SOUTHERN HORIZONS 



against the charred background creates but an illusion 

 of lush fertility. As a matter of fact, the annual burning 

 not only prevents reseeding, since the tiny seedlings are 

 cremated in their babyhood, but it also destroys layer 

 after layer of precious humus in the soil, leaving it dead 

 and infertile. Education is the only cure for this sense- 

 less practice. Yet there are well-educated men, even 

 expert foresters and experienced woodsmen, who ad- 

 vocate controlling burning. They maintain that this 

 should be promptly done after selective cutting, in order 

 to keep down the first luxuriant growth of underbrush 

 and present the most favorable opportunity of reseed- 

 ing. They stoutly present a parade of argument that 

 heavy underbrush increases the fire menace to the point 

 of uncontrollable blaze. Naturally these beliefs are most 

 firmly held in Florida and along the Gulf Coast where 

 the spiny palmetto springs up luxuriantly in cutover 

 land. 



Countering these persuasive statements, the non- 

 burners point out that a controlled fire may easily be- 

 come uncontrolled. Furthermore, they claim that in 

 keeping down the underbrush, several crops of promis- 

 ing seedlings must be slaughtered, and they question 

 whether the young trees either start or grow as well on 

 naked, fresh-burned land. 



All schools of thought vote that at heart the problem 

 is one of education. Within the past five years there 

 has certainly been an appreciable decline in the fire 



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