Georg~~ IF.Sorestry . . . Page 1 GEORGIA FORESTRY LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Voll . No. 6 Editor: A monthly bulletin of timber market lnform~- tion and forestry news, published by the Ge?rgla Fire protection in timber lands is important, Department of Forestry, ~35 St~te Ca~ltol' provided: The county has an adequate forest Atlanta, Georgia, as a free publi~ serv~ce to fire protection system. Georgia Farmers, landowners, and timber indus- tries. Application for entry as second-class You will note that I used the word "adequate". matter is pending. It is better not to have the system if the fire -----------------------------------------Jfighting unit is below standard. The outfit MORE TIMBER PLANTS must be able to get to the fire in a matter of minutes instead of hours, and should know how to put out the fire after they get there. (Editorial from Thomasville Times Enterprise) At present the woods are deliberately burned Great progress is being made in the deve~op by the farmers each year. They realize, of ment of land in this state. It is not conf1nedcourse, that the fires do some damage, but where to any of the types that are regularly regarded the land is burned off each year the fires sweep as essential but has gone farther and broad:nedthrough in a hurry and the damage is not near so as to include the_ lan_ds th~t can be p~t Into so great as when the land has been kept free of service. Reforestation 1s a Simple expedient t fires for several years, and then have a forest double and triple the value of lands in a very fire. When a fire breaks out on timber where short time and at very 1 ittle cost. The other there have been no fires for several years, the movement is to protect the productive lands that grass and stubble are thick around the trees, we have in a manner that will also conserve which means the fire burns a long time around their value and at the same time increase their each of the trees, and instead of retarding the productive possibilities as well as their sale growth of the trees, it destroys them. Farmers price. Those two things will save the state realize this and rightfully think that it is from an inglorious continuation of unworthy and much better to have the growth of the trees re- careless treatment of our resources. tard ed than to have them destroyed completely. There are men in Georgia today who have de- 1 think that unless the county has a first veloped thousands of acres of timber and there rate fire fighting unit, it is much better to are other men who have taught and finally pre- continue burning off the woods each year. just vailed upon small farm owners to keep what they as they have been doing. have and not to allow the normal natural drain- age to wash the most fertile part of the farms The county, state, and Government should put down to the sea, which has been going on for up the money jointly for a first rate system of . years and which loss is evident to even a casual fire prevent ion. The county by itself cannot observer. Our now useless lands in forests and furnish the funds which will give adequate proour arable land kept fertile will mean many mil- teet iorl. lions of dollars to the state in years to come. SAWMILL SAVED FROM FIRE Timber Grower BY COWETA COUNTY RANGER E. P. Eubanks, Jr., Coweta County Ranger, and Patrolman Bradley carmichael suppressed a fire May 20th which was burning uncontrolleq near a sawmill site. There was not anyone present at the time and had the fire not been detected the mill and a tractor parked nearby in the woods would ha-.e burned. Page 2 GUM FARMER GOES ON THE RADIO Jim Romine, farm director of Radio Station WSB, Atlanta, interviews Clayton Brown, above, at Mr. Brown's farm near Valdosta. Here Mr. Romine was making a transcription for his morning 'Dixie Farm and Home Hour'. Page 3 THE MECHANICAL TREE PLANTER IS HERE TO STAY By L. C. HART , JR. down twice. (Possibly a dual-wheel or crawler- type tractor would correct this.) After making experimental plantings almost all over the state, we feel that the mechanical MITCHELL COUNTY--Conditions: Old field, Blan- tree planter is here to stay. ton sand. Remarks: very 1ittle brush or weeds. During January, February and March, 116; 725 Ideal planting ground for planter. slash and loblol~y pi~e s~edlings were machine- WILCOX COUNTY--Condition: Old field, sandy phloaunnte1.dn from Camilla 1n Gordon county, Mitdchell County to C.al an. from Commerce 1n 1oam. Remar ks.. Top soil and land very wet and soft tending to pile up in front of packing JTahceksseonseceodul1n.ntygs to Soperton 1n were planted .1nTraeuttoletnal County. of 312 man hours at an average cost of $3.25 per whee 1s. hours at c(o1s,t.,. 5o9f see dl"1ng s planted in $! .ll3 per thousand . ) H man thousand. MERIWETHER COUNTY--Condition: Sandy loam, old field with thick broomsage and small, very Right along with this trial planting by scattered pines. Remarks: Soil was very wet and mechanical means, we ran a check using hand had some trouble with plow running too deeply. labor with dibbles to plant a total of 17,200 coulter made planting possible. seedlings. This was done to get a comparative cost figure between the "old" and "new under COWETA COUNTY--Condition: clay to sandy loam similiar soil and weather conditions. It wasand fairly rocky, rolli'ng to steep. Remarks: found that hand labor for only 17,200 seedlings Planter would not operate on hard clay soi 1. took 191 man hours at an average cost of $7.00 Removed coulter and had better results. per thousand. FLOYD COUNTY--Condition: Allen-Jefferson The machine saved $3.6B per thousand seed- soil with very heavy ground cover of broomsage, lings which in this day and time is a rather vines and sumac. Remarks: Coulter and plow not important item. heavy enough for ground cover. Additional man had to ride coulter for added weight. But wait. A11 is not gold that glitters. Don't run all of your ~abor off the place and GORDON COUNTY--Condition: Gray, sandy loam. expect to depend entirely on the machine". Remarks: Has tendency to plow too shallow in It just won't work under some conditions. It i hard soil but too much weight undesirable in not the complete and final answer by a long soft ground. shot. Not any more than the first auto, or telephone, were the efficient machines we know JACKSON COUNTY--Condition: Cecil sandy loam, today. The mechanical tree planter is, however, no ground cover. Remarks: Planter worked per- a definite step in the right direction and un- fectly in this old field. doubtedly it can be classified as progress. CLARKE COUNTY--Conditio~: Cecil clay, badly Department of Forestry personnel, who made eroded and gullied. Remarks: Planted in red, the field checks, report as follows: washed, gullied sticky clay. Planter had to be lifted often to let tractor get started. The TRUETLEN COUNTY--Condition: Cut-over area tractor used was too light for these conditions. with stumps present and sound. Remarks: Impos- Where clay was wet and sticky, packing wheels sible to plant except where stumps widely spac- picked up clay and left seedlings out of the ed. Rear wheels would run over seedlings when ground sharp turns made. Soft, boggy packing wheels making it necessary + land clogged to stop fre- -CL-AR-KE-C-O-UN-T-Y---c-on-dit-io-n: -C-ec-il-c-la-y,-s-om-e quently and unclog them. *Mr. Hart is assistant director of the State Department of Forestry. He is in TRUETLEN COUNTY-Condition: Old field, sandycharAe of manaAement and nursery acti.vloam. Remarks: Land very wet. Tractor bogged ities. 'Page sand and gravel. Rolling to steep. Remarks: does not function too well. Enough sand and gravel to prevent clay from S. ln areas where the machine will operate, sticking on packing wheels. Slopes did not it will definitely set out more trees for less bother machine. money than the old "by hand" method. That is the way it went. we don't think we aot ' nough samples t o be able to draw a fine The department personnel using the machine in 1ne as t> what the planter wi 11 or wi 11 not do the experiments had litt~e or no prev io us exbut what we have found leads us to some pretty perience. As we wanted to get it around over the obvious concl usions. state as quickly as possible, they hardly had time to become proficient in its use before it 1. Under certain conditions the planter op- was turned over to another green hand " for him erates extremely well. to use . Reports from people who have long and 2. Almost any type tractor will handle the continuous experience with similar machines re- planter unde~ the~ condi.tions . port plantings of 12 to 13 thousand per J. BY a 1 1ttle 1ngenu1ty and more power the day and one enthusiast reports up to 16 thou sand plan ter can be made to operate in most all con- per day. di tions. ~. In very sticky mud a11d in areas where l ot As this is the first year the department has of stumps and rocks are present, the mac hine (Continued on Page 10) WW COST REFORESTATION WITH MECHANICAL PLANTER Forest tree seedlinAs may be planted at a saving of at least $3 .00 per thousand by using the mechanical planter pictured above. The machine is successfUl under ce~ tain condit ions, such as the field shown where the soil is not too wet and sticky, and where ground cover is not too heavy. Page 5 MIDDLE GEORGIA FORESTRY CLUB MEETS AT MACON lElGHT COUNTIES FORM KEEP GREEN COUNCILS The Middle Georgia Forestry Club held itsDURING MONTH OF MAY regular meeting at the Bell House Restaurant in Macon, May 26. Ed Knapp, chairman for this meet- The month of May proved to be a record month ing, presented 1. F. (cap) Eldridge who was the for the Keep Georgia Green movement. Eight more speaker for the occasion. county Keep Green councils were formed, accord- ing to L. H. Edmondson, director. Graduate foresters and their guests attended. These foresters are from various industries and. Gradually blanketing the state, the program agencies in Macon and vicinity. IS expected to be established in a total if 211 counties before the end of this month. The pro- Since Macon has become on.e of the forestry ~ect, designed to acquaint the public with the centers of the south and has a considerable Importance of Georgia's forest resources, is benumber of foresters working in the vicinity, i~g sponsoreJ by the Georgia Forestry Associa- the Club was formed to get these foresters to-t Ion. gether in fellowship rather than in business. In this way, better understanding can be crea- Counties organizing during May include: Glas- ted, and seemingly difficult problems can be cock, Lyons, Terrell, Coffee, Houston, Murray, more easily ironed out. Jeff Davis, and Gilmer. Scheduled for organiza- tion this month are Dougherty, Greene, Cheiokee, The only permanent office is that of sec-Schley, and Paulding. retary, which is held by the forester in charge of the Macon District Office. That office has HERE IS WHY FIRE FIGHTERS the knowledge and facilities to carry out the secretarial duties of the club. GET GRAY-HAIRED EARLY Present members of the Club are: Charles M. Everett of the Jeffreys-McElreath Manufacturing Recently the Spalding County Forest Fire unit Company; Robert L. Mosely of Forestry Equipment detected smoke in the north-ern section of the Company; J. D. Fountain and William Oppenheim :ounty. On ~rriving, the crew found a man burn- of Armstrong Cork company; E. T. Newsome, N. R. 1ng around h1s barn and seeming to have the fire Harding, John Gill, Buck Stables, John F. sisleyunder control. E. R. Turner, and H. B. Methias of the Macon One member of the crew noticed smoke coming Kraft Company; v. J. Kuzmitz with International out of the barn and asked the man if he was Paper Company, Philips. Blanks and c. B. Jones smoking meat in the barn. The man said no that of the Georgia Department of Forestry; R. Bruc the smoke had just settled there. The crew mem- MacGregor with southern Pine Association; G. E. ber, not being satisfied, decided to investigate Knapp who is a producer for Macon Kraft company; the fi~e and .found that the barn was on fire. E. v. Brender with the Hitchiti Experiment sta-In hear1ng this, the owner suddenly turned very tion; Mr. Ambrossin with Piedmont Wildlife Ref-'pale and started running toward the house. uge and R. Margolis with Piedmont Land Use project. The fire crew, not understanding his actions, proceeded to go about putting tbe fire out. Af- FOREST FIRE UNIT PRAISED ter this was a:omple.ted, they noticed that the man was in his house looking out the door. When they notified him that the fire was out, he came out of the house and explained why he had sud- Representative farmers, together with civic denly left the fire and run for the house. and business leaders, appeared before the Ware County Conmissioners and commended the commiss- It seems that a large amount of dynamite was ion for providing county-wide forest fire pr stored in the barn near where the fire was burn- tection during the past year. ing. c Page 6 FORESTRY CAMP IS HELD FOR GEORGIA ~-H BOYS GEORGIA SEEDLING NURSERIES WILL LEAD OTHER STATES The fourth annual forestry camp for Georgia Production of forest tree seedlings at Geor- ~-H bdys was held May 31-June 5 at the Laura gia 's state owned nurseries will be almost Walker State Park near waycross. twice as great as other lead in g states i n the th . Approximately 90 boys representing 33 coun- ties participated- The brief but intensive Florida, Louisiana , and South Carolina are training covered fire control , reforestation, shooting for 25 million each. Georgia' s goal i~ growing forest products) and harvestin g and~~illion. market ing forest products. Estimated production in other states follows: Alabama , 19,199,000; Arkansas, 107 150,000; MisSponsors in cooperation with the Georgia sissippi, 19,500,000; North carolina, 9,160,000; Extension Service were the Union Bag and Paper Oklahoma, 1,500 ,000; Tennessee, ~.ooo ooo; Texas Corp., Savannah, and Brunswi ck Pulp and Paper 19,500,000, and virginia, 3,000,000. corp., Brunswi ck. The camp was directed by R. Ri chardson. assistant state ~-H c lub leader, and Herbe rt Carruth, extens ion service fo reste DECA TU R COUNTY PLANNING The State Forestry Department provided four FOR FOREST FIRE PROTECTION instructors. They were A.H. Antonie, J. c . Turner, Jr., J. W. Corbin, and Guyton Deloach . Extension service instruct ors included Dorsey Dyer and L. A. Hargreaves, Jr. Planning for forest fire control for Decatur ounty is underway, and after the organization begins operating July 1 it will have three fully equippeP truc ks , towers and two-way radio , asGpetoevSragakeerv.11ar.eosruGaslwreaeopsncrocLmap.srHi1on..ogenrnEastdmmdG.ounerdo1.srngogina,nthsde1.ardwedecretekos. sreodOfneththeoef boys the Kee cGo. uMnT.thyeLf.1fovo.r11en1sgotswrtoy1nn,gboaahnraddv:eH.Gb.Gee.Mn.BaCeplolpc,oh1ornafnt,eBdac.1htnaob.1rr1.mtdhagnee,, J. J. Lester of Amsterdam, and Paul H. Trulock , Mr. Edmondson offered a $25 pri ze to the cam- of C1 i max. per making the most outstanding record during the week. This resulted in a tie between Rip o nero to burn up brush and forest at Darden, of Troup County, and Frank Tatum of Ter- the .arne time. Take care and see that rell count y. onl y the brush burns. ntt,cttc,;sfiDumet:ntine was reduced from 6!1-.5 to 11-0 cents a persons who are authorities report excellent gallon bulk. Revised prices were announced June survival on large plantings running as high as 7 by the Department of A g ric u 1 t u re. 95 per cent in sorre cases. In some longleaf plantings in Alabama and Mississippi the ?urvi- The American Turpentine Farmers Association val of seedlings planted by machine has had asked that the price be lowered not less far exceeded the "by hand" method, getting as than 11-5 cents. high as 85 per cent, which for longleaf is exce~ lent. The rate for rosin was increased from $7.09 to $7.97 per 100 pounds, on K grade. A support Advice? well, it is new to us, too. Under level for a gum naval stores production unit of certain conditions, we intend to use it on state 50 gallons of turpentine and 1,11-00 pounds of K owned land and on other conditions we will be grade rosin remained unchanged at $131.58. forced to plant by hand just like you. Meanwhile, it was reported that production of THE COVER PHOTO naval stores in Georgia last year was approxi- The mechanical tree planter in operamately equal to that of the rest of the world. tion is pictured on the cover of Georgia Fast growing timber is Georgia's most val- ForeS