The Augusta Courier

Plant And Grow Trees

The people of Georgia should plant and grow trees. Our forest products were our biggest cash crop in 1947. It brought in 123 million dollars.
We have today four and three-quarter million acres of forest land on which no marketable trees are growing. On these nearly 5 million acres there are scrub trees and just a few scattered useful trees growing. These nearly 5 million acres of land are unprofitable to the owners and yet they could very easily be planted in pine trees and grow a fortune for those who own the land.
In addition to being profitable to the individual owners these millions of acres would be growing wealth for the State if they were planted in pine trees.
Pine trees can be secured from the State Forestry Department at a very small fee and they can be planted for only a very small cost.
The beauty of planting pine trees now is that you can get enough money from the federal government to pay for most of the expenses of planting them. December is the time to plant pine trees and December is approaching. Every land owner in Georgia who owns a portion of these 5 million acres ought to write the State Department of Forestry today and make arrangements to plant every acre of these nearly 5 million untillable and unprofitable acres in pine trees.
When once planted all that is necessary is to keep fire out and day by day, year by year the crop will grow without the necessity of cultivation or the necessity of expensive fertilizer.
While this crop is growing it will also protect the land and keep the old hillsides from washing into the streams and washing away the soil we have left.
Georgia has a great opportunity with her commercial forest area. Today we stand second in the nation and if we ever get to the point where we use a little common sense in protecting our forest areas from fires and in the cutting and selling of our forest products, and planting all of our available acres Georgia will stand first and our forest products will be the biggest and greatest crop in Georgia right on.
Had it not been for our timber and turpentine products in Georgia this State would not now occupy this favorable financial position.
We have got a gold mine in our forests and whether we make it pay dividends depends upon the intelligence of our people. If we will only use the intelligence we have and plan for the future every man with timber land can keep a steady income coming in almost every year.
But we have got to use some sense. We have got to stop forest fires. We have got to stop the useless and senseless burning of this valuable crop. We have got to stop saw mill people and the pulp wood people from completely denuding the land. It is time that we leave some seed trees and keep our forest acres reseeded and replanted from year to year.
So far most of us have merely exploited our forest areas and given no thought to the future. We have not properly cared for our forest areas and have not intelligently planned for the future.
There is more gold in our forest and forest products in Georgia than will ever be mined out of the earth in all of the United States put together.
You would not throw away or burn up a gold mine. Your forest areas are just as valuable to you as a gold mine. So, it is foolish for you to burn up or throw away the gold mine which you have.
There is no point for the people of Georgia to look for a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. That is foolish. The thing that we should do is to look after, protect and care for the pot of gold that we have already.
And we have certainly got a pot of gold in our timber and turpentine products. The best insurance for Georgia's financial future is the planting and growing of trees.
Get ready to do some of it in December.