38 FOREST RESOURCES OF TEXAS. 



the earliest cutting- only the finest trees were culled; enough was left to 

 furnish, after a growth of from twelve to twenty years, a forest which 

 now invites the lumberman's return. But there is at present a market 

 for anything that will square 4 or 5 inches. The result is so close a 

 cutting that nothing is left which can mature another crop inside of 

 fifty or seventy-five years; indeed, in very many instances, the forest 

 is practically destroyed. (PL VI.) 



The renewal of the forest is made impossible by the agencies which 

 prevent the growth of seedlings. The worst of these is fire. Fires 

 are invited, and their destructiveness is very greatly increased, by the 

 -great quantities of waste left after logging. Often they are regularly 

 set by cattle owners to improve the range. But for them, in the wake 

 of lumbering, great quantities of seedlings would quickly spring up. 

 Seed is produced in great abundance every three or four years. The 

 seeds are widely distributed, and germinate prolifically. Wherever 

 fire has been kept away, thickets of seedlings, saplings, and poles show 

 what w T ould be the general condition if the forests were protected 

 against its great enemy. 



Permanent management of Texas longleaf pine forests is impossible 

 without both a reform in lumbering methods and effective fire preven- 

 tion. The harm done by forest fires is so little appreciated, and methods 

 of preventing them are so little understood, that it is doubtful whether 

 general fire protection by private owners can be expected. It is for 

 the State to consider whether some form of fire protection at public 

 expense is not called for by the interest of the community at large, in 

 forests as it is in cities. Assuming, however, that fire protection is 

 impracticable, what can be done in the way of conservative lumber- 

 ing? A plan looking .only to a second or third cutting might disregard 

 the matter of seedlings; the small timber now on the ground, which 

 would mature within from twenty to fifty years, would furnish the 

 crops. It should be a matter of concern to every owner of longleaf 

 pine timberland in Texas to determine whether it would not be a wise 

 business policy for him to cut no sound pine below a certain diameter 

 limit. Many tracts lumbered fifteen to twenty years ago, when few 

 trees below 18 inches in diameter were taken, are now being lumbered 

 for large cuts of pine. Judging from these, no great change in the 

 limit to which trees are now cut would have to be made in order 

 to leave the basis for a second crop of timber from lumbered lands 

 within a reasonable time. The Bureau of Forestry has just completed 

 a field study of extensive longleaf pine lands in Texas, the results of 

 which should show the financial returns to be expected from the con- 

 servative lumbering of longleaf. 



The policy indicated would require the modification of present lum- 

 bering methods, and would prevent the destruction of small trees in 

 removing the large ones. The expense of lumbering would thereby 



