18 PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION OF THE 



increase of sunlight, the growth of the remaining trees 

 was greatly accelerated. 



Fires are less prevalent in the western part of this 

 region than in the eastern part. This is probably due to 

 the fact that the former is more thickly settled than the 

 latter. Wherever stock laws are enforced, and where there 

 are many farms interspersed with woodland, fires are not 

 apt to be so prevalent as in sections where opposite con- 

 ditions prevail. Farmers are usually opposed to burning 

 the woods where there is risk of destroying fences and 

 buildings. When stock is allowed to graze through the 

 open woods people are more apt to set out fires for the 

 supposed improvement of the range. Throughout the 

 region, however, there are many fires each year, especially 

 in September, October and November. 



Fires hinder the establishment and growth of tree seed- 

 lings, and thus cause direct loss to the owners of much of 

 the poor hill land, which can grow good stands of short- 

 leaf pine. They also impoverish the soil by destroying 

 the humus. 



2. Black Prairie Region. — The Black Prairie region is a 

 strip of country varying in width from about twelve 

 miles on the Tennessee border to about twenty-five miles 

 where it passes into Alabama. It extends in a southeast- 

 erly direction from the Tennessee border in Alcorn County 

 along the basin of the Tombigbee River, and enters Ala- 

 bama through Noxubee and northeastern Kemper Coun- 

 ties. The region is bordered on the west by the Pontotoc 

 Ridge and the flatwoods, and on the east by the sandy, 

 rolling and hilly country of the Northeastern Hill region. 

 The surface of the Black Prairie region is generally level 

 or slightly undulating. The prairies proper form belts 

 with a more or less north and south direction, and are 

 interspersed with narrow hilly tracts on which the soil is 

 light and pale and as a rule very poor. 



Very little of the hill land is in cultivation, btit it is 

 usually covered with blackjack, post and Spanish oaks, 

 which are indicative of poor soil. These oaks are short 

 and scrubby, and seldom attain saw-timber dimensions. 



