The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1923-05-31
Notes of Interest
To the Farmer


culture, there is an article entitled
climber: Mine or Crop?" tina
should be read by every land owne
of this section as it discusses th'
timber question from every angl'
and advances ideas that might b.
worth a great deal Of money tt
the section in the future In this
adticle we are told that nearly one
half of the land area Of the United
States, some 822 thousand acres
was originally forested with 81
hundred billion feet of timber boarc
measure. AS a result of our having
had timber in such an abundance
and the necessity of the early his
tory of our country of our having
to waste a lot of this timber in
clearing lands for crops, we have
become the greatest wasters of tim
Der of any civilized nation that ever
existed.
Before 1880, land clearing for
agriculture out-stripped numbering,
but since that time the demand for
| lumber has increased to the. extent
that great deal more land has
been logged than has been necessary
for farming. We have heard .ohe
expression that people were increas-
Il +hn
no more land was being added to
our available supply. This may or
NAV not have lead US to the con-
clusion that we should buy land
while it was available and get it
ready for agricultural use. AS
matter of fact, great deal OF the
land in the United States as above
indicated has been forest land and
is not now needed for agriculture.
In the article above referred to
we are told that Michigan has fifteen
and one half million acres of cut
over lands and that for the decade
between 1910 and 1920 only 50
thousand acres were developed into
farm land That the rate OF land
Improvement in Wisconsin between
1910 and 1920 fell off 81 per cent,
state now having more cut over
land than ever before. That at the
average rate of settlement during
the last 20 years in Michigan, $50
years would be required to settle
the present area of cut over land
and the remaining timber that will
soon be cut over.
The same is relatively true OF
other states that have had great
deal of timber and we should know
these facts in handling our own
forest problems. The intent of this
article is to prove that timber is
crop and that it can be economically
produced under right conditions just
as we are producing cotton and corn.
Our timber supply is being rapidly
exhausted and it looks as if the
price of lumber will get beyond the
ability of the poor man to buy. A
large percent of our people now own
land in South Mississippi, a great
deal of which is tinbered more or
less with trees that may have now
no commercial value, but which will
have a very high value later.
Evidently we should do everything
in our power to conserve these trees,
because we have practically enough
cultivated land already to grow our
crops, and even though it may be
necessary for new homesteads to
open up, it would be far better to
clear only the best agricultural
lands and to leave all the trees pos
sible on the other land, utilizing
this for pasture as well.
l am told that the timber for MAX
ing paper pulp is fast being ex-
finally the country as whole will
have to look to our section as its
source for pulp wood. Already
large investments have been made
in our state or near it in paper
factories and these seemingly are
making money and are enlarging
their capacity. We are told that
not only our pine trees are valu-
able source for this paper pulp, but
that the gum as we'll is very valu-
able for a different grade Of paper.
It would seem from this that not
only might we use our hill lands
for growing pines, but that our over
flowed lands would come into value
for their ability to grow gum
As we see it. our farmers have
carried too heavy a burden in the
past in waste lands, lands that not