50 PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION OF THE 



Prohlcnn in Forest Management. — The various prob- 

 lems of forest management were briefly discussed as they 

 came up under each regional description, but a few are of 

 particular importance and affect the whole State. The 

 State must deal with these through legislative action and 

 through an educational campaign. The most important 

 problems of forest management are: 



1. Forest fires. 



2. Grazing. 



3 . Turpentining. 



4. Waste in logging. 



5. Establishment and care of young tree stands. 



6. Assessments and taxation of timber lands. 



7. Management of tax and school lands. 



Forest Fires. — In Mississippi, as in other Gulf States, 

 the belief has long been prevalent that forest fires do 

 little damage except when buildings, fences and like prop- 

 erty are destroyed. This general indifference to fires is 

 probably the chief cause for the extensive annual burning 

 of the forests. The enormous loss caused by the boll 

 weevil is not greater than that from forest fires, nor is 

 the extermination of the cotton pest of more vital impor- 

 tance to the future wealth of Mississippi than the preven- 

 tion of such fires. 



At least 75 per cent of the woodland in Mississippi is 

 burned over once every year, and many localities are 

 burned over twice or more in one year. Fires are especially 

 prevalent in the longleaf pine belt where they are set in 

 order to expose the tender young grass with the idea in 

 improving the pasturage. As a mater of fact, however, 

 annual fires have almost caused the extermination of the 

 best forage grasses, and only the hardy wire grasses and 

 broom sedge of little value for pasturage, have been able to 

 survive. As long ago as 1850 Dr. Hillgard, State Geologist 

 at that time, in discussing pasturage in the pine woods, said : 

 "The beautiful, park-like slopes of the pine hills are being 

 converted into a smoking desert of pine trunks on whose 

 blackened soil the cattle seek more vainly every year the 



