16 JOURNAL OI^ THE 



the leaves and trash pulled away from around them, 

 the forests were burned over to prevent, in a dry sea- 

 son, a chance conflag-ration o-ettino- from under control 

 and burnintr the faces of the turpentine boxes and the 

 timber. That this policy of burnin,i>' the barrens is a 

 very bad one and calculated to do far greater damag'e 

 than that immediately apparent has perhaps been made 

 evident. That sooner or later the present manag-e- 

 ment or lack of manag-ement which has characterized all 

 dealing's with the barrens for the past 140 years, must 

 be changed if the long- leaf pine forests are to be made 

 self-propagfating, no one who has ever seen their con- 

 dition, or fully realizes what it is, can possibly doubt. 

 The logical result of these burning's in the past has 

 been the destruction of millions of feet of standing pine 

 and the prevention of the gfrowth of young' trees; which, 

 had they started even 50 3^ears ago, would now be large 

 enough for small timber and turpentine trees ; while, 

 the burning-s of the present and future, if not soon dis- 

 continued, will mean the iinal extinction of the long 

 leaf pine in this State. 



NITRIFICATION. 



J. R. HARRIS. 



The chang-es which nitrog-enous organic matter, or 

 any form of nitrog-en, underg-o in nature in being con- 

 verted to nitric acid, or nitrates, is called nitrification. 

 Nitrog-en is one of the most abundant, and at the same 

 time most important, elements in nature. More than 



