FOREST CONDITIONS OF MISSISSIPPI. 53 



which are set with a short-sighted purpose of improving the 

 pasturage. This is especially the case in the longleaf pine 

 region, in practically all parts of which the grazing of live- 

 stock is unrestricted by stock laws. Aside from the enor- 

 mous damage to the forest through the destruction of seed- 

 lings, injury to large trees, and impoverishment of the soil, 

 fires have steadily defeated the purpose for which they are 

 set, the improvement of range conditions, by killing out the 

 best forage plants and grasses. 



The grazing of live stock in the forest has a greater or 

 less influence on the reproduction of trees according to the 

 kind and amount of stock grazed and the type and char- 

 acter of the forest. In the longleaf pine belt cattle and 

 sheep do little damage to young growth. Hogs, on the 

 other hand, do a great deal of damage by eating the pine 

 nuts and the roots of seedlings and saplings. In the hard- 

 wood forest grazing does much less damage. Here, as in the 

 piney woods, hogs do the greatest injury by devouring the 

 seeds, as acorns, and by digging up the roots of seedlings 

 and saplings. On lands where dense canebrakes exist, hog 

 ranging is beneficial, since it reduces the cover of cane and 

 helps the young tree growth to get established. 



With the increased settlement of a region and the intro- 

 duction of more intensive methods of farming, it is usually 

 found necessary to require that live stock be kept within 

 enclosures. In most of the older agricultural parts of the 

 State stock laws have long been in force. At present it 

 would be a considerable burden on the farmers of southern 

 Mississippi to require that cattle be kept under fence, but the 

 restriction of hogs to fenced pasttires would cause less hard- 

 ship and would ultimately prove a benefit as a means of 

 eradicating infectious diseases. 



Turpentining. — Turpentining is nowhere extensively 

 practiced in Mississippi. Most of the companies which 

 control the greater part of the longleaf stumpage consider 

 it financially inadvisable for the following reasons: 



I . Boxed timber suffers greatly from fire, wind storms 

 and fungous and insect injury. In localities where all the 

 timber has been boxed, the average stand contains about 



