8 AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL COLLEGE OF TEXAS. 



of cut-over and burned forest or waste lands capable of being nature's 

 best means of water conservation, but in their present condition offer- 

 ing little assistance in this important" function. 



By means of leguminous crops, rotation, soil building, terracing, 

 fruit and truck farming areas formerly occupied by forests are being 

 used profitably and prosperous communities are springing up on lands 

 not long ago in timber. It is probably safe to state that agriculture 

 will ultimately demand the use of the larger proportion of our present 

 soils. In spite of this fact hundreds of thousands of acres will remain 

 unimproved for a great many years, perhaps for all time. Further, 

 every community is better for a certain per cent, of its land area in 

 productive forests; every farm should have its wood lot, whether it be 

 only five or as much as fifty per cent, of the farm area. It is impos- 

 sible to foretell which lands will be cleared and which will not. In 

 this connection humus in the soil plays another important role aside 

 from moisture conservation, that of a natural fertilizer. This vegetable 

 soil covering so easily destroyed by grass and surface fires, contains 

 the nitrogenous food materials so necessary to maintain plant life and 

 the fertility of a soil. When humus is burned the nitrogen passes into 

 the air as a gas and is entirely lost to the soil. Nature furnishes this 

 fertilizer free and asks only fire prevention in order to preserve it for 

 future use. Observations show that in the space of two or three years 

 where no fires have burned, an average woodland soil will accumulate 

 nearly an inch of good humus cover. Annual burning, however, has 

 robbed and is continually robbing, these lands of the humus which will 

 be needed when the land is cleared for farms, and of the humus and 

 young growth which are needed if the land remains in forest. There 

 is no argument against fire prevention because of the fact that large 

 forest areas will eventually be cleared for farms. Normal conditions 

 for the future can be brought about only by building up a new soil 

 humus by means of fire prevention and by the extension of proper sys- 

 tems of cultivation. Forestry and general agricultural development 

 must work together toward this end. The preservation of a future 

 timber supply and the building up of humus in the soils are important 

 economic questions of this generation. 



OTHER. INJURY BY FIRES. 



Annual burning is responsible for other damages perhaps more im- 

 mediate and more closely concerning the individual farmer, stock raiser, 

 and land owner, who look upon fires as unimportant and inevitable. 

 The damage done to fences, buildings and other improvements seldom 

 reaches the attention of the general public, although in the course of 

 a single year amounts to a tremendous sum in money and labor. Live 

 stock is frequently endangered by fires. Farmers and stock raisers as 

 a whole are coming to realize that fires do not improve the pasturage. 

 Authorities on the subject have always agreed that burning decreases 

 the quality and abundance of forage grasses and tends through soil 

 impoverishment to aid in the survival and ultimate domination of weeds 



