OF SOUTHWESTERN MISSISSIPPI. 125 



(2) In the average logging operation tremendous in- 

 jury is done to the trees left standing and to the reproduction 

 already started. Ever}' care should be taken to avoid 

 this as much as possible. Trees should be felled in such a 

 way that the young trees are not broken or crushed, or 

 groups of young growth destroyed. If the breaking of 

 some young trees is unavoidable, those of greatest value 

 should be saved. Inasmuch as immature trees increase 

 in value with age, a group of longleaf thirty years old, for 

 example, should be preserv-ed in preference to one only ten 

 years old. Also, where a choice is necessary, a tree should 

 be felled into a young gum or beech rather than into a thrifty 

 ash or yellow poplar. Trees should be felled so that the 

 tops, though left to lie where felled, will not subsequently 

 be a menace from fire to the remaining stand; that is, they 

 should be as far away from seed trees or groups of young 

 growth as possible. Where a steam skidder is used, it 

 should be placed in such a position that the logs will be 

 pulled over ground w^hich has comparatively little young 

 growth. Guy chains for the skidding cable should be fas- 

 tened to stumps and not to seed trees or young growth. 



Fire Protection* — Conservative lumbering counts for 

 little unless the forest lands of the State can be protected 

 from fire. After lumbering in ■ the longleaf pine forests, 

 the ground is partly covered with brush, which soon becomes 

 so dry that fires are easily started and are extinguished with 

 great difficulty. Logging locomotives are largely respon- 

 sible for the first fire that follows lumbering. Every year 

 following, however, the ground is burned either through 

 malice or through the notion that it encourages a better 

 growth of grass. Pine reproduction is not given a chance, 

 even though much of the stump land region has enough 

 trees remaining to seed up the ground. Scrub oaks, more 

 resistant to fire, form dense stands over the stump lands. 

 The absence of pine reproduction is largely dtie to this 



* Note. — The prevalence of forest fires and the destruction 

 caused by them through the longleaf pine region is dealt with in 

 Forest Service Circular 149, "Condition of Cut Over Longleaf 

 Pine Lands in Mississippi." 



