The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-03-06

It is shown that the farms of the state are worked to scarcely ene-sixth of their full capacity. There are actually 12,ooo,0o0 acres of unImproved farm land. although the owners pay taxes upon it as agricultural land. If only a fraction of this land Is used for grow Ing timber trees. the yield will easily count as an important crop.
 The lumbermen are interested above all in maintaining the supply of ma- terial to keep their mills going. A modern saw mill Is more costly af- l fair than it used to be, and the lumber man must either keep 1t running longer than in the old days. or he must charge 1 of to current expenses L greater pro- | portion of the cost. studies that have been made in various parts of the South show conciusively that almost any of l the forests in this section, with their | great diversity of tree species or a wide range in the sizes of the trees, can be l so handled that successive crops may | be obtained at intervals of Is to 30 | years. This Is done by simply saving the small or immature trees when the 1 larger trees are taken out. One of the natural laws that the forester takes ad- vantage of is that when 6 vigorous | tree is given increased light and grow | ing space by the, removal of some of it's fellows, it responds by growing at | more rapid rate. This Is where one 1 of the profits in forestry comes in.
 But if these advantages of maintain ing the forests are to DC realized, two
 things must be looked after.--fire and | uncontrolled stock. The former more l than the lumberman's axe is destroying
 the forests of the South. Even under
 the present practice of cutting many
 small trees, there are large numbers Of others that are commonly left. These go to feed the fires A fire in many 1 of the forests In this section Is apt to do relatively little damage in the eyes of most of the people because the old trees are only slightly Injured. But the actual damage lies ia destroying the young growth, and postponing, if | not entirely precluding, the harvesting l of another crop It is absolutely im- possible for a young forest to establish Itself, or to thrive after 1t is estab- hshed, where fires are of frequent oe- curronce. The stock grazing is per" 1 naps even more serIous because that practice Is the chief cause of most os l the fires. Those who own the stock, that is those who pasture cattle on the lands of their neighbors, often set fire to the grass and undergrowth in order to improve the quality of the pasture.
 But unrestricted grazing has another
 side quite as serious. The cattle tick,
 which Is responsible for so many Ills
 in the South, is spread on the open range. If the cattle are confined it
 can easily be exterminated. HoS choi-
 era and cotton rot, as well as the gen.
 eral low standard of the stock, are also
 largely due to this practice. It is prob
 ably true. that there is little temptation
 to stock owners to graze thair cattle
 or hogs on the open fields of their
 neighbors The right is commonly
 claimed in the woodlands. Thus this
 most pernicious { practice is directly
 connected with the problem of main-
 taining or extending the forests.
 The Governor of Alabama and sev-
 eral commercial organizations, as well
 as the Stock Breeders Association. and
 thefarmers of the State in their recent
 institutes, have elnphat.cally declared
 for the adoption of State forest poll
 icy, including a State organization with
 a forester who shall be charged with
 instructing the people upon all these
 subjects. Tn carrying out this policy
 the Forest Service of the United States
 Department of Agriculture promises
 to give material and technical assist
 ance.