississippi River and in the unused land areas of the South.

In all matters, political,-social and economic, change is the
law of the universe. As in the past, economic conditions oper-
ated to drive the shepherd of the East our of business, and to
develop the great sheep interests on the western grazing lands,
so today again, economic conditions are forcing the western
flockmaster out of business, and opening up a favorable oppor-
tunity for the profitable maintenance and development of the
sheep industry in the older sections, which have been so long
neglected.

We, of course, understand that the abnormal conditions
created by this great war will not continue indefinitely. The
demand for the armies of the warring nations is tremendous, and
there is a certain amount of credit inflation, which tends to ad-
vance prices above a normal level. It is quite natural that the
question arises as to what will be the conditions as to prices

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 213

when the war ceases. This matter has received the most careful
attention, and has been closely studied by those who are thor-
oughly competent to form an opinion, so far as human judgment
can do so, on this matter. The result of consideration of this
indicates that whilst we must look for some liquidation, and
whilst it is expected that prices will be to a considerable extent
lower than they are today, yet it is generally agreed that prices,
both for meat and for wool, must be maintained for many years
to come at a very much higher level than existed before the war.
In the ordinary course of clothing consumption, a great part of
the clothes which have been in use are converted again into wool
fibre in the form of shoddy, and so used in connection with pure
wool to produce woolen clothes. This reserve supply, as it may
be called, of wool fibre, has been to a very large extent exhausted
by the destructive agencies of war. Moreover, the great sheep
countries of the world have been showing a decrease of produc-
tion, and it is beyond doubt that war in this case has also been
the means of a much further decrease on account of animals
being used to provide food for the soldiers in extraordinary quan-
tities.

In connection with what will occur after the war, two other
points must be taken into consideration, and the evidence of this
is conclusive. One is that in all the warring nations the demands
of the army for clothing have been so great that the civil popu-
lation has been afforded a very inadequate supply of woolen
clothing, and in consequence, when the war ceases there will be
a tremendous demand for wool to re-clothe, not only this civil
poptlation, which is now non-combatant, but to supply those
who are now using uniforms with the ordinary clothes of the
civilian. The second point is that the nations at war will, on the
cessation of hostilities, be forced to engage in the fiercest kind of
commercial competition, to regain for themselves the markets
which have been lost during the war, and to operate their in-
dustries, in order to obtain an income, from which they may be
able to pay off the interest on the enormous debts which they
have contracted. And there is further evidence that the British
Empire, controlling, as it does, two-thirds of the wool supply of
the world, will maintain for a long period after the war, a strict
control of these wool supplies, in order that she may conserve
her industrial interests, of which none other are more important
to her than those of woolen manufactures. In this connection, I

High Sheep
Prices to Con-
tinue for
Years

Tremendous
After-War
Demand for
Wool
Expected

Britain’s
Wool Supply
to be Kept at
Home

Sheep Raising
as a Profitable
Investment

214 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

present to you a short extract from an address delivered in Lon-
don by Mr. E. F. Hitchcock, one of the officials of the Depart-
ment which has control of raw material for the manufactories
of the British Empire, as follows:

“The British Empire produces 64 per cent of the world’s ex-
portable merino and crossbred wool, and the rest is produced in
South America. Therefore, you see that the position of the
British Empire so far as wool is concerned, is a very strong
position indeed. I doubt whether there is any raw material, ex-
cept perhaps rubber, which is of so great importance as wool,
and of which at the same time the British Empire has a virtual
monopoly as it has for wool. But the importance of the British
Empire wool should not merely be measured in terms of quan-
tity, it has also to be measured in terms of quality. The very
finest merino wools most in demand for very fine cloths are
grown in the British Empire. Australian merino wool is the
finest wool on earth. You cannot get it elsewhere, it is not
grown elsewhere, in any appreciable quantity at all. Vhe British
Empire controls 80 per cent of the world’s merino wool produc-
tion. I hope later to develop the enormous importance which
raw material, wool especially, is going to play in the economic
struggle after the war.

Nothing appears to me so important as the reservation for our
own needs of all the raw material that we want after the war.
As food is to the individual, so is raw material to industrial coun-
tries, and unless we make quite sure that we have sufficient sup-
plies, we shall find that our industrial development will be very
seriously retarded.”

The situation which presents itself to us, therefore, on ac-
count of all which I have brought to your attention, shows that
population for a number of years has been encroaching upon our
production of food and of raw material of wool for clothing. It
shows that the conditions brought about by the great war in
progress has developed a world shortage of wool supplies, and it
shows that our own domestic production in the great North-
western territory will develop a very decided decrease from that
section, which has been such an important factor in our wool
production. It shows that after the war the demands in the
warring countries to fill the needs of the civilian population is
going to be tremendous. Based on all the premises, therefore.
submitted regarding the extraordinary market which will be

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 215

opened for wool especially, and for the product of meat which
our rapidly increasing population must have, it is safe to as-
sume that prices will be maintained upon a very high level, and
that the opportunity presents itself to those who have lands suit-
able for the maintenance of sheep, to engage in sheep husbandry
as a very profitable business.

I have been engaged during the past year in presenting this
situation to our Northern farmers, in order that they might be
fully aware of the fact that today sheep husbandry affords a
wonderful opportunity for them to add to the profits of farm
production. I have come here to present to you this informa-
tion in regard to the sheep industry, that you might seriously
consider whether or not the great areas of land which you con-
trol, and which I understand are largely unproductive today,
may not be utilized and made profitable by engaging in the main-
tenance of sheep on these lands. I do not pretend to be an ex-
pert, with sufficient knowledge to inform you adequately as to
how suitable the lands you control are for this industry. To ob-
tain that information, you have at your command the services of
the United States Department of Agriculture, the State Depart-
ments of Agriculture, and your Agricultural Colleges. It will be
advisable that you should solicit from them a proper survey,
which would establish to what extent your lands are adapted for
keeping sheep. It is worthy of note, however, that practically
the same parallels of latitude north of the equator run through
this section—that is to say—30 degrees North Latitude—as run
through the great wool-producing sections of Australia, Cape
Colony and the Argentine Republic. Another point to be con-
sidered is the fact that experience shows that the sheep readily
adapts itself to greatly varied conditions of soil and climate. In
England, where sheep have been bred for a long period of time,
different breeds have been evolved exactly suited to local condi-
tions, and in the little territory of England there is a great variety
of sheep, which have been developed to suit the exact conditions
of each locality; from the Moorelands, with their Romney type,
to the Cheviots in the Scotch Highlands, and the Kerry sheep
for the rough mountain sections of Ireland. It is worthy of note
here to state that the British Isles esteem sheep husbandry as a
most important part of agriculture, especially in connection with
the maintenance of soil fertility on high-priced lands. And it
is also worthy of note that the British Isles, with an area less

Soil Survey
Should be
Made of Cut-
Over Lands

Different
Types of
Sheep for
Different
Localities

Sheep as a
Fertilizing
Agent

216 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

than the state of Texas, produces practically the same amount
of wool, on a scoured basis, as we produce here in the immense
territory covered by the United States. The Spanish merino
has thriven on the green hills of Vermont; on the mountain
ranges of Wyoming; on the pampas of the Argentine; on the
veldts of Africa, and on the great plains of Australia. And the
English type of sheep have thriven equally as well in the same
regions. Given the land areas, therefore, which you have, and
establishing their adaptability for the maintenance of sheep, it
would seem quite reasonable that all that is necessary is an in-
telligent and scientific attention to establish in this Southern
territory a vast industry, which will lay the foundation for a bet-
ter agriculture and a diversification of agricultural production,
which would be of such great advantage to the Southland.

I have touched upon sheep husbandry mainly in connection
with its meat and wool product, but there is another considera-
tion, which I wish to emphasize, and that is, that the sheep is
known to be one of the best fertilizing agents of any kind of
live stock. This has long been generally recognized by shep-
herds, and their appreciation of this fact has been shown by their
use of the term “The Golden Hoof,” as applying to this feature
of sheep husbandry in its relation to the fertility of the soil.

I have presented to you this matter of the sheep industry en-
tirely from the commercial standpoint. I am going to take the
liberty to suggest to you that under the circumstances this mat-
ter is worthy of your consideration from another point of view
than pure commercialism.

No one is justified in allowing that which may be made pro-
ductive to stand idle. It seems to me there is a moral obligation
that rests upon people like yourselves, who control great quan-
tities of lands, to make those lands productive for the national
needs. Your opportunities in all things are created for you by
the activities of the millions of people in these United States.
There is a mutual interdependence, at times intangible but always
real, between each individual and each community in the nation.
Today and in the future the cry of these other millions comes to
you, to use your land to supply their needs.

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 217

Forestry and Cattle Raising
on the Cut-Over Pine Lands
of the Southern States
By Major J. G. Lee

Department of Forestry and Horticulture,
Louisiana State University

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Conference:
I want to preface what I shall have to say by stating at the
outset that my remarks will apply only to the long leaf pine
flats and hills of the cut-over pine region and not to the short
leaf pine and mixed hardwoods appearing just north of the long
leaf pine growth. These latter soils, having a good red clay
subsoil, are better grade of the sandy loam type, and are better
suited to agriculture. And in the short time allotted me to dis-
cuss so big a subject as forestry and cattle raising on the cut-
over pine lands of the South, I can speak only in general terms,
and discuss general principles, the fundamentals, if you will,
which ought to govern policy and procedure in any plan which
might be devised for their economic development.

First of all, I want to make a plea for forestry and re-
forestation upon much of this cut-over land. The forest re-
sources of the South and the industries dependent upon forests,
the continuity of growth and use, are too important, they are too
big an asset to state and nation, now and always, not to be given
serious consideration and provision made for their perpetuation
and preservation.

According to Chief Forester Graves, more than one-fifth of
the nation’s total timber wealth is found in the South. About
one-sixth of all the soft woods of the entire country and over
one-half of the hardwoods are in the South. Our great naval
stores supplies, upon which many of our important industries
depend, are in Southern pineries. With the exhaustion of these
and of our hardwood supplies comes also the exhaustion of
these and other industries, which will materially and vitally
affect the whole country.

The Necessity
of Reforesta-
tion

Southern
Forests as a
Wealth
Producer

France’s Arti-
ficially-
Developed
Turpentine
Industry

218 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

And yet we are told that nowhere in the United States can
the naval stores industry or the production of hardwood timber
be carried on with the same natural and economic advantages
as in the South. Mr. Graves says further that Southern pine is
the principal softwood used in fully two-thirds of the country
east of the 100th meridian, or that portion comprising 70 per
cent of the country’s population. Backed by a supply of some
325 billion feet of yellow pine and about 20,000 sawmills, the
pine industry holds today a commanding place in the nation's
lumber market.

The existence of this vast storehouse of lumber has played
a great part in the development of the South and has been the
source of a great deal of wealth. Today the forest industry
stands first in no less than six Southern states, second in an-
other four, and third in another three. A half billion dollars is
invested in this great industry; more than 400,000 people are
employed in it; 20,000 sawmills and other manufacturing estab-
lishments are supported by this great industry. The forest in-
dustry draws upon a resource occupying now more than half
the total land area of the South. By their very magnitude the
forest problems of the South command attention. Their local
importance, looking to the future, is so great that no considera-
tion of the welfare of the South can afford to omit them.

With this authoritative view of the situation, so well and so
forcefully stated, may we not pause in our deliberations and con-
sider further these forests and their place in the economic de-
velopment of this vast region.

Up to date the turpentine industry, a by-product of the for-
est, has had the advantage of a great natural forest, richly en-
dowed with species capable of yielding an abundant supply of
turpentine and rosin. The diligence of man has neither founded
nor preserved the virgin supply. On the contrary, its destruc-
tion will be brought about by men unless steps are taken to
prevent it.

There are but two great centers of turpentine supply, viz.:
Southern France and the Southern United States. In France it
is a “man-made” industry. We are told that “out of shifting,
barren sand dunes and a malarial, poverty-stricken region” the
French government, through reclamation and the planting of
maritime pines, has made one of the most prosperous and salu-

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era “219

brious sections of France. A century ago these lands had no
value. It is said that “$1.00 would buy land, in extent, as far as
the voice would carry.” Yet today this reclaimed land is worth
from $2.50 to $25.CO per acre. The forest pine land stocked with
2-year-old pine seedlings is worth $9.00 per acre; stocked with
10-year-old pine it is worth $30.00; stocked with 30-year-old pine
it is worth $80.00, and with 50-year-old pine it is worth $160.00
per acre.

Is this sort of development not worth while and may we not
heed the lesson and plan for its application in much of the region
we are now considering, as part of a forest policy yet to be
adopted ?

Again, a hitherto unutilized resource of waste material in
manufacture, another by-product, has come to Southern pine
and it has come to stay, if provision be now made for future
supplies. I refer’to the paper pulp industry, now so acute in
this country. The Great Southern Lumber Company at Boga-
lusa has already learned this wonderful economic lesson of closer
utilization of waste material for paper pulp, and it is demon-
strating it to the world. The ultimate exhaustion of virgin sup-
ply and the problem of future supply is even now receiving the
attention of Mr. Sullivan, the manager, and experiments in grow-
ing native pines to meet the situation are under way; and it
would appear that our native loblolly or old field pine, less
resinous, hardy, quick growing and persistent, might prove it-
self adequate, and it is indigenous to all the region under con-
sideration.

However, our forest problem here is not one merely of lum-
ber, trees, turpentine, and paper pulp. “There is involved the
principle of the productive use and occupancy of the land,
whether it be in agricultural home building or the growing of
trees.” And in its further consideration I want to lay down as
a fundamental proposition that forestry, like agriculture, is a land
problem, an economic problem, an educational problem.

Foresters everywhere recognize and practice these prin-
ciples, viz.: First, that all land should be utilized; second, that
land should be put to its best and most economic use; third,
that all land fit for agriculture shall be devoted to, or reserved
for, agriculture; and fourth, that all land not fit for agriculture
shall be devoted to some kind of forest growth, for let it be re-

Forestry as
an Asset to
Agriculture

Where Forest
Growth Has
Been Made
Profitable

220 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

membered that there are no soil conditions, rich or poor, high
or low, wet or dry, but they will grow some sort of trees useful
to mankind. Agriculture is our great basic industry, but next
to it is the great. business of forestry and its dependent indus-
tries.

Three centuries of agricultural history in this country has
given us a clear definition of agriculture and its many phases of
stock raising, dairying, marketing, etc. Likewise has three cen-
turies of forestry in Europe given equally as broad a definition
for forestry and its dependent industries. There both forestry
and agriculture are considered as land problems and forestry is
co-ordinate with agriculture. Likewise must we also come to
consider broadly forestry with agriculture in the solution of our
land problems—hand in hand they must go; both are products
of the soil, one an annual, the other a periodic crop.

In German states, where conditions are not so favorable for
forest growth as they are with us, forest lands are made to pay
from $2.C0 to $7.00 per acre per annum, with all the land devoted
either to agriculture or to forests. Now, assuming Louisiana to
be representative of the Southern cut-over pine lands, and that
soil and other conditions are not very dissimilar, let me con-
sider more directly the problem of their development and the
principles of action that should guide in the solution.

According to the State Conservation Commission, there are
five and one-half million acres of cut-over pine lands in Louis-
iana alone, and I understand some 8,000,000 acres of such land
is owned by members of the Southern Pine Association. There
are other millions not credited, aggregating a total of 76,000,000
acres. These are waste lands, producing nothing other than
taxes, yielding no revenue, paying no interest on invested cap-
ital. They are idle lands and should be put to some sort of use.
Shall they find their best use in timber production or in some
form of agricultural production?

Undoubtedly a large percentage, 75 or 80 per cent, is fit for
some sort of farming. The remaining 20 or 25 per cent is cer-
tainly fit only for some kind of forest growth. Moreover, with
the most favorable colonization schemes in operation, it will be
a generation or more before all the agricultural lands will be
occupied, and in the meantime why should they not be growing
timber ?

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 221

Much of the land of the long leaf pine region now under
cultivation had best be in forest growth, and likewise much in
forest might best be in agriculture.

Therefore, might it not be a wiser and better plan to recog-
nize and follow the principle of practice laid down by European
states and by our National Forest Service, viz.: by an authorita-
tive soil survey and an intelligent land classification program,
whether they are absolute forest lands or absolute agricultural
lands, thus to determine these facts of land use? By this com-
petent means we shall then have definite knowledge to guide, as
to lands, their best use, crops, kinds, adaptability, etc. Then and
not till then shall we be able to determine intelligently and def-
initely the truth about them and their development, whether in
forest or in agriculture.

Any other speculative scheme for colonization might, as it
has done in the past, prove disappointing if not disastrous, and
the results return to harass the inventor and injure the state
permanently. For in their agricultural exploitation let it not be
expected that so utilized they will be the “cure-all” for present
agricultural ills and shortages. It is not true, and though the
heavens fall, let the truth about them be known and told.

Primarily the long leaf pine grows on poor soils. These cut-
over pine lands generally are poor lands and we must recognize
that fact. Unaided, we must not expect profitable production of
staple crops. However, they are of varying character, and, by
selection, many acres may be found that are susceptible of im-
provement and responsive to intelligent fertilization. With the
proper rotation of crops, using cow peas and other legumes in
the rotation, supplementing with liberal applications of commer-
cial, home-made, green and other manures, and with a good sys-
tem of drainage, particularly on the pine flats, they can be made
profitable.

This is abundantly attested by the $3,000,000 annual straw-
berry and vegetable crops produced on cut-over lands along the
Illinois Central railroad in Tangipahoa Parish, and in the de-
veloping pecan and citrus fruit industries in the coast region of
the Gulf states.

Again, on most of these soils, due to their sandy character,
peanuts, sweet potatoes, cow peas, velvet and soja beans produce
well, and their extensive growth and use on such lands will

Cut-Over
Lands Should
be Classified

Crops Best
Adapted to
Cut-Over
Lands

Educating the
Public on
Reforestation

Three Ene-
mies to Forest
Growt

222 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

form the bases for their improvement, and for an ultimate prof-
itable hog and cattle raising industry, for these crops, in these
soils, have the advantage over the heavier and more fertile soils.

On the other hand, it is equally true that the remaining 20
or 25 per cent of these cut-over lands is fit only for forest growth
of some kind. This is particularly true of the dry sand ridges
and hills found north of the pine flats of the coast region. Pov-
erty, leaching and erosion of all such lands would be the prob-
lem and the remedy would be a forest growth of proper species.

Reforestation here should be our slogan; and yet before re-
forestation work shall appeal to the average owner the educa-
tional side of our problem must be emphasized. We shall not
progress in reforestation until the state and the public are be-
hind the work; and this will hardly come about until, through a
slow process of education, we are brought to appreciate more
fully its economic need and importance, and that it is essential
to our industrial development and to the solution of this great
idle land problem.

If forestry means anything it means reproduction, a con-
tinuity of forest growth and a continuity of forest use—a maxi-
mum of growth in a minimum of time, at a minimum of cost,
secured through the best possible silvicultural system of man-
agement, the forest cut on a rotation basis, and cutting no more
per annum than the annual growth.

Forest fires, after man, are the worst enemies of the forest.
They prevent and destroy reproduction and otherwise injure and
destroy standing timber. The practice of burning off the woods
to improve grazing, so frequently done throughout the pine
region, must be corrected, and the fact of injury done by fire to
both soil and forest must be taught.

And, again, let it be taught that grazing by cattle, goats,
sheep and hogs is permissible only in mature forests: that they
have no place in a seedling forest. Within the past few years,
in his reforestation work at Urania, Mr. Hardtner has found and
proven that the “razorback” hog is even a worse enemy than
fire to long leaf pine reproduction. And who will say that the
razorback hog should have place in any modern agricultural
community development!

This development problem is complex and in its solution
thoughtful men and women everywhere must give it their sym-

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 223

pathetic interest and co-operative effort and support. “In a mul-
titude of counselors there is safety.”

Much that I have said concerning agriculture in the cut-
over lands is applicable to the cattle raising part of my subject.
But concerning cattle raising specifically, it is undoubtedly true
that with the cattle tick eliminated, as it will be, a profitable
cattle industry may be developed on much of our cut-over lands,
particularly on the pine flat lands, though ‘not with the scrub
type of cattle.

In determining the adaptability of a region for a profitable
cattle industry, several conditions must be considered and pro-
vided for. An abundant supply of good water, ample pasturage
for grazing, meadows for hay, good soil for the economic pro-
duction of forage and ensilage crops, transportation, and a con-
venient ‘cheap source of supply for concentrated foods—these
are essential.

Within the region most of these conditions are met or may
be met. It must be remembered, however, that the natural
grazing is not first class. The native grasses growing in the
pine woods do not have a high nutritive value. By the intro-
duction of cultivated grasses, however, particularly lespedeza,
carpet and Lermuda grasses, this difficulty may be overcome.
Indeed, these grasses are already finding themselves distributed
and thriving on many of the better types of pine flat soils. By
soils preparation and selection, meadows of these same grasses
may be developed and supplemented with peanut, cow pea.
velvet and soja bean hay. According to Dr. Nesom of the Fed-
eral and State Live Stock Extension service it will require five
to six acres of cut-over pine land summer grazing for the support
of one cow. He also tells us that one acre of good Bermuda
grass on our heavier, more fertile soils will support two head of
cattle through the growing period.

The problem of cultivated forage and ensilage crops for
winter feeding on cut-over lands is more difficult of solution—
it involves the agricultural difficulties previously referred to.
First of all, there is the problem and cost of stump removal to
be considered and again the problem of drainage of the pine
flats, embracing varying soil types of sand, silt, sand and clay
loams, underlaid for the most part with a stiff impervious clay—
I repeat that here drainage is of the first importance.

Essentials to
Successful
Cattle Raising

The Problem
of Winter
Feeding

Climatic and
Other Natural
Advantages

224 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

This condition met and the system of rotation and fertiliza-
tion practiced as already mentioned, then the problem of forage
and ensilage crops becomes easy.

According to Mr. Perkins of the Federal Live Stock Exten-
sion, soja beans and corn and sorghum are the ideal and eco-
nomic ensilage crops for Louisiana. The cut-over lands unaided
would hardly produce a profitable tonnage in corn, sorghum, or
soja beans, say five to seven tons per acre, compared to ten to *
fourteen tons on the better lands of the state. This will about
hold true with sorghum, cane and other forage and ensilage
crops of the state. However, these yields with soil improve-
ment may be approached if not equaled on much of the cut-over
regions.

The conditions of climate, mild winters, ample rainfall, long
growing seasons, etc., are splendidly met in all the cut-over pine
regions of the South, and with these natural advantages in our
favor, why may we not remove the minor difficulties and build
up a profitable cattle and hog industry throughout the cut-over
pine regions of the South? The Morris packing plant to be
built in this city even now calls for such an industry. And his-
tory teaches that without a live stock industry no system of
agriculture can become permanently profitable, for “live stock is
the strong right arm of agriculture.”

Briefly and in conclusion, Mr. Chairman, the ideal of eco-
nomic development, which I would love to see come to these
76,000,000 acres of idle cut-over lands, if practicable, is some-
thing like this:

First—Survey and classify as indicated, ascertaining by ex-
perimentation their best economic use, forest or agriculture, and
so locate and designate them as definite information. This
would separate all lands into two general classes, viz.: absolute
forest lands and absolute agricultural lands. The agricultural
land might be further classified then as to the kind of crops it
were best to grow. The absolute forest land then to be refor-
ested with the best suited, most needed, rapid growing species,
and so kept scientifically and permanently in forest supply.

Second—Colonize, selling in small farms to bona fide, thrifty
farmers—home and agricultural community builders—at a price,
based upon productive value, with enough of the forest land

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 225

added, the “farm wood lot,” to amply supply domestic needs and
local demands for cord wood, posts, poles, cross-ties, and some
dimension stuff, and so managed as to satisfy the principle of
continuity of growth and continuity of use. In such a coloniza-
tion plan, selfish speculative schemes should have no part, and
if faithfully carried out would ultimately occupy and utilize all
the land economically. It would settle the region with com-
munities of small white farmers, owning and operating intelli-
gently, scientifically and intensively their own farms, building
good roads, schools and churches; producing wealth for home
and state, through a sane and profitable system. of diversified
agriculture, of crops and animals—making “two blades of grass
to grow where none grew before.”

The Nation’s
Trend Away
from the
Farm

Rural Depop-
ulation a
Menace to the
Nation

226 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

The Necessity for Organized
Effort

By General L. C. Boyle
of Kansas City

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: I want to tell you of a
thought that has occurred to me while I sat here today listen-
ing to this discussion. You talked about sheep, important as it
is; cattle and hogs and grain; but there is something at the base
of all that which is more important than anything else, and that
is that this Conference is giving evidence of the right spirit, the
unselfish spirit; that is an evidence of devotion at a very logical
and critical time in our nation’s history.

What is this movement we are discussing here? It is a
movement that, at its base, means, Back to the land. My
friends, we are 140-odd years old, this nation. Jefferson said we
should have a government here devoted to agriculture. He
discouraged industry, in our modern sense of great industrial
centers; discouraged the commerce of the seas, and said that we
should have a great nation of agriculturists, with small com-
munities. That was the ideal social body, according to the
vision of that great far-seeing man. For a little while, however,
and for years, we were an agricultural body; but in the last
thirty-six years the trend of oscillation has been from the farm
to the great cities of the land. Thirty-odd years ago 70 per cent
of our people lived on the land or in rural communities. Today
over 50 per cent of our people live within city walls. From a
producing, we are becoming a consuming nation. From a rural
we become an urban social order.

The history of the peoples of the past, as written, teaches
their love of the land and their loyalty to the land; and just in
proportion as they left the land for the cities, in that proportion
can you read the downfalls of the nations of the past. The ob-
servers and thinkers of modern life here in America recognize
a menace to the national life in the growth of our great cities
and the depopulation of our rural communities. Do you know

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 227

that Iowa, that Missouri, that Illinois, that the great central
agricultural part of this great nation has lost population in its
rural life in the last ten years? The cities have grown apace,
but the farms are gradually being deserted. We are becoming
a purchasing nation, teaching food values in the raw material.
This is not as it should be; and the deep significance to me of
this movement here—the broad basis that is at the base of it—
is that you are teaching the youth of the land here in the South
that the prime necessity of the hour is, Back to the soil.

My friends, we are living in the most classic period in the
world’s history. We read the history of Rome and the peoples
of the past, and our own early strife and struggles; but at no
period of the world’s history were there such great things at stake
as right now; and this great nation is to be a pathfinder in this
new order of things. (Applause.) She was the harbinger, and
we led the battle, for freedom originally. Her example has in-
spired the hearts of the people of Europe. Today we see China
and Russia and movements in other countries evidencing the
desire for freedom. We have gone into this great conflict, not
with the desire of conquest, but that democracy may be the
ruling principle of the world. (Applause.) Democracy—that is
the spirit abroad in the world today. It is the great contest that
is being fought on the bloody fields of Europe; and here in the
South, in the presence of you fine men and women, J want to
say that you are doing a great patriotic duty and helping this
cause of freedom by urging the cultivation of the soil, that our
people may be fed, and that we may feed the soldiers who are
fighting your battles, and your children’s battles. That is the
significance of this great meeting here. It is the spiritual thing
involved here. Why, sir, to me it is an exalting thought that
you haven’t heard a man today talk about profit; not a man
today has been talking about how much money he could make;
everything has been in the spirit of helping the little fellow—of
doing something for the state and the nation. And, my friends,
is it not something to be proud of that we have that spirit?
Why, it is the spirit that was in us when we defeated Spain and
took the Philippines from her, and then paid her for them. It
is the spirit that animated us when we went to Porto Rico and
built roads and gave her schools and an efficient government;
when we went to Hawaii and gave her order and industrial pros-
perity. It is the spirit that makes us want to help construct and

America as
the Path-
finder of the
World’s
Democracy

Unselfish
Co-operation
Spirit of the
Conference

Cut-Over
Land Owners
Must Get
Together

228 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

aid, and not tear down, and that is the spirit here. The thing
we are in this war for is to aid and construct, and that is the
spirit here; to aid the little man to come and get this good land
of yours in the South that has been lying here. It is a fine
thing to see men like Mr. Bigelow come from Philadelphia; like
this other man from Michigan, and others from a distance, to
come down and talk to you, not for money, but to help you and
themselves and the nation; and that is the big thing of this
meeting. There is nothing selfish about it, nothing ordinary
about it, nothing sordid about it. I also see manifested here
the spirit of co-operation. That is the cornerstone of social life.
The church and school are the great distributors of the co-oper-
ative spirit. Everything must be co-operative. No man is suf-
ficient unto himself any more. The day of individualism is past.
The day of the man working alone at his task is past. The rail-
roads and the telegraph have made us co-operate. We cannot
live within ourselves; we must live for and with each other; and
it is only through co-operation that this great enterprise can
truly be made a success.

Interesting as it is, we may observe the practical illustration
of that, in this question of pulling up stumps. The poor man
cannot buy the machinery sufficient to do this work himself;
but a group, co-operating, can. A man cannot by himself erad-
icate the tick; but groups of them can, by co-operating with the
state. The subject of the hour is co-operation. Here we find
the nation sending its skilled scientists down here to talk to the
farmer. Do you know the new thought coming to those people
and to the nation? It is not government ownership—but gov-
ernment co-operation with the people; that is the order of the
day. (Applause.) Why, it took us 105 years to realize the
necessity of a Department of Agriculture in this nation of ours.
Although an agricultural people, we lived as a nation for over
a hundred years before they gave you a Department of Agri-
culture. One hundred and twenty-five years passed before they
saw the necessity of giving us a Department of Commerce; and
but a few years ago—three, in fact—we developed the Depart-
ment of Labor. Gentlemen, this has been a slow growth, but
the nation is getting hold of itself and is understanding the
problem of government. Government is nothing more than you
and I and each of us trying to help each other; and having men
up there in Washington making studies and scientific research,

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 229

working splendidly there to aid all of us. Here we have the
banks getting together and co-operating through the Federal
Reserve Bank. Here we have the railroads co-operating through
the Interstate Commerce Commission, or we have the farmers
co-operating through the Agricultural Department. Everything
has the spirit of co-operation, and here you are getting it down
here, teaching us about these good lands that may be made so
useful by co-operation. No lumberman, no owner of cut-over
lands, can do anything by himself; but with his neighbor and
that spread out through all the state, much can be done.

It is a pleasure to have been here. I want to say to you
that the great vital thought I will carry away is this: The men
who had the vision, the understanding and the spirit to conceive
this thought, and then work it out in a masterful way, and make
manifest their purposes so clearly; who have had a nation’s
agriculturists and scientists, business men and lawyers, attracted
to the big idea they evolved—that is the big thing here; and
men that have that conception, and that can state it so clearly
as to challenge our admiration, are bound to succeed in ‘this great
enterprise. I have no doubt that you men are not the kind of
patriots who just appear and make a noise, but you are the kind
of patriots who will persevere in this great task of making these
lands that God gave the people habitable for the poor and the
needy, and again restore this nation to a self-sufficient, self-sup-
porting, prosperous, glorious country that will be the leader of
your democracy for all time—if we are but true to our oppor-
tunity. I thank you. (Applause.)

Make Lands
Attractive to
Prospective

Settlers

Drainage and
Stump
Removal

230 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

Cut-Over Lands and Their

Value
By C. C. Prescott

Agricultural Agent, Southern Railway System
Development Service

I was raised on a South Mississippi farm on pine knots and
clabber. This was a cut-over land farm and produced crops
every year. Any cut-over farm land in the pine belt can be made
to do the same thing.

There must be certain essentials for.the development of this
land in order that it may yield the maximum crops for the labor
expended. Naturally, of course, on cut-over lands the appear-
ance has a great deal to do with newcomers or buyers living
near them. These lands after the timber has been cut off are
left in a dilapidated condition.

In order to facilitate matters. in so far as reclaiming these
lands from an agricultural viewpoint, the stumps, tree tops and
gullied lands should receive attention at the earliest possible
momient. In other words, cut-over lands should be made pro-
ductive. Thousands of acres of this land should now be in cul-
tivation producing food and feed crops and at the same time
giving homes to thousands of people who need these lands.

Today the large land holder is detrimental to the agricul-
tural progress of any territory. He should be induced to cut this
land into smaller area, and aid in building communities and
good roads in order that it will appeal to the man who has
brains and money and is seeking a home. Our cut-over lands
will remain idle for years to come unless our business enterprises
and large land holders put forth every effort to make these lands
attractive.

As they are, thousands of acres look like a gigantic army
en route for Germany on account of the millions of stumps.
These stumps should be converted into charcoal and smoke,
thereby eliminating a great drawback to our agricultural prog-
ress.

4

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 231

Thousands of acres of this land should receive attention with
reference to drainage. This will cause a greater production of
crops and this matter can be handled with the manufacturers of
drain tile. Thousands of acres of this land could be converted
into dairy farms and beef cattle ranches under competent man-
agement.

I believe a lot of people are looking for such opportunities
if these lands can only be shown in an attractive way. There-
fore, my solution for the situation is that every large land owner,
especially the lumber interests, should put forth every effort to
put, all cut-over lands in attractive shape, sell these lands at a
reasonable price for cash or on terms to suit a worthy prospect.

Eradication
of the Cattle
Tick

232 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

Resolutions Adopted at the
Cut-Over Land Confer-
ence of the South

Resolved, by the Cut-Over Land Conference of the South repre-
senting Eastern Texas, Arkansas, Southern Missouri, Mississippi,
Louisiana, Alabama, Western Georgia and Western Florida, in
convention assembled at New Orleans, La., April 11th, 12th and
13th, 1917, that:

WHEREAS, in the present national crisis the production of food,
especially of meat and dairy products, is of equal importance to
the manufacture of munitions of war; the success of the United
States and her allies in the great war will largely depend on the
maintenance and increase of the supplies of food-producing ani-
mals in the United States; the largest area of undeveloped but
potentially valuable cattle-producing territory in the country is
situated in the Southern states and the greatest obstacle to the ex-
tension of the cattle industry of the South is the Texas fever cattle
tick ;

Therefore, Be It Resolved, that the rapid, efficient and complete
eradication of the Texas fever cattle tick has now become a pa-
triotic obligation upon those states comprising within their borders
areas still under quarantine; and

Be It Further Resolved, that this Conference urge upon the
legislatures of those states which have not already done so, to pass
without delay state-wide tick eradication laws, and that the Gov-
ernment of the United States, if necessary as a war measure, exer-
cise the power vested in the Secretary of Agriculture of the United
States by act of Congress to facilitate the complete eradication of
the Texas fever cattle tick within one year.

Be It Further Resolved, that a copy of this resolution be for-
warded to the President of the United States, the Congress of the
United States, the Secretary of Agriculture of the United States,
and the Governors of the states of Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi,
Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia and Florida, with the urgent request
that these resolutions be given most serious consideration.

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 233

Resolved, by the Cut-Over Land Conference of the South rep-
resenting Eastern Texas, Arkansas, Southern Missouri, Mississippi,
Louisiana, Alabama, Western Georgia and Western Florida, in con-
vention assembled at New Orleans, La., April 11th, 12th and 13th,
1917, that:

WHEREAS, it is of vital importance to the American people
that they be assured of an adequate supply of food products and
of raw materials to meet the growing population and our expand-
ing industries ; and,

Wuereas, the public domain of the United States adaptable
to present day remunerative economic use is substantially exhausted
or shortly will be; and,

WHEREAS, the vast areas resulting from timber operations in
the states above mentioned because of their proximity to our great
consuming centers, and to our export ports, are worthy of imme-
diate serious attention with respect to a present beneficial use, and
ultimate settlement and development; and,

WHEREAS, practically all efforts at so-called colonization have
in large measure been more or less unsuccessful and not lasting and
permanent, and because of their too intensely commercial aspect
have largely resulted in a loss of public confidence, and have often
brought the promoters into national disrepute ; and,

WueEreas, the problem is one of practically national impor-
tance and should command the assistance, support and the’ best
thought of all agencies; now,

Therefore, Be It Resolved, that the chair be and is hereby in-
structed to appoint a committee to consist of ten members who are
subscribers to the Southern Pine Association, of which the chair-
man hereof shall be one, which committee may associate with them-
selves, if their judgment so warrants, representatives of any other
agencies interested in the development of the South, and which
committee shall as soon as practicable provide for an. organization
and the financing thereof, together with a concrete plan of operation
of such organization, the same to be known and designated as the
Southern Cut-Over Land Association.

Be It Further Resolved, that said committee be empowered to
either incorporate said association or organize the same as a volun-
tary organization, and to provide for its independent existence, or
to effect mergers with other and similar movements, as their best
judgment may dictate; and,

Appointment
of Organiza-
tion Commit-
tee

Plan of
Organization
Suggested

act che th

Federal
Officials
Thanked for
Co-operation

234 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

Be It Further Resolved, that the owners of the idle, unused and
unproductive lands in the states mentioned are urged to support the
association hereinbefore provided for, to the extent of a levy not to
exceed one cent per acre per year, for such period of time as it shall
be determined shall comprise a period necessary to effect compre-
hensive development ; and,

Be It Further Resolved, that such land owners in the area desig-
nated are urged to immediately adopt, wherever practicable and feas-
ible, some form of live stock industry, not only as a part of the
general plan of development, but also in response to the nation’s
need in view of the present national crisis; and,

Be It Further Resolved, that said committee in working out a
concrete plan shall take into consideration cattle tick eradication,
water control, standardization of land sales, legislation with respect
to land titles, land classification, and in particular a campaign of
general publicity, and such other activities as may be deemed proper
and conducive to the successful operation of such association.

Be It Further Resolved, that inasmuch as many acres of this
area are better adapted for forest growth than for agricultural crops,
that the association shall undertake to further and promote the de-

‘ velopment of approved forestry methods, looking toward reforesta-

tion of such areas, for the benefit of future generations, and where
practicable to combine such reforestation methods with live stock
development.

Be It Further Resolved, that a rising vote of thanks be ten-
dered all officials and representatives of the Federal Government
participating in the program and in the discussion at the Confer-
nece; also to all representatives of state agricultural and other in-
stitutions participating in the program and the discussions at the
Conference ; also to the press of the entire country for its co-opera-
tion in disseminating news of the Conference; also to the railroads
for their co-operation in naming reduced round trip railroad fares,
and to the representatives thereof present and participating in the
discussion ; and to all others not specifically enumerated herein who
have lent their advice and aid to the Conference in accomplishing
the constructive work toward which the Conference is aiming.

Resolved, by the Cut-Over Land Conference of the South rep-
resenting Eastern Texas, Arkansas, Southern Missouri, Mississippi,
Louisiana, Alabama, Western Georgia and Western Florida, in con-

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 235

vention assembled at New Orleans, La., April 11th, 12th and 13th,
1917, that:

WuHuereas, ready markets for live stock produced on cut-over
pine lands of the South are as essential as the production thereof ;

Now, Therefore, Be It Resolved, that this convention welcomes
the advent.of Morris & Company with their New Orleans packing
house as a distinct encouragement to a present beneficial use of cut-
over pine lands for the raising of cattle.

Resolved, by the Cut-Over Land Conference of the South rep-
resenting Eastern Texas, Arkansas, Southern Missouri, Mississippi,
Louisiana, Alabama, Western Georgia and Western Florida, in con-
vention assembled at New Orleans, La., April 11th, 12th and 13th,
1917, that:

WHEREAS, it is necessary for the National Government to raise
a very large amount of revenue to meet the extraordinary expense
of war; and,

WHEREAS, it is estimated that there are kept in the United
States about 25,000,000 dogs, which are not only a luxury, and
therefore properly subject to taxation, but which are also a cause
of much damage to all kinds of live stock;

Therefore Be It Resolved, That we urge upon the Congress
of the United States to enact a law placing a per capita tax of $1.00
on all dogs as a wise financial and economic measure; and

Resolved Further, That a copy of these resolutions be trans-
mitted to our Representatives and Senators in the Congress with
the request that they take prompt action to enact a law levying a
Federal Tax on all dogs.

As men, proud of the fact that we are citizens of the United
States of America, realizing as we do that our country is about to
be called upon to meet heretofore unheard of demands, fully imbued
with the spirit of patriotism and a desire to co-operate to the fullest
extent with our President in whom we have devoted confidence; be
it therefore

Resolved, That we, the representative owners of the vast area
of Southern cut-over lands, do hereby pledge to our President these
holdings, that he in his wisdom may direct their use for the benefit,
the betterment and the furtherance of humanity in accordance with
his plans, in all of which we are in hearty accord.

Morris and
Company
Welcomed to
New Orleans

Federal Dog
Tax Recom-
mended

Lumbermen
Pledge Hold-
ings for Use
of Nation

236 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

Senator Ransdell SendsGreet-
ings to Conference

Washington, D. C., April 11, 1917.
Cut-Over Land Conference of the South,
New Orleans, La.

I deeply regret that imperative official business prevents me
from attending the Cut-Over Land Conference of the South in
your city today. The cut-over pine lands of the South consti-
tute a vast domain susceptible of wonderful potentialities in ag-
riculture and forestry, which should call for our very best efforts °
in constructive statesmanship.

I hope the Conference will form a permanent organization
to handle these lands in a big way in connection with our various
state officials and commercial bodies in our principal Southern
cities.

We must demonstrate honestly and on a large scale for what
purposes these lands are best adapted, whether reforestation
with quick growing trees, or agriculture in its many forms, es-
pecially live stock.

Then we must invite immigration and settlement by honest
advertising. We must tell the whole trutlt about our lands, and
devise plans to protect prospective settlers from real estate
sharks.

There is so much merit in these lands that we are bound to
have great success in disposing of them if these methods are fol-
lowed.

I pledge my loyal support to the good cause in every way
possible. :

(Signed) Jos. E. RANspELL.

-

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 237

List of Attendance Cut-Over

Land Conference of
the South

NAME REPRESENTING ADDRESS
ALEXANDER, M. L.......... Chairman, Louisiana State Con-

; servation Commission.......New Orleans, La.
Aen, Wiuuram, Mer .......... C. & T. Bureau N. O. Assn. of

Commerce,.............05- New Orleans, La.

Arxen, Gaye, JR............. Chambers Agency Inc......... New Orleans, La.
ALEXANDER, J. W.............. Insurance & Farming....:.... Alexandria, La.
IA GASSISS Ge cinco ssige sis e008 8 sence tote Ree wie BIRR RUE Ayla te atu eae New Orleans, La.
Ayres, Water S., Ind. Com...N.O.G.N Ry...........0.-.. Chicago, IIl.

Aserts, Ernst

Washley Farm & Dev. Co... .New Orleans, La.

BEHRMAN, MARTIN, Mayor............0000000 cece ees New Orleans, La.
BRUGUIERES:. JULES) Mil slic cats an autho end SG RASS Boia Sd dod W. Palm Beach, Fla.
Beston, D. P................. Attys at Laws ouctoedseeties Mobile, Ala.
Bonpurant, J. R......-. 60-60 Agriculture & Oil............. El Paso, Tex.
Brumrietp, O. N., Mer........ Illinois Cent. R. R. Co........ Jackson, Miss.
Bicetow, A. C., Pres........... Phila. Wool & Textile Assn...Philadelphia, Pa.
Bateman, J. B., Jr., S. A.......Great Southern Lbr. Co....... New Orleans, La.
Brooxs, L. H., Supervisor...... Ratltodadsioc iis ccesaee ganged New Orleans, La.

Bouncer, M. S., Vice-Pres.....
BripcewatTer, S., Gen. Megr....
Buoomer, P. A., Gen. Mgr
Bouincer, S. H., Treas.......
Bruce, Geo. S., Im. Agt
Bonner, J. S., Pres
Byers, W. C., Agri. Agt
Bronson, J. W., S. Rep........
Baus, W. H ‘

Breckne_r, S., Pres

BarrTuEL, R., Exporter
Branar, WILL
Brenan, T. E
Boye, C. B
Brovuecu, Cuas. H
Brack, Harry A
Bituncssy, F. N

.S. H. Bolinger Lbr. Co.......

.Kalamazoo Silo Co

S. H. Bolinger Lbr. Co
Trinity County Lbr. Co Groveton, Tex.
Louisiana L. L. Lbr. Co.......Fisher, La.

. Shreveport, La.
Houston, Tex.
Houston, Tex.
Chicago, Ill.
Thibodaux, La.

Pig Club Agent La........... Baton Rouge, La.
Bryceland, La., and

Bryceland Lbr. Co (Fe Towson, Okla.
Gulf, Mobile & Newton R. R..Mobile, Ala.

U. 8. Forest Service Washington, D. C.
Southern Railway New Orleans, La.
Southern Pine Assn New Orleans, La.
Brookhaven, Miss.

Shreveport, La.

International & G. N. Ry
Bonner Lumber Co
New York Central Lines

Tropical Trading Co.......... New Orleans, La.
The Trade Index............. New Orleans, La.
Insurance Business........... New Orleans, La.
Salesmains cia cenaotecntannicidees New Orleans, La.
Governor: <i acc pee Kal snedlnn eat Little Rock, Ark.

Washly Farm & Dev. Co
Civil Engineer

New Orleans, La.
New Orleans, La.

238 The Dawn of a New Co

nstructive Era

NAME REPRESENTING

Brecet, Gro. H Real Estate & Land Dealer....
Bowuine, N., Com. Mer Commission Merchant
Brery, W., Gen. Mgr..........Pine Stump Product Co
BuaxesteEE, H. E., D.G........Mississippi Cent. Expo
Boyte, L. C Attorney at Law
Bryant, R. C., Prof. of L’bring. . Yale University
Booxer, Roy, Staff Cor Manufacturers’ Record

CLAIR, J. C., Gen. Dev. Agt. Illinois Central R. R
Cuapprius, E. L “Alluvial” Lands
Cern, Harry G., Secy Thompson & Tucker Lbr. Co. .
Courtney, G. A., Vice-Pres Southwest La. Farm & Mlg. Co.
Carpenter, Rost., Mer Chicago Belt Mfg. Co........
Crarxson, J. W., L. Agt La. Central Lbr. Co.........
Crayton, W. D La. State Museum

Texas State Dept. of Agr.....

School Book Rep
Real Estate

Conover, J. E
Curappins, E. L., Jr

Cotes: Re Nieosccesseasscarens Com. Nursery Co.............
Coox, SHERMAN............... Real Estate sccciccicced tnbanesiene
CARANCH, JOHN Woscot 5054 4.6 GRGo as OBES A Bute bod, see ARR ae
Coston, J. Ts, Lawyer ne jot acta atten dn DAWG ee aeons
Corton, 'T..Mi5 Conti. casey citaiua aise poe wane ae eee
Corton; Js Evsevsgesced: peones Depts Of Agri. irises deen
Cucutter, Hy., Megr........... Matthews Gravity Carriers...

Curtom;, Es Ts sie scae ceases Lumber Mire: 2:¢or5- ssa ease

Curtis, D. R., Sou. Repr

DENECHAUD, J. F., Secy ....Immigration Dept. of La
Da.rymp.e, W.H............. L.$.U
DeGrance, Jos. H., Secy Assn. of Commerce
Downmany, R. H., Pres Southern Cyp. Mfrs. Assn
Dov e, SaRsFIELD Fla. Farms & Homes Inc
Dunuam, F. V., Mer Pav. Dept. Sou. Pine Assn,....
Davis, T. B., Pres Tallahola Lbr. Co
Dopson, W. R., Dean Agri. College of La

Derses, Epw. J............... Stauffer-Eshleman & Co......

Denner, Joun §.............. Field Statistician Bureau of
Crop Estimates............

Dixon, A. L., Mer............. Gulf Motor Truck Co.........

Dinxins, L. N., Pres

ENOCHS, F. B............... Farming Lumberman & R.R..
Eerert,, Mo Te jscesvasaw avian as Timber & Lands.............

Ercauine, C. W............24. Nurseryman...............0.
Emerson, F.V................ La. State University..........

ADDRESS

New Orleans, La.
New Orleans, La.
Covington, La.
Gulfport, Miss.
Kansas City, Mo.
New Haven, Conn.
Baltimore, Md.

Chicago, III.
New Orleans, La.
Houston, Tex.
Lake Charles, La.

.New Orleans, La.
.Clarks, La.

New Orleans, La.
New Haven, Conn.
Winnfield, La.
Hattiesburg, Miss.

.Austin, Tex.

Little Rock, Ark.
New Orleans, La.
Winchester, Tenn.
Alexandria, La.
New Orleans, La.
Osceola, Ark.
New Orleans, La.
Covington, La.

.New Orleans, La.

Springfield, La.
Chattanooga, Tenn.

New Orleans, La.
Baton Rouge, La.
New Orleans, La.
New Orleans, La.
New York City.
New Orleans, La.
Hammond, La.
Baton Rouge, La.

.New Orleans, La.

New Orleans, La.
New Orleans, La.
New Orleans, La.

Fernwood, Miss.

.New Orleans, La.

New Orleans, La.
Baton Rouge, La.

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 239

NAME REPRESENTING ADDRESS

Ericuson, L. F................ and Si vberacane seater hen ees New Orleans, La.
EpensBerGER, H.............. Dixie Nursery Co............. Dubberly, La.
Evans, J. A., Asst. Chief. ...... Extension Wn. Sou. U.S. N.G..Washington, D. C.
ErsEMAN, Mayer.............. Real Estates scat sures see385 New Orleans, La.
ENpERLE, EpwarD............. Lands & Timber.............. New Orleans, La.
FARLEY, F.W.............. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture.....Jackson, Miss.
Fow er, R. B., Gen. Mgr... ...Tremont & Gulf Ry.......... Winnfield, La.
Perrisy Fs Bide oes acaeen Ex. Stat. Directories. c2 essa: McNeill, Miss.
Ferry, W. J., Pres............. Ferry-Hanly Adver. Agcy..... Kansas City, Mo.
Foster, D. M................. Real Estate.............00005 Lake Charles, La.
Fuuverton, R.W............. Gulf LOR Con fe csdane seas E. St. Louis, IIl.
Fousg, L. J., Jr., Ex. Im. Agt...Southern Pacific §. §. Co......New Orleans, La.
Fyuer, G. H., Com. Agt........ Pennsylvania R.R........... New Orleans, La.
ForcuueEme_r, H., Pres......... Washley Farm & Dev. Co..... Lorraine, La.
Foster, Fie seuewnanydaaeaes State Forester of Texas........ College Station, Tex.
Fay; Cuas. S., Ty My 22s ecenees Southern Pacific Lines........ New Orleans, La.
Fox, Joun A................45 Gulf Coast Dev. League.......Mobile, Ala.
Fiynn, J. W., Gen. Mgr........Cotton State Lumber Co...... Meehan Jct., Miss.
Forno, E., T. M................ Gy DBE N CR Yiceteesa ng adeas Groveton, Tex.
Farr, Joun R., Prof............ Ga. State Col. of Agri.........Athens, Ga.
FRIEDLAENDER, V.P........... Climax Ebr: Cos. cose ena St. Landry, La.
GREEN, CHAS., Vice-Pres.....Eastman-Gardiner & Co....... Laurel, Miss.
GiumorE, G. E................ Shreveport Cham. of Com..... Shreveport, La.
Guupert, L.D................ Southern Pine Lbr. Co........ Texarkana, Tex.
Gerson, H.S., Pres............ Home Builders Realty Co. ....New Orleans, La.
Guynn, J. W., Land Agt........Mississippi Lbr. Co........... Quitman, Miss.
Green, A. E., Vice-Pres........ Columbus Lbr. Co............ Columbus, Miss.
GUNN; FC nce seme utineln adam ses canes oaeateaud ule elans Quitman, Miss.
Gray, Mar., Correspondent..... American Lumberman........ New Orleans, La.
Grirrine, W. D., Pres......... C. M. Griffing & Co.......... Macclenny, Fla.
Guixp, W. E., Treas. & G. M...Finkbine Lbr. Co............. Wiggins, Miss.
Gitmorg, A. B., Mgr.-Ed....... Modern Farming............. New Orleans, La.
Geacen, J. H., Treas.......... Tremont Lbr. Co............. Winnfield, La.
Girrorp, F. C., Secy........... Natl. Assn. of Box Mfrs...... Chicago, Ill.
Griumer, Tuos. W., Megr........ Bay Minette Land Co.........Bay Minette, Ala.
Garic,. He Ls eseniivnna vans os Assn. of Commerce........... New Orleans, La.
Guusert, Harvey W., Mer..... Nona Mills Co............... Beaumont, Tex.
GANDY 3 Je Wessiauscicasguicicnena nse Make PGR ee Shaaatencennaedke we hem New Orleans, La.
Girson, E. T., C. G.A.........Dept. Louisiana & Mississippi. .New Orleans, La.
Goreau, W.......... 6.000 Go Ro Mfg. Co. .........2.4. New Orleans, La.
Gueen, Russe.u T., Mer. Trade

Extension Department....... Southern Pine Assn........... New Orleans, La.
Giuuspt, J.O....... 000000000 Attysat Lawin, sgeuwnnne ss Gulfport, Miss.
HULL, N. P., Pres............. National Dairy Union.........Lansing, Mich.
Howe tt, Cuas. F..............Physician............. 00.005. Kinder, La.
Henineton, L..............44- Atty. 8 LAW vo vxce a cweccuinns s Hattiesburg, Miss.

Haynen, Wo. J., Gen. Mgr.....J. J. Newman Lbr. Co........ ‘Hattiesburg, Miss.

240

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

‘NAME

Hinton, R. W., Pres
Hatiowe.t, R. M., Pres.......
Heum, H. B., Vice-Pres
Hopkins, S. G., D. P. A
Hamittron, Geo. C.............
Heruin, W. T
Harris, L. L., Reclamation
Harcop, B. T., Gen. Supt
Homeyer, H. C

Henverson, W. L.,
In. & Im. Agt

Hueser, P. A
Herxsron, Louis, Rep
Hamitton, F. P
Herariort, J. W
Hoenany, A. S., Mgr
Hero, Gus A., Pres
Hou tron, W. L
Houtron, C. H

Harper, G. B., A.G.D.A.....1.
. Jeanerette Lbr. & Shgl. Co... .

Hewes, H. B., V. P. & Treas...

JAHNCKE, ERNEST LEE,
Pres

Jones, J. E., Chief Insp
Jounson, J. J., Supt

Jewett, B.N., Megr............
Jennincs, T. A., Pres
Jackson, H. K

KING, L. G., Auditor.,......
Keuser, R. J., Bus. Mgr.....

eo

LEACH, N. M., G. T. Mgr.....
Lovejoy, W. C., Receiver
Lez, A. J.,8.P.A
Lanaux, A. A
‘Law, G. W., Secy. ee ae
TigCouny Osivsses ‘ neon ey

NGAN, J. E

Leeymarp, E. P., Im. & Agr.
ABE is teh ocsie or taemaneine meee

.Tremont Lbr. Co
.. Trade Index

..Planter

REPRESENTING

Hinton Bros. Lbr. Co
Industrial Lbr. Co
La. Ry. & Nav. Co
Kansas City So. Ry. Co.......
Freeman-Smith Lbr. Co
Sheriff Winn Parish..........

Sou. Ry. System Dev. Ser
Farmer
Texarkana Chamber of Com..
Mississippi Planter
Real Estate
Pelican Box Factory
Jefferson Plaquemine D.D....
Houlton Lbr. Co

New Orleans Assn. Commerce.
Southern Pine Assn

Cut-Over Land Dept., Great
Sou. Lbr. Co

Jennings Naval Stores Co
Electric Lights

Texas & Pacific Ry
N. O. Netherlands Co.......
Southern Ry
Engineer
Lock-Moore Co., Ltd

University of Wisconsin

Lee Lbr. Co

T.&P.R.R

ADDRESS

Lumberton, Miss.
Elizabeth, La.
Shreveport, La.
Texarkana, Tex.
Millville, Ark.

Winnfield, La.

Beaumont, Tex.
Winnfield, La.
New Orleans, La.

Mobile, Ala.
Mobile, Ala.

. Texarkana, Ark.

New Orleans, La.
Chicago, IH.
New Orleans, La.
New Orleans, La.
Houltonville, La.
Houltonville, La.
Memphis, Tenn.
Jeanerette, La.

.New Orleans, La.

New Orleans, La.

Bogalusa, La.

...New Orleans, La.

Chicago, Ill.
Kansas City, Mo.
New Orleans, La.
New Orleans, La.
Pensacola, Fla.

Mobile, Ala.

Winnfield, La.
New Orleans, La.

. .New Orleans, La.

Hammond, La:

New Orleans, La.

. .New Orleans, La.

New Orleans, La.
New Orleans, La.
Westlake, La.
New Orleans, La.
Madison, Wis.

Alexandria, La.

New Orleans, La.

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

241

NAME

Law ter, Jno., A.M. M
Learnt, R. A., Vice-Pres

Letts, Cuas., Box Supt
Luoyp, E.R

Lepoux, H. I., Secy...........
LicutensTEIN, I. M., Del.......
Lorancer, H. R., Vice-Pres
LaGrone, J. M., Mer
Licuron, W. R

MARSHALL, F. R.,
Animal Husbandry

Mayo, H. M., Mgr. Ind. Dept.

McLaucutan, Asso. Editor
Martin, W. A., Gen. Mgr
Moreton, S. E
McKoy, Epwin A..............
Mites, L. T
Moorg, A. G. T., Asst. Secy....
Miter, R. G., Agr. Editor

Marsuatt, E. C. D., G. F. A... L.

MansFIELp, C. J., Vice-Pres... .
Morsg, Stanuey F., Con. Agr.
E

a haeaesS

Morsg, R. F., Gen. Mgr
Means, Guy R., Agr. Rep
Morean, Epw., Com. Ft. Agt..
McGeueEg, F. C., Pres.........
Mourpuy, Jas. R., Pres
McDonne yt, L. T., Sou. & S.

McMauan, M. J., T. M.......
McCroary, 8. H., Asst. Chief..
Morrison, W. W
Murray, Kempatt, Editor....
McIntyre, W. G
McCreary, E.R
Miter, Cuas., Traf. Mer
Miwcy, S. S., Asst. Mgr

NESOM, G. E., Supt
Natry, W. H., VP. & ae Sain
Nicuots, E. A.. wes

OTIS, J.5S., See,

PIPER, C. V., Agrostologist.. .
Puiturs, Henry

.Acme Home Assn............

. Southern Pacific

.Baltimore & Ohio R. R.......
.Pine Bluff Lbr. Co...........

.N. 0. G.N.R.R. Co
U.S. Dept. of Agr

. Wholesale Land Dealer.......

.U. S. Dept. of Agr

REPRESENTING

Rapids Lbr. Co
Southern Land & Timber Co..
Eastman-Gardiner Lbr. Co....
Director Miss. Expt. Station. .

Bureau Animal Industry

U. 8. Dept. of Agriculture
Lumber Trade Journal
American Lbr. Co

Salman Brick & L. Co........
Southern Pine Assn

Ludington Lbr. Co
Dupont Powder Co

Fla. Farms & Houses, Inc....

Bi-Lateral Fire Hose Co

Market Writer...............

Live Stock Ex. Service
Hammond Lbr. Co

H. Weston Lbr. Co

Planter & Land Owner

ADDRESS
Woodworth, La.

.Jadianapolis, Ind.

Laurel, Miss.

.Agricultural College,

Miss.

. New Orleans, La.

New Orleans, La.
Genesee, La.
Winnfield, La.
Fayetteville, Ark.

Washington, D. C.
Houston, Tex.
Washington, D. C.
New Orleans, La.
Merryville, La.
Brookhaven, Miss.
New Orleans, La.

Slidell, La.

New Orleans, La.
New Orleans, La.
Shreveport, La.
Warren, Ark.

New Orleans, La.
Ludington, La.
Jackson, Miss.

.New Orleans, La.
.Pine Bluff, Ark.
Palatka, Fla.

New Orleans, La.
New Orleans, La.
Washington, D. C.
New Orleans, La.
New Orleans, La.
New Orleans, La.
Bush, La.
Hammond, La.
Wiggins, Miss.

Baton Rouge, La.
Hammond, La.

.New Orleans, La.

Logtown, Miss.

Washington, D. C.

Natchez, Miss., and
Ottumwa, Iowa.

242

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

NAME REPRESENTING

Forage Corp. Agent...........

Parker, WALTER
Perkins, W.R

Patmer, L., Ex. Editor......... Lumber Trade Journal........
Putten, Kine H., Dir. of News

DEVICE reece tid maaataet Southern Pine Assn..........
Pepeaux, Ep. H., Mgr. Agr.

DEP Erase kag tinnmnarnns ee as Stauffer-Eshleman & Co.......

Pipkin, L. B., Secy
Perrin, L. E., Dist. Agt
Putman, L. R., Adv. Mer......
Puxiien, Wu. H
Pruven, Hy. B
Preston, E. V., Land Com
Prescott, C. C., Agri. Agt
PettTiBoneE, F. W

Insurance
Pine Stump Product Co
Fernwood Lbr. Co
Furniture Retailer
Development Service.........
Jordan River Lbr. Co

QUERBES, ANDREW........
Querens, F., Jr

Chamber of Commerce.......

ROMMEL, GEO. M., Chief Ani- :
mal Husbandry Div..........U. S. Bureau of Animal Ind..

Rennyson, I. B Real Estate
Ruopes, J. E., Secy.-Mgr
Rotr, A. F
Reuter, Curis
Ritey, J. N., Sales Agt
Repueap, Joun A., Actg. State

Dept. of Agriculture
Vegetables and Seeds
Atlas Powder Co

Agtvieiunnccaes ced earadutaes U. S. Dept. of Agriculture.....
Ricuarpson, E.S............. La. State University..........
Rountree, L.M.............. Patmeiovnckcacoetad ieee é
Remers, F. W., Gen. Mgr...... Natalbany Lbr. Co...........
Root, L. Carrouu............. N. O. Assn. of Commerce......
Rapway, C. W., Dairy Specialist .Live Stock Exten. Service. ....
Ray, hi Bis concede sees pcs aaa Clerk sas sucess rere mou as
RieGs, WHIT nasiser cies ysaes Richard & Riggs... ..........
Ross, W. I., Farm Supt........ Industrial Lbr. Co............
Reoat, H. W., S.A... 20 Ri 6e NG CO 22 cerns
RuNTE,; Ey Os ccesscesnceceen cous 1D a =r ; ee eae eee

Ranson, Joun I., Vice-Pres

SESSOMS, ALEX. K., Pres... .Ga. Land Owners’ Assn......
Stance, Cuas. F

Suepparp, C. C., Gen. Mgr..... Forest Lbr. Co...............
‘Stacze, C. E., Gen. Mer....... Central Lbr. Co..............
Saupe, L. E., Im. Agt.......... St. Louis S.W. Ry...........
SALMAR, CLARKE............-. New Orleans Item............

Times Picayune
Yellow Pine Saw Mill....+....
Turp. & Rosin Prod. Assn

Serrertu, Herman J
Sanrorp, F. L
Spex, C. F., Secy

ADDRESS

New Orleans, La.
Baton Rouge, La.
New Orleans, La.

.New Orleans, La.

New Orleans, La.
Beaumont, Tex.
St. Landry, La.
New Orleans, La.
Jackson, Miss.
Covington, La.
Fernwood, Miss.
New Orleans, La.

.Chattanooga, Tenn.

Kiln, Miss.

Shreveport, La.

New Orleans, La.

. Washington, D. C.

New Orleans, La.

. .New Orleans, La.

Baton Rouge, La.
New Orleans, La.
New Orleans, La.

Baton Rouge, La.
Baton Rouge, La.
La Branch, La.
Hammond, La.
New Orleans, La.
Baton Rouge, La.
New Orleans, La.
Covington, La.
Elizabeth, La.
New Orleans, La.
New Orleans, La.
Abita Springs, La.

.Cogdell, Ga.

New Orleans, La.
Oakdale, La.
Clarks, La.

St. Louis, Mo.
New Orleans, La.
New Or'eans, La.
Zona, La.

New Orleans, La.

The Dawn of a New Constructive Era

243

NAME

Smumons, H., Official Reporter..

Smins, Geo. A., Publicity... ..
SToNEBRAKER, F. E., Secy.....
Staptes, C. H., Dairy Spec....
SWEET, Jo Atenccids a akiecg esate
Smitu, G. K., Mgr............
Stevens, F. W., Mgr..........
STERN, PercIvAL, Pres........
Smitu, T. F., Land Megr.......
SuEtton, T. J., Traffic Megr....
Stier, E. V., Newspaper Rep. .
ScHneETzeER, J., Photographer...
Suerman, C. W., Dist. Megr....
ScHMOBL, PAUL.............--
Swirt, G. R., Pres............
Sowers, W. J., Secy.-Mgr.....
SuitstoneE, H. M., Rep........
Stropparp, W. L., Priv. Sec. ...
Scott, J. H., Gen. Mgr........

Situ, E. I., Insp. in Charge
Tick Erad. in La...........

Seg, J. G., Teacher...........
ScHNEIDAU, P. SEFTON........
Smitu, F. L., Sales Mer.......
STAPLES, “Avibe 2h: cise macanes
Stern, Gro. M...............

TALLMAN, CLAY, Com.....
Townsenp, G. A.,S.M.......
Tuompson, J. Lewis, Pres.....
Tuxworth, F. E., Supt.......
TRIESCHMANN, A.............
Tiesour, GC: Lewiawvuescecisers
Tinstey, J. D., Ag. Dem......
Tuames, T. R., Ld. Agt.......
Tracy, S. M., Agron..........

Taytor, H. W., M. D., Secy..
Tosig, C. W., Megr............
TUCKER, WMivecncccxineana ees
Tuomas, A. J., CapT..........
Temerton, R. W., Asst. Secy. .
Tutt, J. H., Agri. Agent.......
TuatcHer, N. E,.............

UCKER, CLEMENT 6., Vice-

Press 2 secs verte oe a ecerdax

Unpverwoop, W.D...........

REPRESENTING ADDRESS

Llp hg tae cana ea ate ele New Orleans, La.
Rh aialdal nena NN inn eee careers New Orleans, La.

..Memphis, Tenn.

La. State University.......... Baton Rouge, La.
Sessoms Land & Sec. Co....... Cogdell, Ga.
Simonds Mfg. Co............. New Orleans, La.

.Bagdad Land & Lbr. Co....... Bagdad, Fla.
Interstate Electrical Co....... New Orleans, La.
Ed. Hines Lumber Co......... Poplarville, Miss.

AS Be IM Ry iece freee ecees Monroe, La.

. The Daily States............. New Orleans, La.
Beads ence enaGepaKy hala SBE ROTI New Orleans, La.
Aetna Explosives Co.......... New Orleans, La.
Chemical Engineer............ Mobile, Ala.
Swift. Ebr. (Cisse. cg ccsocne sie Knoxo, Miss.
Major-Sowers Lbr. Co........ Epley, Miss.

.N. O. Assn. of Com........... New Orleans, La.
Mr, Vroomani:acsisticaussose Washington, D. C.

.Southern Mineral & Land Imp.

CO ni cous phe cee tetas danse Winnfield, La.
U. S. Bureau An. Industry... . Baton. Rouge, La.
Agrl. College L. 5S. U.......... Baton Rouge, La.
Réal- Estatews.ocevcrevagnsa es New Orleans, La.
.Natalbany Lbr. Co........... Hammond, La.
Banken: ans na cevuna cee Mobile, Ala,
wDrOKets veiw ncaeecumeas sa diye New Orleans, La.
.Gen. Land Office............. Washington, D. C.
Great Southern Lbr. Co....... Bogalusa, La.
-Thompson Bros. Lbr. Co...... Houston, Tex.
Pickering Land & Tbr. Co..... Cravens, La.
Crossett: Lbr Coie: sone ea vwncds Crossett, Ark.
Hort. La. Experiment Sta.....Baton Rouge, La.
Gulf Colorado & St. Fe Ry. ...Pineland, Tex.
Natalbany Lbr. Co........... Hammond, La.
U.S. Dept. Agr. Forage Crop,
Investigation.............. Biloxi, Miss.

2 Alaflamiss si ccu.on cor arenas Mobile, Ala.
.Wm. J. Burns Detective Agcy..New Orleans, La.
arm eft cs sucecse su fea een Tucker, La.
Supt. of Transportation....... New Orleans, La.
-Gulf Lumber Co..............E. St. Louis, Ill.
Re OxS Ry) caatnaarecceteiene Mena, Ark.
.Times-Picayune.............. New Orleans, La.

.Sou. Settlement & Dev. Org. . .Baltimore, Md.
idee We oe Breached eae echt s New Orleans, La.

244 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era
NAME REPRESENTING ADDRESS
User; J: Becscayt reagan es Agricultural Engr............. New Orleans, La.
WEron; He Corcaence nines: PHALER yi Gina 54 eben be New Orleans, La.
VROOMAN, CARL........... Asst. Secy. of Agriculture...... Washington, D. C.

Van Pett, A. W., Asso. Editor. .Gulf States Farmer

WILSON, HDi ss escascccntnans Com. of Agr. & Immigration...

Waitt, R.M....... b. : ar aphke CONLTACLOR Mas aani amour
WEEKS, Ge Coe siiccecin nincennv eee Land Ownletisi.6eearcs aaensl:
Waite, H. L., Pres............ J. J» White Ebr. Cotcuieae case
Watson, D. L., Phy. & Far..... Cusack Bldg @ xtagaivd 5 waeenhas
Wootsey, WALTER E.......... Farmer & Fruit Raiser........

Womack, Mark, Agriculturalist .Teacher
Weston, J. H
Woo.man, C. E., Dist. Agt.....
Wauittincton, W. W., Jr., Secy .Enterprise Lbr. Co
Weicanp, F., A. M Mercurio Pub. Co
Witp, E. O., Editor............Gulf States Farmer...........
We ty, D. C.,.Comr. of Agr. ... Missouri Pacific Ry..........
Wa pen, C. E., Vice-Pres Sabine Tram Co

H. Weston Lbr. Co

Wituras, H. S., Dir. Pub... ...Mississippi Cent. Expo........
WEAVER, Si Pas caaeenraacisess Weaver Bros.................
Womack, F. J., Mgr........... Foster Ebr. Coe s-osinse an Geen
Wricuts Ws Creesineo scans dies Lumber Trade Journal........
Watson, Geo. E., Secy.........Sou. Cyp. Mfrs. Asso.........
West, W. Tosaccinesce reid satees vee ees ooaeeaa nese eee
Weret, H. H., Jr.............. Land Dealer.................

Wricut, Tumer, Field Agent. . .U. S. Dept. of Agriculture...
Wiuianca y, Cuas. D., Cashier. First National Bank
Wirxinson, L. W., D. Agt

YOUNG, H. M., Treas

Younc, Sam’.

New Orleans, La.

.Baton Rouge, La.

New Orleans, La.
Hammond, La.
Columbia, Miss.
New Orleans, La.
Rochester, N. Y.
Verda, La.
Logtown, Miss.

..Baton Rouge, La.

Alexandria, La.
New Orleans, La.
New Orleans, La.

.St. Louis, Mo.

Beaumont, Tex.
Gulfport, Miss.
Shreveport, La.
Houston, Tex.
New Orleans, La.
New Orleans, La.
New Orleans, La.
Mobile, Ala.

. ._Baton Rouge, La.

Mobile, Ala.
Gretna, La.

New Orleans, La.
New Orleans, La.

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