Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-07-23
The Forestry Congress

~ as guests those particularly useful
friends of conservation who are CO.
operating as the Southern Forestry Congress.
Their cause is of national import and of ut
most economic and human significance.
Scarcely region of the common country but
suffers either the consequence or threat of
the waste and destruction with which Amerl-
can forests have been treated. Over long
range of years these vital resources hav been
recklessly consumed, with little thought or
none to their replacement. Abundant TIM
Der, inefficient cutting, untrontrolled fires,
diminution, exhaustion-such has been the
story in State after State as the center OF
lumber production has shifted from New
England to the Alleghanies, to the Great
Lakes, to the South, and as it now swings
menacingly toward the giant forests of the
Pacific coast. That bourne reached, what
next? Three-ffths Of the countrys original
supply of timber is gone and every twelve
month an additional twenty-six billion cubic
feet are taken away, while only six billion are
grown. At this rate, it is all too plain to see,
within another generation the sources of sup
ply will be stripped bare.
In the resultant problems and ills the
0OuLQ is concerned DOlQ aS al Integral part
of the nation and on her own especial &C
count. The already burdensome and steadily
increasing cost of well-nigh every product
into which wood enters, from the lowliest
cottage to the greatest industrial plant and
from plow handles to print paper, affects the
Southern people in common with those of all
America But particularly disquieting is the
fact that the pine forests of the South Allan
tic and Gulf States have been reduced from
six hundred and fifty billion board feet to
about one hundred and thirty-nine billion.
For the last fifteen years the South has fur
hished building lumber and structural tim
hers to the Eastern and Central States. But
scientific observers now warn that within a
decade the South will be producing less tim
Der than she consumes. That condition of
affairs as President Hardtner, of the South
ern Forestry Congress pointed out in his
notable address on Wednesday, has been
reached already in Georgia and in Texas
Only the most vigorous and sustained meas
ures of conservation will prevent complete
and speedy exhaustion.
Both as a great agricultural center and as
q growing empire of industry the South has
urgent reason to take this problem promptly
and earnestly in hand. For there can be
no certain future for agriculture II the devas-
tation of forests which are natures safe
guard against flood and soil-Waste, as we'll
as her conserver of moisture and softener of
climate continues. The Old World today
has bleak, desolate areas which once bios
somed and bore goodly harvests-grim warn
ings of the penalty the South will pay if she
persistently wastes and neglects her forests
Mr.. William B. Greeley, Chief Forester of
the United States, and a distinguished guest
of the current convention, has repeatedly en-
phasiZed in this connection that simple stop
page of waste will not suffice, important
though it is there must be restitution as
well. New forests" says he, must be
tablished, by planting or by natural repro
n faly no MI of h ioh
have been destroyed. Rough mountainous
lands and poor lands not suited to agricul-
tural crops must be put to growing timber
under national state or private ownership
In Georgia and neighbor commemorative are
millions Of acres which should be devoted to
this purpose.
ut, as President Hardtner cogent1y ar
cues, there will be scant encOurag cement
indeed, there will be positive discouragement
to landowners to pursue this policy un-
less they are shown reasonable considera-
ion in the matter of taxes on growing tim
Der. "All students of forestry are agreed,
he says, that the value of timber should be
separated from the land for purpose of tax
alton, and that the timber should be taxed in
tho form of a products tax when cut, in lieu
of annual taxes, and this applies specifically
to new forests. The practice OF growing
timber in any country can not be expected as
long as our present method of taxation con-
+inues. The sound system of forest taxation
especially on new forests, must be tax lev
led the yield of timber at the time of cut
-'n5. 1t enables the investor to count upon
hid future tax burden with reasonable Ger
tainty and guarantees him against arbitrary
or excessive taxation it is paid at the time
the income from the new forest Is received
and is not a burden during the years while
the new forest is maturing"
The discussion OF these and kindred as
poets of the great forestry problem from the
standpoint of Southern needs, by men and
women thoroughly conversant with Southern
conditions should mean much in the way of
substantial accomplishment. The Congress
G-.1ugi wnich these IDEAS find efectual ut
terance is entitled tC heartiest cooperation
from all forces organized for progress and
-fruction. Every chamber Of commerce
and board of trade, every institution of learn
ing and Of social service, every interest of
agriculture and industry as we'll as of sci
ence and education. should support with en-
thusiasm and definite purpose the vastly i'm
portant work 10 which the Southern Forestry
t. RI tod