FORESTRY FIRES AND FORESTRY SOUTHERN STATES 511 



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GRANITE KNOB IN THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS FROM WHICH THE 

 FOREST AND LATER THE SOIL HAS BEEN LARGELY REMOVED. 



It is true that these pine soils are 

 the poorest soils of the South, and that 

 under the old systems of farming, with 

 cotton as the principal crop, their fer- 

 tility was rapidly lost. But with the de- 

 velopment of agricultural experiment 

 stations in the South and the increasing 

 use- of leguminous crops, better crop 

 rotations, and truck and fruit farming, 

 poorer soils are being used profitably 

 and prosperous communities are spring- 

 ing up here and there dependent wholly 

 on the agricultural use of these pine 

 lands. Thus the whole question of the 

 future growth of timber crops on south- 

 ern pine lands is challenged at the out- 

 set on apparently valid grounds, and 

 by the overwhelming interest of practi- 

 cally all elements of the communities 

 affected. 



It will be difficult for a long time to 

 strike a proper balance between agri- 

 cultural use and forest use of these 

 southern lands. But one thing is cer- 

 tain ; every agricultural community no 



matter how fertile the soil, is better off 

 if a certain per cent of the land is 

 growing trees. Every farm is more 

 valuable if it possesses a woodlot, and 

 the poorer the soil the greater the per 

 cent of the total area which can be de- 

 voted to tree growing, to the best in- 

 terests of agriculture and of the com- 

 munity. In the South the areas of poor 

 land are so vast and the quality of 

 much of it so poor that we can hardly 

 expect that a fifth part of it will ever 

 be used for the more intensive crops 

 like truck and small fruits. There are 

 great tracts in New Jersey on the sand 

 plains which are idle today in spite of 

 their nearness to the enormous markets 

 of New York and Philadelphia. Settle- 

 ment on these southern pine soils pro- 

 ceeds slowly. Foreigners do not take 

 kindly to the presence of the negro. 

 Southern whites do not welcome the 

 foreigner with open arms. Northern 

 farmers do not tend to emigrate South 

 as they are unused to the climate and 



