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R E t R V ~t March ,195 1
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Mop-up Crew at Work
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Cruisi ng the Nev.ts
Milestone for a Great Industry
Vol. I I
GEORGIA FORESTRY
March , I 9'SR
No. 3
(From the Maco n Teleg ra ph )
Published Monthly by the
Al ong with Ame rican F orest Products. Inc., we h~il
the 350th ann ive r sary of the Southern pwe lumber In -
dustry, which i s a mainstay of Southern economy . The industry traces its origin to 1608 when the s ett-
GEORGIA FORESTRY COMMISSiON Box 1183
Maeon, Georgia
Guyt on DeL oach , Dinctor
ler s of Jame s t' o wn fir s t fa shioned crude lumb e r fro m the
vast pine forests of Virginia. Since that d ay, Southern mi lls have turn ed out more than a trillion b oard fe e t of
Members, Board of Commissioners:
C. M. Jord an, J r ., Cha irma n Sam H. Morgan
Alamo Savannah
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l umber . Not many year s ago clear cutting of fore s t s in Geor-
Oscar S. Garri son H. 0. Cummings
Homer Donalsonville
gia and other Southern states showed ruth less disre-
John M. McElrath,
Macon
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gard for the future of our pine forests , and th ere were those who said the lumber business in the South would
Georgia Forestry is entered as second class matter at the Post Office under the Act of August 24, 1912.
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be finished by 1930. Fortunately for our economy, th ere were fa r-sight e d
Member of the Georgia Press Association.
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ones whose conservation ideals prevailed, and today , according to the U. S. Forest Service, the South i s
EDITOR
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Frank Craven
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growing 22 per cent more pines than it is cuttin g . Improvements in forest management, in manufactur-
STAFF ARTIST ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Dan Voss Bill Kellam,J o hn C urrie ,
Rip Fo ntaine
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ing pratices, and advances in technology are the key
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factors in the Southern pine lumber picture. Debarking and chipping machinery is coming into common usage,
DISTRICT OFFICES, GEORGIA FORESTRY COMMISSION:
bringing a sharp reduction in the volume of waste cus-
DISTRICT 1- Route 2,
DISTRICT VI- P. 0. Box 505,
tomary with the old-fashioned sawmill, which had to find a ''sawset" in order to trade with a farmer who had timber for sale. Latest reports of American Forest Products, Inc., which sponsors the program, say seven
Statesboro DISTRICT 11- P. 0 . Box 261
Camilla DISTRIOT 111- P. 0. Box 169,
Americus
Milledgeville
DISTRICT VII- Route l,
Rome
DISTRICT VIII- P. 0. Box 1160, Waycross
of the 10 top states in tree farm acreage are in the
DISTRICT IV- P . 0. Box 333, DISTRICT IX - P. 0 . Box 416,
South. Georgia, Alabama and F lorida lead. We are proud of Georgia' s progress in timber manage-
ment and proud of the outstanding record of firsts our
Newnan DISTRICT V- P . 0 . Box 328,
McRae
Gainesville DISTRICT X-Route 3,
Washington
state has achieved in forestry as the Georgia Forestry
Commission has pushed for better fire control, s eedling production, forest management, breeding of s u-
Protect Our Timber
perior trees and a general program of keeping Georg ia green.
(From the Bartow He rald) We legislate so much a nd in so man y way s it i s hard
Forests Produce Half Capacity
(From the Atlanta journal)
to tell just what we should do in many in s t ances , but in the matter of hunting, which is, perhaps the most satisfying past-time enjoyed by those who like to get
A recent survey of Georgia's biggest industry-fore s t
out in the open, there should be for every person an
products-brought re s ults th at are by no means reas s ur-
unwritten code of courtesy and fairness to guide their
ing. The survey revealed that fore s ts in thi s state a re actions.
producing les s th an half of their capa city.
lt ha s become increasingly feasible for land owners
Thi s dis maying si tu ation mo v ed th e Georgia Agri- to po s t their l a n ds in or d er to protect their hunting ri g hts
c ultura l Ex t e n sion Se rvice t o imm ed i a t e a ctio n. T h e
a nd for caution again s t fire in the wooded areas.
Extens ion Service, in coopera ti on with the Agri c ultura l
Not many sport s me n would deliberatel y set fire t o a
Committee of the Georgia Bankers Assn., has set i n heavi ly wooded a rea nor ma l icious ly do a nything to
mot ion a six-poin t management progra m that g i ves prom-
cause damage or des truction of va luab l e ti mb e r. But
ise of bettering a bad si tuatiOn.
without thin king abo ut th e seriou s ness of con sequen ces ,
If lan down e r s carry out only one or t wo of the basic: a match i s careless l y thrown on t he g roun d, onl y to
six steps, great benefits are certain to follow.
ignite a wisp of g r ass wh i ch wo uld qui c kl y s pr e a d
Among the s teps proposed are wise selling practices,
flames over a large a rea.
ti mber stand i mprovement, reforestation and control of
It wou ld be hard to estimat e the destruction of wood-
fi res.
land through carelessness in dollars a nd cents, and it
Georgia has 24,000 ,000 acres of fo restlands, a vast resource th at 1n on e way or an other a ffect 3 the fo rt unes of every ci tizen.
seems a pi ty t h at everyo ne wh o goes a fi e l d is not conscious of the part they play in preserving timber whi ch is one of our finest resources.
The state cannot afford slipshod me thods of forestry
We ca n do no bett er, as the n ew yea r ge t s un de rway ,
management. Wasteful procedures mean loss of money.
than to consider it a persona l obligation to play our
.It i s the duty of every Georgi an to len d a hand in the pa rt in th e ri g ht ful preserva tion o f th e trees which h ave
s ix-po int pwgram, so our billions of trees produce maxi- brought to th e South a prosperity which should be care-
mu m profits.
fully gua rded and tended.
Clark.e, 1/an/drzso n, McComb, Thacker cbeck fi nal draft
GFC Handbook Standardizes Forest Management Practices
A handbook just issued by the Georgia Forestry Commission has standardized a ll forest management work performed by state forester s, Director Guyton DeLoach announced.
Drawn up by GFC .\1anagement Chief W. H. McComb and staff, the handbook outlines man agement duties of all personne l from ranger to management chief. The booklet sets up achievement goals for all personnel and gives explicit ins truction s on their accomplishment.
Previously there had been no formal state-wide standardization of management procedures. A s teady s tream of memos from Macon had set policy from year to year. The booklet consolidates and brings these memos up-to -date on a state-wide basis and includes new information.
This s tandardization enables management personnel to be transferred from one district to another without
requiring special training, which would be necessary i f the procedures were not uniform.
District personnel assist ed in the production of the booklet by reading a nd cri ticizing th e first draft. Their suggestions, which were based on their experiences in1 the field, were then considered by the headquarters s taff and the final draft was published.
The booklet contain s the history of the management department, a personnel organization chart and duty list, case handling procedure, forest measurement tables a nd sa mple s of fo rms; lists the managemen t services available and explains hardwood control services and
office procedure. McC omb sai d the booklet is deta iled eno u gh to cover
a lmos t any situation which may arise in th e field. It will be publish ed in loose leaf form so that any section or page may be replaced with the latest information .
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Big field fire proves harrow can cut original breaks
New Harrow Keeps Fire Breaks Clean
The Army may have its rocket inventors, but the Geor-
gia Forestry Commission has Rangers J. C. Bowen of
Ben Hill and Shelton ~.fcWhorter of Wilcox Counties.
Bowen and McWhorter put their craniums together recently to give birth to a new fire break maintenance harrow. For a long time the lads had been looking for a way to keep fire breaks fire proof after a season of debris had drifted across them. They came up with the harrow.
It is actually a farm maintenance harrow mounted on wheels. The harrow is raised and lowered with a specially-made hydraulic lift which has a longer stroke than the conventional fire plow lift.
The new harrow, which is easily maintained and ts
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highly maneuverable, can be loaded quickly onto transport trucks with the tractor. Having less resist ance from the ground when in use, it can be used at a higher speed than the fire plow.
Bowen pointed out that the harrow does not make a trench of the fire breaks as a second plowing often does. The harrow cuts up the ground and fuel but leaves the soil level.
The harrow already has paid off in Ben Hill County. On the day a Forestry Commission photographer dropped by to see the machine, a field fire got away from the persons tending it. The harrow was dispatched to the scene where it cut up the field beautifully with wide breaks and stopped the fire.
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) ormg inliC'IJtor e\plains h)draulic s vst em
F.d /~er els cuts 11/' uith harrou
T his is t he way we wash our logs
German Sawmill
Uses Whole Tree
" Who le T r ee or No thi ng" is the motto of the H. V. and T . G. Thomp s on German sawmill in Mo ntgomery County nea r Mt. Ve rnon.
The Thompsons waste no part of the tree in thei r operati on. Even the tree tops, which ma ny lum bermen le ave in th e fores t , are brough t in , debarked and conve rted t o wood chips . Income fro m wood chips , they said, is putti ng them in the chips .
The recent mechanizing of the sawmill operation has re duced huma n ha nd l ing of the l ogs to a mi nimum , sa i d the Thompsons..
From the y ard, the logs are put on a c onve ye r which carries them through a was hing process . Th e ba th washes and l u bricate s the log s a nd keeps the convey er chains clean.
The c onvey er propel s the logs through th e d ebarker. Thi s sends them into the mill where a carriage carries them through a band saw. The band saw cut s them into cant s. Wa ste material is forwa rde d to the chipper . The cant is conveyed to the live cant deck, where the gang saw rips them into boards .
The boards are transferred to an edger which s1zes ~he m up into the desi re d width. .A sh adow line on t he Intake t able en a bl es the ope rator to fee d the board s into the edg er properly . The wa s t e mat e rial fr om t his proce ss i s carri ed by c onve yor to the chippe r.
The lumber is now conveyed next to a double-end tri mme r and i nto a s pr ay of anti - s tai n solution . T he fini s hed product is then c arri ed to the yard for s t ac king .
The mill has been in oper ation for th e pas t 50 ye ars. It ha s a daily output of approxima t e ly 35 to 50,000 fee t of lumber and t wo to three c a r lo ads of chips .
0 ut of the de bark er Gang saw cuts can t int o boards
T hrough t he band s aw
Krueger explains duplicator to Research Council Chief Frank Albert
Fire Center
Boasts Own
Weather Seer
Dan Krueger isn ' t making small talk when he chats about the weather at the Macon Fore s t Fire Research Center.
Far from it . He IS the weather man. This U. S. Weather Bureau veteran is no w issuing daily forest fire weather information to aid Georgians in their never-ending battle against costly woods blazes. The forecasts are passed on to Georgia Forestry Commission personnel throughout the state over the Commission's radio network. Krueger will issue these reports until the end of the present forest fire season. Then '1e will take to the road to train Georgia Forestry Commission per s onnel in the complete utili zation of the weather information. That chore completed, Krueger will work on .. . forest fire research projects, including a study of the relationship between the weather an d blowup forest fire conditions before they occur. The weather forecasting service is sponsored by the Forestry Commission, the Weather Bureau, the Southeastern Forest Experiment Sta- ' tion of the U. S. Fore~t Service and the Georgia Forest Research Council. Krueger analyzes weather information from . throughout the orth American continent and surrounding oceans to obtain his Georgia forecasts. A facsimile machine reproduces weather maps which show surface conditions on this continent every six hours. It also transmits upper air maps every 12 hours which show wind direction , and velocity, pressure, temperature and humidity at 5,000, 10,000, 18,000 and 32,000 feet. Two teletype machines provide complete weather reports every hour from more than 100 lo cations in the Eastern United States. Upper air observations from forecast centers throughout the nation are received every six hours. Krueger has been with the Wea ther Bureau since 1940. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin and received a master of science A degre e from the University of Chicago in 1957. He came to .Macon in January from .Minneapolis, Min n.
Strickland, Davis greet customers with seedlings
Partridge s igns forester of tomorrow
Augusta Department Store Salutes Forestry
Thousands of Georgians and neighboring South Carolinians flocked to the recent "Salute to Forestry" staged by the ] . B. White Dept. Store in Augusta in conjunction with its semi -annual "Woman's Day" Sale.
Georgia Forestry Commission and S. C. State Commission of Forestry personnel assisted ] . B. White employees in the two-clay event which featured forestry and merchandise displays in 75 departments of the stor:e.
Richmond County Forest Ranger T. M. Strickland, ] . B. White, Manager Fred Bostrum, Display Manager R. L. Davis and Mrs. Mary Hooker, Woman's Day president, engineered the event, which included a personal appearance by Smokey Himself the Bear and the presentation of 5,000 pine seedlings to store visitors. Bostrum furnished the pine trees and boughs ffor the store
-wide decorations from his farm in Columbia County. Augusta area youngsters who dropped in were signed
up as ] unior Forest Rangers by Wilkes Ranger T. H. Bullard, Lincoln Ranger William Partridge, Columbia Ranger Lonnie ~.1orris, Burke Ranger Charlie Claxton and Aiken, S. C., County Ranger Ramie Yonce.
The store management pres ented five-pound boxes of candy to 'Happy Hill' of Housewares and to ;,Jr s . C l a ra Bedingfield of the Ladies Sportswear Department for constructing the displays which bes t illus trated th e forestry theme.
The event was widely adverti s ed in Au g us ta n ews papers and on local radio s tation s . The Augu s t a <::hronicle-Herald hailed fore s try progress in the Central Savannah River Area on the prec eding Sun day in it s news feature section.
ll' hmers sample prize
.\Irs . B edingfi e ld admir C's t rof,IJy
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ItA Otilrttl ConRienlt#l
Heinz 57 Varieties have nothing on the men of the Eighth District. From the beep beep in the radio shack to the sewing table of the taxidermist, you'll find the men of the Eighth.
Heading this array of foresters is George Lavinder. George has many str,enuous duties that keep Secretary Lawrence Osburn working around the clock-such as keeping records for an alligator safari into the Okefenokee or the number of fish plowed up on a fire break expedition. Then, there are the 440 dashes that have been abandoned for the convenience of water skis.
Lawrence is busy with his own problems. He is the ?nly bachelor in the office. This might explain why he Is ac~~sed by ~is cohorts of going on timber cruising expeditions at mght.
The sun comes over the horizon, the bugle is sounded, the dogs bark and ] ohnny Hickox is off on another fox
hunt. ] ohn is district office tractor operator by profession.
The newest member of the Eighth is Fire Control Assistant ] ohn Stokes. ] ohn spends his spare time hunting empty bottles and catching snakes. The empty bottles serve to fill empty pockets.
The oldest of the Braganza clan is District Ranger B. S. Booth. He has been with the Commission for 18 years, 16 at Waycross. B. S. leaves all the big game hunting to the younger set. However, he does like to slip off into the swamp for a little fishing.
Eighth District Radio Technician N. L. Raulerson is hidden in the back room. An avid ''ham," he keeps track of all the Sputniks, Whutniks and have nots.
Stuffing the Eighth District into one package is Man-
agement Forester Hank Williams, Jr. A taxidermist by
hobby, Ha nk snares four-footed and no-footed critters for hi s mantle displays .
'\tokes ;u'ut<; the hunt
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Booth and Osburn prefer t o build 'em
Williams s tu!Js t he res ult s
Meriwether SchOol Forest
County Unit Aids FFA Program
Forest g ets s tart under the direction of Cook, second from left, Orr, far right
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Meriwether County's first school forest program got underway recently with the planting of a three-acre tract of loblolly pine by members of the Greenville High School Future Farmers of America. The forest is on school property just outside Greenville on the LaGrange Highway.
The FF A School Forest Program, under the directi on
of ] . R. Cook, vocation al agriculture teacher, will undertake such projects as hardwood control and management work on some 300 acres of land.
Meriwether County Forest Ranger Ernest Orr observed the initial planting of the pines. He will conduct management classes, teaching thinning and directing a fence post demonstration with eight to ten varieties of trees. Oak, gum, cedar, locust and poplar a re some of the species which will be grown to test their possibilities as fence posts.
Orr said the thinning project would not be undertaken at present because of th e heavy cutting that was done in :he area several years ~go.
Cecil Spalding, chairman of the school fore s t board,
.nd H.D. Harri s on, Greenville High Scho ol principal, are 1iding Cook and Orr in conducting the program.
Orr g iv es instruction un hardu ood con tr ol
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Southern Pines Bring Wealth to East Africa
Southern Pine, a vital cog in the economy of the
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South, is extending its value to the forests of Kenya, British East Africa.
Ken Sargent, Division Forest Officer in the British
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Coloni al Forest Service, stated on a recent visit here
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that the economy of Kenya is growing around the estab-
lishment of the Southern Pine.
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Sargent says at present there are 150,000 acres
planted in pine with an additional 350,000 acres planned
for p lanting in the future. The pines, of which lob-
lolly and slash are the principal species, are being used
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to meet internal and export requirements.
In his visit with the Georgia Forestry Commission in
Febru ary, Sargent visited the Experimental Forest in
Cordele and the Hitchiti Experimenta l Forest near
Macon. He said he was impre ssed by the highly mechan-
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ized methods used in cone curing and se ed extraction, and by the methods of natural pine regeneration being
Sarge nt, left, Darb y check '58 crop of pine seeds
practice d in Georgia forests. In Kenya, all work is
done by hand. Regeneration is done artificially.
Sargent, who is in this country for one year under the
In Kenya , Sargent not only has the administrative con-
spon sorship of the Commonwealth Fund of New York, is
trol of all forest operations, but he is also responsible
studying administration operation; plantation, water shed
for the he a lth and education of all the natives in his
and range management; nursery work; fire control and
territory. This area covers 80,000 square miles.
public relations.
Fingerprinting of C ommission Personnel Completed
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Fingerprints of approximately 1,000 Georgia Forestry
Commission employees are now classified and filed with
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the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, GFC Chief Inves-
tigator Bob Gore announced.
According to GBI '.faj. Delma r Jones, the print s will
help Commission investigators in probes of thefts and
illegal entries of Commission property. Having the
print s already on fil e wi ll e nab le GB I experts Emme tt
~finehe w and \fiss '.fary Blackmon to compare them
quickly with latent prints left at the scene of the crime.
The GBI assists Forestry Commission investiga tors
by making avail able laboratory facilities, giving tech-
ni cal advice and checking, clas s ifying and filing prints.
Chief Gore said tha t the success of the Forestry Com-
mission Law Enforcement Department can be attributed,
in part, to th e assistance of th e G BI.
,\fajor J o n es, ,\finchell', G ore, and L t Rar;,s dale check loups and tl'horls of G PC e mployees L
Logging the foresters ...
EQUIPMENT DEVELOPME T PUSHED... A section for forest equipment development has been established in the Region 8, USFS, office in Atlanta under the direction of George K. Schaeffer. The section will obt ain, analyze and pass on information on the development and improvement of all types of forestry equipment. Too often in the past, USFS officials said, good ideas have not been spread quickly enough for foresters throughout the Southeast to benefit at once.
GAIR OFFERS SCHOLARSHIPS... Gair Woodlands Corp., Savannah, will continue its scholarship program of annu ally providing two $2,000 forestry scholarships. Application forms and information concerning the schollarsh ips may be obtained from the local high school principals or vocational agriculture teachers. The com pleted application must be submitted to the local high school principals not later than April 1.
OUT FOR BLOOD.. .It's official now in the Tenth District - they won't be satisfied till they've got your blood. That is, if it's the correct type. All Forestry Commission personnel have had their blood typed so they can donate it if fellow employees need it. The boys hope, of course, that no one will ever be seriously ill or injured enough to need it. But they 're ready.
'Sno joke in De Kalb .. . .. Forest Ranger Ge orge L y on of D e catur paus ed for an unusual pose. in th e midst of a prescr ibed burn in De Kalb Count y . See ms there was still a little snow left in shady spots after the big Februar y fr ee ze .
PAGING RANDOLPH SCOTT... A recent outbreak of deliberately-set woods fires moved the Ben Hill County Forestry Board to offer $ 100 ' bounty' for information leading to the arrest of the incendiarists. Two of the fires were set on windy days and considerable timber was lost before Ranger J. C. Bowen ' s unit could halt the fl ames . Consequently, the forestry board moved quickly to halt the needless damag e to the county's valuable timberland.
OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS ...Dr. L. A. Hargreaves , Jr., assistant director of the Forestry Commission, spoke to the senior class of the Peabody School of Forestry at the University in Athens recently. 'Doc'' explained to the soon-to-be foresters the organization and operation of the Forestry Commission and interviewed those who are interested in joining the Commission upon their June graduation.
DIXIE GOES NORTH ... W. E. 'Dixie ' Howell , well-known to Ge orgia foresters for his fire protection work with the Region 8 office of the U. S. F orest Service in Atlanta, has gone 'north.' Howell is now based in Asheville
~ C., as Assistant Forest Supervisor of the North Car;.
lma F orests. Allen J. Logan , fo rmer a ssistant forest supervisor of the Cherokee National Forest in Tennessee, h as replaced ' Dixie ' i n Atlanta.
Eh, What's th i s ? .... Em anuel Count y Ranger Leon Ray, left , and G. B . Kea inspect a new product from Georgia pines- ice. The inch-thick cubes formed during the recent big freeze.
Hot time in Gwinnett . . .. Dispatcher Glenn Edwards did the patrol work and Gwinnett Ranger Ra y Thom as the plowing at a recent fire near Fiv e Forks which was caused by a pulpwood crew's careless ness. Prompt action stopped the fire before it burned any valuable timber.
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Georgia
MARCH,1958
fJJrere d as set.und class marra ~ rhe Pose Office, Maceo , Georgia.
"Mopping-up" is important!
MAKE SURE THE FIRE IS OUT!!
MISS PAULlllE 11RIFFIN
RESOURCE 11ATFJU.ALS liPBCIALIST MATERIALS CFNTF..R
GEORGIA CBrl'ER FOR CONTIHUINO ED. 1fl'HRNS, (1R0Rf1TA