26 ECONOMIC BOTANY OF ALABAMA. 



the black belt, where the forest floor is covered with 

 humus, usually too damp and too thoroughly oxidized to 

 burn readily. 



In the long-leaf pine regions, where environmental 

 conditions are different in almost every way from those 

 just mentioned, fire seems to have swept over every spot 

 not protected by its topography or otherwise every few 

 years in prehistoric times. There the fire consumes the 

 herbage that covers the ground, and prevents the growth 

 of most thin-barked trees, but does very little harm to 

 the long-leaf pine after that reaches the age of four or 

 five years. This pine withstands fire better than any 

 other tree we have, but some of the other pines and a few 

 of the oaks and hickories are not much inferior to it in 

 this respect. 



It can be safely asserted that there is not and never 

 has been a long-leaf pine forest in the United States 

 (and that species does not grow anywhere else) 

 which did not show evidences of fire, such as 

 charred bark near the bases of the trees; and fur- 

 thermore, that if it were possible to prevent forest 

 fires absolutely the long-leaf pine — our most use- 

 ful tree — would soon become extinct. For where 

 the herbage has not been burned most of the seeds 

 {kig » lodge in the grass and fail to germinate, and if the 

 oaks and other hardwoods were allowed to grow densely 

 they would prevent the growth of the pine, which can- 

 not stand much shade, especially when young. 



At the present time most of the fires in the pine 

 woods are set purposely, to burn off the dead grass and 

 improve the grazing. This practice has been repeatedly 

 denounced by persons who have spent most of their lives 

 outside of the long-leaf pine regions, but really the only 

 just criticism of it that can be made is that it is done too 

 often; oftener than Nature intended, one might say. 

 However, as the number of roads, railroads, clearings, 

 etc., increases, the area over which each fire can spread 

 becomes more and more restricted, so that the frequency 

 of fire at any one point may not be much greater now 

 than it was originally. 



