GRASS AND WOODLAND FIRES IN TEXAS. 5 



and a. half million dollars; in 1909 it had increased to almost nine 

 million dollars. Twenty-five years ago timber upon Texas lands was 

 looked upon everywhere as an encumbrance. In 1900 a stumpage value 

 of forty cents per thousand feet for shortleaf pine and one dollar for 

 longleaf was a fair value. Today they are selling for as high as $4 

 to $5 on the stump. During the decade of 1898 to 1908 standing 

 yellow pine increased threefold to tenfold in value. The timber of 

 the highest value today is poorer in quality than the timber which 

 formerly sold for little or nothing and was an encumbrance to the 

 land. This increase in value is likely to continue at a uniform rate. 

 As larger areas in each county are turned into productive farms the 

 need of timber for local use will increase. The treeless counties of 

 Texas and the Southwest in general will call upon woodland counties 

 for the products of their forests. A rapid increase in population is 

 taking place. The young timber of today must furnish the forest 

 products of the future. Those farmers and land owners who now pro- 

 tect and encourage the growth of young timber will be well rewarded. 

 Forest fires are the chief obstacle to the development of commercial 

 stands of second growth timber without effort or expense to the owners. 



It is true that merchantable trees are seldom killed by fires, except 

 pines which have been boxed for turpentine or which are defective or 

 have been injured. It is not true that they escape injury. This occurs 

 through loss of vitality due to excessive heat of fires and destruction 

 of soil enriching humus. Burning opens up cracks and exposes the 

 wood beneath the bark, thus offering avenues of attack for insects, 

 disease and fires which come later. The rate of growth of individual 

 trees and the yield of timber per acre are far below the possibilities 

 when the forests are repeatedly burned over. 



The destruction of young growth, however, is infinitely more serious. 

 Almost every acre of cut-over timber-land even under present modern 

 methods of logging, contains a sufficient number of seed bearing trees 

 to plentifully restock the land with new growth if grass fires can only 

 be controlled. On such cut-over areas actual counts of 12,000 to 

 15,000 seedling? per acre have been made in years following a heavy- 

 fall of seed. But no trees have an opportunity to reproduce from seed 

 where fires occur every year ( or every few years. When four or five 

 years of age longleaf pines become partially immune if protected up 

 to that time. They must be at least eight to ten years old in order to 

 resist grass fires with reasonable certainty. 



There is no other serious obstacle to seedling development, except 

 free-ranging hogs, which do eat quantities of seed and succulent roots 

 of young pines. The increasing tendency to keep hogs within enclosure? 

 in order to control cholera is eliminating them as a serious menace to 

 forest reproduction. Goats will, of course, destroy forest reproduction 

 but they are not extensively grazed at present. 



Shortleaf pine, unlike longleaf, will sprout from the root when the 

 tree is killed up to the age of eight or ten years, after which time the 

 tree fails to sprout and burning will cause greater injury than to long- 

 leaf of the same age. Trees from eight to twelve years of age are most 



