EFFECT OF BURNING GRASSLANDS 223 



by burning is in itself often serious. The more important loss, 

 however, is in the reduction of the forage yield later. 



A large proportion of the more shallow-rooted forage and hay 

 plants, as, for instance, the fescues (Festuca) and the bluegrasses 

 (Poa), is often killed outright by a single fire. Almost invari- 

 ably highly prized perennial forage plants of this type are re- 

 placed for a varying period of time by inferior and unpalatable 

 vegetation. Furthermore, in the absence of the old leafage, 

 which, when present, is cropped as a " filler," there is a tendency 

 to graze the young succulent growth so closely as to injure its 

 later development. Any advantages that may follow the re- 

 moval of the old growth by burning — as, for example, making 

 the newly developing crop more readily accessible for grazing — 

 are, therefore, more than counterbalanced by the disadvantages. 



Burning in the SoiUh. — In many parts of the South where the 

 predominating grasses attain a robust growth the lands have 

 been burned over each year since the country was settled. For 

 instance, the piney- woods region of the Coastal Plain, (which 

 includes South Carolina; Florida; the southern parts of Georgia, 

 Alabama, and Mississippi; the central and northern parts of 

 Louisiana; parts of southern Texas; and southern Arkansas), 

 much of the native range lands, and a large proportion of the 

 privately owned pastures have been burned over each year from 

 the time before the Civil War when the turpentine operations 

 began. To protect the trees from accidental fires the leaf htter 

 and other inflammable material is raked away from the base of 

 the trees and burned under control. Follo^Adng this operation, 

 the stockmen fire the range according to the time-honored 

 custom. 



The practice of burning over the range year after year for so 

 long a time has depleted the potential productivity of the soil to 

 an extent difficult to estimate. By far the most important soil 

 problem in the South is that of maintaining adequate organic 

 matter. In regions with long growing seasons an enormous 

 amount of organic matter is used up in normal decay. To 

 rob the soil by burning off this potential and much-needed vege- 

 table matter further compUcates the all-important fertility 



