The Tree Farm system has grown steadily and rapidly in the South. Today, 34 million acres in this region are dedicated to the growth of a permanent tree crop.

(See Figure 13) There's hardly a

the chemical and petroleum industry combined.
community in the timbered regions of the South that has not had, at one time or
another, a forest products manufacturing plant as the main source of revenue to
keep that community alive.

What's happened to this Southern Pine industry since 1940? In 1940 the South manufactured 11 billion board feet of Southern Pine lumber a year. In 1960 pro

duction was almost down to half of that Figure 14)

6 billion board feet per year. (See

Industrial employment in the forest industry of the South was 639,000 in 1953. By 1959, after the full effects of the 1956 increase in the minimum wage were felt, the Blue Book of Southern Industrial Progress reports employment drop

ultimately will be a result of poor markets for forest crops.

The proper role of Government in this field, Mr. Chairman, lies not in duplication of the Agricultural Crop Subsidy program, but in providing This will permit the forest industry to compete knowledge through research. with substitute materials supplied by the giants in the petroleum, steel and aluminum fields. (See Figures 20 and 21)

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We don't have those giants in the

These are small businesses by comparison

unable

lumber business down South.
to finance the type of research program which is necessary to develop new pro-
ducts and better methods of manufacturing, which will make wood competitive with
those industries which are concentrated in the hands of relatively large producers

with tremendous financial resources available to them.

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Mr. Chairman, without a doubt, the greatest single need of the forest products for research and development to industry of the South today is for knowledge create new products which will permit the manufacturer to increase his profits and thereby permit payment of adequate stumpage prices to the private landowner. This will provide him with the incentive he must have to grow a crop of timber. This is the American way to meet the nation's demand for wood, to restore vigor to the forest products industry and at the same time, boost the economy of the

South.

We need a Forest Products Research Center to serve the productive forest region of the South, and we need it desperately. Mr. Chairman, we've made a small start. A small sum of money was appropriated for F.Y. 1963 to start a Forest Products Research Program in the South. However, no provisions have been made in the 1964 Budget to complete the buildings necessary to begin this activity. Is is our hope that one of the recommendations of this Committee for the long-range cure of a sick Southern lumber industry, will be for a greatly expanded Forest Products Utilization Research Program in the Deep South, designed primarily to serve the great timber producing region of the South.

when his trees reached merchantable size, is alarmed at what he sees.

(See

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and ask those of us who are in the business, "What does the future hold?" "Shall we look to the Federal Government for subsidies to grow trees we can't sell for a profit?" There must be some incentive which is meaningful to a private landowner to keep his land in a highly productive state, but we sincerely hope that this incentive does not take the form of subsidy payments.