Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-07-22

gether important documents ever pre-
sented to the General Assembly and
The people of Georgia is the report OIL
#he State Board of Forestry, setting fortn
&ertain grave perils of the Commonwealth
md recommending measures of escape and
Protection, 1t is important not only to great
Industries facing extinction, not only to tens
&f thousands of industrial workers threaten
Id with loss Of employment, not only to ag-
&ieulture whose interests both immediate ana
Intimate are vitality involvtl, not only to
commerce in its larger reaches, but also 10
very business, every consumer, every house
&old and citizen within Georgia's bounds
For the sake of all these it is to be hoped
hat the challenging facts brought forward
ill be given due attention by the General
assembly, and due response in way OF legls-
Rtion
I'VE were astonished at the lack of knowl-
#dge, by many of the tremendous annual de-
#truction, as we'll as the incipient posi-
&SiIities of our natural forest area" SO at
be outset, declares the Forestry Boards sub
bmmittee, by whom the report was prepared
EProfessor S. w. McCallie, State Geologic
Ir. B. H. Stone, and Mr.. H. G. Spahr. Some
hing of the extent of that destruction is to
"a inferred from the fact that Of Georgia's
original area of virgin forest less than one
Twentieth remains, while her output OF lum-
er has declined within the last decade ap-
fortunately fifty per cent. AS to resources
I'D possibilities, it apepars that the area
bid quarter billion board feet of timber,
5orth on the stump about ieven million dol
rs, could be made to produce, by simple
easures Of conservation, upwards OF six
Ellion board feet, worth llore than thirty
Iillions of dollars.
Through such figures one has glimpse
the vast economic stake involved. In
bars gone forests have made, next to cot
b, the largest material contribution to this
Zates, wealth and prosperity. LAUNDERING
la,,@ vial "a tIA Of
eorgia within the last twenty or twenty
We years upwards of one and a half billion
pillars Wood-using industries, according
the latest census! afford employment to
me thtrty-one thousand persons represent
capital investment OF more than forty
he million dollars, and turn out products
Iued at more than sixty-six million, three
inbred thousand. These Industries now
enprise nearly fifty per cent of the States
dustrial establishments, and employ TWEEN
two per cent of her wage earners-items
great import. But ten years ago employ
ent from such sources was thirty-five per
mt more than now; and the decrease is
Etain to continue, at an accelerated rate,
less the measures for which the Forestry
4 bard pleads are adopted. Every year sees
b waste of immense areas Of Georgia for
Is, either through fires or through ineffi-
bnt cutting. In pine forests alone deple-
n has been so great and so rapid that
Ftf1in the last two decades the production
he per CENT at which rate, says the Ma
pal Department of Agriculture, it will be
snsew years before Georgia is reduced to
Negligible position in the naval stores in
dry
conserving action is rendered the more
#Mperative because this decline in numbering
I'd naval stores is becoming acute at the
ry time that another of the States basic
ustries the production of cotton, is sore
reduced. From these three resources, as
forestry report points out, our prospect
has largely sprung. And now all three are
naced: THE cotton industry by the raw
rs of the boil weevil, the lumber and tur-
htine industries by the exhaustion Of old
bwth timber and by the destruction of sec
1-growth forests through fires and other
ms of human neglect. The possibilities of
monte distress resulting from the simulta-
Z BUS decline Of three of its leading indus
es are SO insidious and farreaching as to
rrant, in the judgment Of your committee,
bmpt and constructive consideration by
pse to whom the people have entrusted the
flare of the State"
No less vital than the interests Of industry,
the matter of forest conservation, are
se of agriculture. The necessity of for
as a safeguard against soil erosion, from
ich Georgia suffers ever-increasing losses,
well known. Continued destruction of
pdlands, with no thought to their replace
pit, will result, eventually, in conditions
Ter which farming is impossible, as GER
regions both in America and in the Old
rid sorrowfully attest. Not so generally
Dgnized, however, is the part which for
products play in farm maintenance.
be lumber requirements of the average eff
emily run farm" according to Mr.. J. G.
ers. Of the United States Forest Service
two thousand board feet yearly" which
bid mean for Georgia, with her three
hdred and eleven thousand farms, six hun
d and twenty-five million board feet year.
But that amount, Mr.. Peters goes on to
wv, exceeds our present consumption Of
lber for all purposes, and is more than
hty per cent in excess Of our total pro-
|tion. Evidently, we are far below the
rage in the use Of lumber for farm up
p and improvement. Surely" says this
erver, and he is eminently right, this
not continue in Georgia, where possibili-
for growth and development are unlimit-
Some day you will use several times the
nifty of lumber you are now using Are
going to anticipate this and provide for
upply at home, or will you follow the
Re States and permit timber depletion to
tinue unchecked, and then, after your
ply has dwindled, be forced to bring