CLASSIFICATION OF THE FOHKST. 23 



determined the natural selection of forest growth on these areas, as 

 the dry. poor soil, by the destruction of the moisture-holding and 

 enriching huiiuis, becomes still dryer and poorer. There is then still 

 less to invite the encroachment of other species than there was before. 

 Frequent tires, however, though without marked effect on old long- 

 leaf trees, are fatal to the growth of seedlings. In consequence a 

 condition is developed very like that which existed on the Texas 

 prairies when the fires were free to sweep over them annually. These 

 prairies were kept pure grass lands; there was no evidence of the 

 thickets of chaparral which now cover them. The longleaf lands, 

 instead of an under forest, have- a pure prairie beneath the mature 

 forest canopy, and this prairie becomes, after logging, a savanna of 

 tall broom-sedge grasses. That fire is the chief cause of the absence 

 of young growth to take the place of mature pine is shown b}^ the 

 circumstance that where for a series of years the fires fail to sweep, a 

 thicket of young pine appears. These patches of "orchard pine" 

 saplings or poles are frequently met with in the longleaf belt. 



RATE OF LUMBERING AND FUTURE PROSPECTS. 



The longleaf pine in Texas is being cut out at the rate of some 

 three-quarters of a billion feet of lumber each year, with a rapidly 

 growing market and output. The ease and cheapness with which 

 longleaf is got to the sawmill, combined with a climate which permits 

 heavy logging throughout the year, makes possible a very rapid 

 handling of the crop. At the present rate of lumbering it would 

 appear a reasonable estimate that the virgin pine might hold out 

 twenty years longer. 



With the present market demands and the prevailing methods of 

 logging, the forest is so depleted and left in such a weakened and 

 exposed condition that no future stand can be counted upon. But 

 there is a good deal of longleaf land on which logging fifteen or 

 twenty years ago, when the market demanded culled stock, left a very 

 considerable amount of young timber and imperfect or inferior old 

 trees. Such areas, however, are being lumbered again for ties, and 

 thus their gain in wood is continually offset. 



Longleaf seeds abundantly enough, yet there is very little seedling 

 growth. This is entirely due to the regular and frequent fires. 

 Neither young longleaf nor any other trees are able to start in the 

 face of these. But wherever the fire has failed to sweep for a number 

 of years, and the forest is sufficiently open, one finds thickets of 

 young longleaf, the borders of which dwindle away in scattering, 

 fire-stunted saplings, and a final border of young seedlings half hidden 

 in grass which has escaped fire for a year or two. 



