1903 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



449 



" Shingler ' plantation, on which the 

 Shingler family have lived for more 

 than 100 years. On the estate of 

 " Mexico," owned by Myzeek Porcher 

 in 1854, there is now a magnificent 

 forest. In that year I saw 10,000 of 

 his 15,000 acres in cotton and corn, 

 and the 400 slaves of Porcher gathering 

 the crop. Now these 10,000 acres are 

 well timbered and owned by the Atlan- 

 tic Coast Lumber Co. of Georgetown, 

 N. C. When I drove through the 

 woods 10 years ago there was then a 

 good stand of saw timber, and last 

 winter when I visited the place again I 

 found the timber large enough to well 

 repay lumbering operations. This place 

 is also in Berkeley county. 



I have given these special examples 

 in order that any one who cares to may 

 verify a fact that is true of all the 

 southern Atlantic states. And this 

 fact is, that if there is any protection 

 whatever the lands there will make the 

 finest kind of pine forest growth, be- 

 cause of the excellent conditions and 

 the persistence of the young pines in 

 springing up. The pine belt of these 

 and the Gulf states was almost a ' ' forest 



primeval ' ' when I visited the region 50 

 years ago, with just clearings enough 

 for the cultivated lands of the planta- 

 tions. These lands, when cropped suc- 

 cessively for about 20 years, were turned 

 over to forest growth again, all the 

 better, as far as forest was concerned, 

 for the cultivation which they had un- 

 dergone. They were seeded from the 

 old trees, and the young trees are not 

 hindered by the scrub growths which 

 in the northwestern states of Michigan, 

 Wisconsin, and Minnesota, immediately 

 spring up after the old forests are re- 

 mo ved, and so retard the reforesting of 

 northern pine lands. This difference I 

 have also personally proved, for I have 

 experimented with 10 acres in the Wis- 

 consin woods, taking a sandy loam very 

 similar to the North and South Carolina 

 soil. It was reseeded from an adjacent 

 grove of 50 old W 7 hite Pines, and fenced 

 to protect it from grazing and all live 

 things. Fires were kept out, and at 

 the end of 25 years of care and trouble 

 I have succeeded in getting a fair stand 

 of young White Pine, none of which is 

 more than 10 feet high. 



Had I taken at the same time i ,000 



A SOUTHERN PINE FOREST, SHOWING PATH OF A DESTRUCTIVE FIRE AFTER LUMBERING. 



