A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 859 



The two illustrations given are more or less representative of what 

 has happened over much of the eastern hardwood region. 



In addition to the killing and wounding of trees, fires cause a heavy 

 loss in soil fertility by destroying the leaf litter. The effect is to 

 reduce the growth capacity of the soil. A marked change in growth 

 conditions can often be noticed, as when a poor, slow-growing young 

 stand develops, after fire, among better trees of a previous generation. 



The effects of fire in hardwoods are quickly obscured by the ability 

 of the young growth to sprout, but even a single fire sets the stand 

 back several years on the road to merchantable size and a profitable 

 return to .the owner. 



IN EASTERN SOFTWOOD STANDS 



It has been estimated that at least 99 percent of the pine lands of 

 the South are today producing less than a full crop of wood and naval 

 stores. This deplorable condition has been brought about by uncon- 

 trolled fire, cutting, destructive turpentining, and, locally, by hog 

 damage. Successful fire control alone would in tune bring probably 

 90 percent of the southern pinelands to a higher degree of productivity 

 than they have known in the white man's day. Uncontrolled fires 

 have been, and still are, the greatest cause of failure of the southern 

 pines to reproduce naturally and fully throughout their range, and 

 they are still a main obstacle to timber growing in the South. 



Much loss of second-growth slash and longleaf pines in the eastern 

 part of the pine region, particularly in Georgia and Florida, follows 

 the destructive turpentine methods commonly used. Many trees 

 are chipped when too small and are given too many faces. Gutters 

 are often driven unnecessarily deep into trees, chipping is often as 

 deep as \% or 1% inches, and front and back faces are commonly 

 run into each other. Fires ravage abandoned orchards, and trees 

 which do not burn down are often so weakened as to be snapped off 

 by high winds or to fall easy prey to insects. Composite figures for 

 three representative stands, cupped for an average of 5 years, and 

 abandoned, on an average, 1 year, show that 29 percent and 15 

 percent, respectively of the turpentined slash pine and longleaf pine 

 trees, 6 inches to 16 inches diameter breast high sre dead. 



All destructive agencies have combined to convert large areas of 

 longleaf land to stands of scrub oak and palmetto. Probably 3 

 million acres of this kind of land are in Florida alone. This worth- 

 less cover is worse than none since it forms an effective bar to regenera- 

 tion either by planting or by natural seeding from the occasional tree 

 of seed-bearing size that still persists. 



In the Lake States where commercial logging was at its height from 

 1850 to about 1910, some 5 million acres out of a total of nearly 56 

 million acres of forest land now support a stand of merchantable saw 

 timber. Seven million acres are unstocked, and the remainder sup- 

 ports cordwood or unmerchantable second growth. Owing to under- 

 stocking and poor silvicultural condition, timber production on the 

 area as a whole today is estimated to be but a third of what it should 

 be. In addition, inferior species have for the most part replaced the 

 more valuable pines and hardwoods which made up the original 

 stand. Vast areas have been converted to jack pine and aspen. 

 Much of the aspen, due to small size and defect, has no commercial 



