512 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



social conditions. All signs point to an 

 increasing settlement and expansion of 

 agriculture, but this process will be a 

 gradual one and not a rush for land. 

 From these facts two conclusions must 

 be drawn. 



First, there should probably be from 

 25 to 60% of the land in every pine 

 district in the South, devoted perma- 

 nently to growing timber, the more the 

 farther the land is from markets and 

 transportation and the poorer the soil. 

 Second, much of the land that will ulti- 

 mately be used for farming will not 

 be so used for 15 to 20 years and under 

 proper management much valuable tim- 

 ber could be grown on it in that time by 

 proper cutting of present stands. 



Who should be responsible for the 

 future of the southern timber crops? 

 Should the State governments acquire 

 lands for forest reserves and raise tim- 

 ber? Whatever the merits of this plan, 

 it will be difficult to carry out, because 

 of the fact that the forest on these lands 

 is not needed for protection of moun- 

 tain slopes or to prevent erosion, and 

 the State would use the land solely to 

 grow timber. There would be opposi- 

 tion to State reserves both because of 

 the doubt about the agricultural classi- 

 fication of such lands, and because of 

 the expense attached to their acquisi- 

 tion and management, which Southern 

 States are poorly equipped to meet. 



Small areas might be so acquired to 

 be used as demonstration forests for 

 the encouragement of private owners. 



But the future of the pine forests 

 of this region will lie with their present 

 owners, the lumberman and farmer, 

 and State legislation should be shaped 

 with this in view, to encourage owners 

 to grow timber by giving them proper 

 assistance in controlling fires, and by 

 equitable taxation of growing timber. 



There is a striking difference between 

 southern and northern pine in their re- 

 sistance to fire. White pine is killed 

 easily by fires even when mature. But 

 the three southern pines are all re- 

 markably fire resistant and the longleaf 

 pine has adapted its whole structure 

 and growth as a seedling to the primary 

 object of surviving ground fires. Prob- 

 ably not a single pine in the South has 

 ever grown to maturity without having 



survived repeated fires. Conditions in 

 these States make fires almost inevitable. 

 In spite of the abundant rainfall, the 

 late spring and summer months are 

 usually dry and fires burn readily. 

 These fires are set carelessly or pur- 

 posely to improve grazing which in most 

 sections is getting steadily poorer in 

 the woods. 



The effect of these fires upon the 

 forest has been deplored by foresters, 

 and the tendency seems to be to try to 

 pass laws modeled after those of North- 

 ern States, which seek to absolutely 

 prevent fire in the forests and establish 

 a system of fire wardens for this pur- 

 pose. But it is more than probable that 

 such a policy in the South would defeat 

 its own ends and should never be at- 

 tempted. It is the right policy for 

 Northern States, where fires can and 

 should be absolutely prevented. But 

 there is abundant evidence that the at- 

 tempt to keep fire entirely out of south- 

 ern pine lands might finally result in 

 complete destruction of the forests. 



On longleaf soils, the pine needless 

 form a very inflammable layer, which 

 is supplemented by the growth of grass 

 in open stands. In many districts, fire 

 runs over these lands every year. In 

 two or three years' time, if no fire 

 occurs, there will be enough of an ac- 

 cumulation to make a very hot blaze, 

 fatal to young seedlings in most cases. 

 The risk gets worse as the period ex- 

 tends till at the end of ten to fifteen 

 years, if fire is set in a dry time, the 

 mature longleaf timber may be killed. 

 This has actually occurred, though it 

 is so seldom that fires have been kept 

 out of such lands for more than a year 

 or two, that such destruction is very 

 rare. 



In Shortleaf pine forests, fire is much 

 less of a problem. The needles are 

 small and accumulate slowly. There is 

 more shade, less grass, and plenty of 

 hardwood growth whose leaves do not 

 burn with the heat and flame which 

 distinguishes a grass or pine needle fire. 

 Evidence from stumps of trees which 

 have been burned into shows that fires 

 occur in shortleaf at intervals of five 

 to eight years, instead of every year or 

 two, as in longleaf. Shortleaf seedlings 

 are very easily destroyed by fire. But 



