MARKETING THE PRODUCT.

Inquiries concerning the market for basket willow rods are constantly received from persons who are considering the establishment of holts. Good rods of almost any variety can be sold, but some basket makers may have need of special varieties or grades, which can be grown with especial profit. Since many local growers find it convenient to sell their stock to near-by manufacturers, it is advisable, before planting, to ascertain from possible purchasers what stock they demand. Values vary, of course, in different parts of the country, and the proximity or remoteness of markets must be considered. So far the industry has been developed only locally, and for this reason the large markets are generally near the centers of production; yet there are basket and willow-furniture factories in nearly all the large cities. Makers of the best grades of baskets and furniture are particularly eager to get high-class stock in this country, for they thereby save the import duty on the kind of rods that are generally obtainable only from abroad. For this sort of material good prices prevail.

In preparing stock for market, the rods should be very carefully sorted, according to length, into four or five grades. The rods should be tied securely in bundles and then carefully crated, to prevent the breaking off of the top ends of the rods.

Upon application, the Forest Service, Washington, D. C., will furnish to willow growers the names and location of the manufacturers of willow ware nearest to them.

Approved:

JAMES WILSON, Secretary.

WASHINGTON, D. C., April 11, 1908.

[Cir. 148]

058 F7C

MAY 29 1908

Issued May 21, 1908.

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE,

FOREST SERVICE-Circular 149.

GIFFORD PINCHOT, Forester.

IN COOPERATION WITH THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, A. F. CRIDER, DIRECTOR.

CONDITION OF CUT-OVER LONGLEAF PINE LANDS IN MISSISSIPPI.

By

J. S. HOLMES, FOREST EXAMINER,

and

J. H. FOSTER, FOREST ASSISTANT,

FOREST SERVICE.

CONDITION OF CUT-OVER LONGLEAF PINE LANDS IN

MISSISSIPPI.

INTRODUCTION.

This circular is based on a study of the forest conditions of Mississippi recently made by the United States Forest Service in cooperation with the Mississippi State Geological Survey. It is supplementary to a preliminary report on the condition of cut-over lands in the longleaf pine regions of the State, and corrects and modifies a number of the statements made in that report.

THE LONGLEAF PINE INDUSTRY.

Originally all of the southern part of the State, except where hard woods held their own in the river bottoms, was covered by pure forests of longleaf pine, and for a long time it was practically untouched. The first settlement of the region took place chiefly along the fertile river bottoms. Even with the advent of the railroads lumbering did not, for many years, receive any great impetus, and all cutting was along and close to the main lines and streams. But under the recent great development of the lumber industry, the longleaf pine has been exploited on a gigantic scale. A few lumber companies, seeing the end of their resources already in sight, are reaching even into the most remote and inaccessible localities after a fast diminishing supply; for, at the present rate of cutting, the industry will not last a great many years longer, and even now it is centering in a comparatively few companies that have secured control of large holdings. Within a quarter of a century most of the companies now operating will have exhausted the material that must keep their mills running; some concerns, in fact, look forward to but a few years of operation, and only two companies, which have bought up all the standing timber they can get, claim that they have enough to last forty years. When these com

panies are forced to leave, it will mean severe loss to them and a hard blow to what is now the foremost industry of the region. To-day Mississippi ranks fifth among all of the States in lumber production, and third in yellow pine cut. In 1906 it produced 13 per cent of all the yellow pine in all of the States, or more than 13 billions of board feet.

WASTEFUL LUMBERING.

The situation would be critical even if it meant the exhaustion of a great natural resource through close utilization and by good methods of cutting. But inasmuch as cutting has been unusually severe and wasteful, and since fire almost invariably follows lumbering, more than half the longleaf pine land of the State has been converted into a blackened and barren waste. This means that over the larger part of the area there is little or no reproduction of the timber, which, when once gone, will not be replaced by a new growth which should now be coming on; and that immigration has not been fast enough to put the cleared lands under cultivation.