224 BURNING OF PASTURE LANDS 



problem and, at the same time, favors that very serious menace 

 to the lands of the South — soil erosion. 



If a pasture has been burned year after year, the soil is in 

 about as low a state of productivity as can well be imagined. 

 The forage is not only of an inferior type as compared with that 

 of nonburned areas, but it is much shorter in stature and is 

 appreciably sparser than on the fire-protected and more fertile 

 areas. 



Farley and Greene,^ as a result of their investigations of pas- 

 ture management in the piney woods, say: 



Another effect of frequent fires on native pasture has been to keep out the 

 desirable pasture grasses and perpetuate the undesirable ones. Wire grass 

 and broom sedge have been able to withstand fires to such an extent that 

 they have almost taken possession of the cut-over lands. These plants, 

 although furnishing most of the grazing, are undesirable because of their 

 short grazing season, and are no better adapted, except in their ability to 

 withstand fire, than carpet grass and lespedeza, the two most valuable pasture 

 plants found on the range. . . . 



Although carpet grass is a perennial that stands close grazing, it is very 

 susceptible to fire. The seed is matured late in the fall, and the plant is still 

 growing at the time of fall fires. In the spring, the tender, creeping stocks 

 are not protected to the same degree as are the clumps of wire grass and broom 

 sedge. 



The more experienced and successful stockmen of the South 

 have abandoned burning off the grass cover annually. They 

 fully appreciate in terms of production of future crops the loss 

 such practices entail and are doing what they can to build up 

 the fertility of the soil in order to increase, rather than diminish, 

 their grass, timber, and farm crops. Where the grasses produce 

 such a rank cover as seriously to interfere with the grazing of 

 the season's growth, the lands are fired once every three to live 

 years. This rotation allows a considerable part of the vegetable 

 matter to decompose, and at the same time is said to enhance the 

 utilization of the feed. However, even intermittent burning 

 destroys a large portion of carpetgrass and other valuable forage 

 plants. Generally, the less burning done the better is the forage 



1 Farley, F. W., and Greene, S. W., "The Cut-over Pine Lands of the South for 

 Beef-Cattle Production." U. 8. Dept. of Agr., Bur. of Animal Ind., Bui. 827, 

 p. 25, 1921. 



