LONGLEAF PINE. 45 



be far richer in timber than it is. At best, few fires would probably 

 have occurred, and some probably always will occur. Public senti- 

 ment in the South will some day reach the point where fires, so far 

 as humanly possible, will be eleminated; those which do start will 

 be attacked and brought under control, and the great area of natural 

 forest land will be brought into productiveness. 



A vast amount of longleaf pine is killed or seriously injured by 

 fire every year. The first-year seedling is very susceptible to fire. 

 The growing sapling is always set back or stunted when robbed of 

 its tuft of foliage, and, as the result of repeated attacks, it weakens 

 and dies. The few saplings that succeed in the struggle and reach 

 pole size are usually worked early for turpentine, and within a 

 period of 5 years thereafter most of them become a complete loss 

 as a result of burning and the subsequent attacks of insects and 

 diseases or of windfall. 



The power of longleaf pine to withstand the effect of fire is 

 remarkable. It is very likely that this exceptional adaptation has 

 given the species the popular reputation of being completely immune 

 from fire, and even of "thriving on fires" (PL XV). The fact that 

 many longleaf saplings survive an ordinary burning fire is no ade- 

 quate reason for implying that longleaf is immune and suffers no 

 injury from fire. Every fire, with probably few exceptions, takes 

 its toll in the death of a greater or less number of trees, and in addi- 

 tion causes much injury to practically all the others (PL XVT). 

 The degree of injury varies widely with the size of the tree, the 

 amount and dryness of the inflammable material, and velocity of the 

 wind. In this manner promising young stands have been repeatedly 

 wiped out from the same tract of cut-over land. A few stragglers 

 can usually be found, giving a clue to the successive young stands 

 that at various times have provided the land with the making of 

 a forest. 



If fire burns underneath 1 or 2 year old seedlings, they are 

 usually killed. A quick grass fire under a stiff breeze, however, 

 passes so rapidly that many 1-year-old seedlings may survive. If 

 fin- burn in summer or fall during dry weather, longleaf seedlings 

 up to 8 years old are very apt to be completely wiped out. From 

 about the second year up to the fifth year, or at heights up to about 

 1 foot. Longleaf seedlings appear to be relatively very restant to 

 tin' effects of fire. For longleaf pine the zone of greatest injury 

 from fire is apparently from 1 to 5 feet above the ground, where 



the heat blanket is most intense. This corresponds to the ages of 



approximately 5 to 8 or sometimes 1" years. 



The familar sighi of stunted saplings standing alone or in small 

 groups, huddled lor- protection on an upturned "clay root," or along 



