FOREST CONDITIONS OF MISSISSIPPI. 55 



profitably logged afterwards. These young trees are 

 checked in growth and so weakened that they soon die 

 or are blown down. Great tracts of cut-over pine lands 

 sparsely covered with small, pole-size trees have been 

 converted into oak brush barrens through tvirpentine 

 operations. In no instance should trees be turpentined 

 which will not be cut for lumber within four or five years 

 after the first turpentine operation. A great many people 

 in the State believe that a law should be enacted making 

 it illegal to turpentine trees smaller than 15 inches in 

 diameter, breast high. 



Waste in Logging. — Waste in logging has to a certain 

 extent been a result of economic conditions which made 

 the complete utilization of trees unprofitable. When tim- 

 ber was cut at long distances from railroads and its exploita- 

 tion was very expensive, only the best material from the 

 most valuable trees could be used profitably. This has 

 been especially true in the production of staves and head- 

 ing, the industries which have been responsible for more 

 waste in proportion to the wood consumed than any of the 

 other timber-using industries. A vast amount of such 

 waste, however, has been unnecessary. 



Waste in logging in Mississippi consists in leaving sound 

 material in high stumps and large tops, and in the injury 

 and destruction of young trees and seedling growth through 

 careless logging methods. 



Except in the case of badly burned or otherwise defect- 

 ive trees, the best material is usually contained in the 

 stumps. The cutting of high stumps has been and is 

 now commonly practiced in hardwood operations. Lumber 

 companies in all parts of the State are beginning to realize 

 that it pays o cut low stumps, but the famers, who own 

 and market timber, continue almost without exception to 

 cut stumps 3 or 4 feet high and to leave a great deal of 

 sound, merchantable material in tops. 



The lumbering operations of the large yellow pine 

 companies in southern Mississippi seldom present examples 

 of waste in the utilization of the trees which are cut. 

 Except in the case of trees boxed for turpentine or other- 



