A WARNING TO FLORIDA. 



355 



forests. If present conditions are allowed 

 to continue, all the wealth and beauty of 

 this life will, in a few years, be but a 

 memory. In this timber the State has one 

 of its most important assets, and one that 

 is being shamefully squandered. The wide- 

 spread, rapid and wasteful destruction of 

 the forests can only be characterized as dis- 

 graceful to the State. If proper forestry 

 laws could be enacted, these forests would 

 be self-perpetuating and one of the principal 

 resources of the State for all time. The 



than 6 inches in diameter. This method 

 of turpentine orcharding could be much 

 more economically practiced by adopting 

 the new system introduced by the Bureau of 

 Forestry. When the Florida turpentine 

 gatherers have completed their work in a 

 section they are followed by the lumber- 

 men who effect a complete devastation of 

 the forests. 



In certain favored localities the trees 

 could be restored naturally by seeding, but 

 owing^, to. the universal practice of firing 



HOW THE TURPENTINE MAKERS DESTROY THE FORESTS. 



lumber and turpentine interests have been, 

 for several years, quietly at work securing 

 title to this timber, and at present control 

 the larger portion of it. A campaign of 

 extermination has been organized on an 

 extensive scale. For a few years pitch or 

 resin is gathered from the trees by a 

 wasteful system of boxing, as shown in the 

 illustration. A box is first cut at the base 

 of the tree. A few inches of the bark 

 is then removed above the box to allow 

 the pi'ch to flow out. This scoring of the 

 trunk is extended each spring until it 

 reaches a height of 3 or 4 feet, or frequently 

 as high as a man can. conveniently reach. 

 Every tree that is large enough to be boxed 

 is used in this work, even though not more 



the grass carpet in the spring, this slow 

 method of restoration is rarely realized. In 

 one section of about an acre 78 dead seed- 

 lings, ranging in height from 6 inches to 

 2y 2 feet, were counted. As larger and lar- 

 ger areas of the country are exposed 

 through removal of the timber, the prob- 

 lem of reforestration, owing to the conse- 

 quent dessication of the soil, becomes more 

 difficult. As a result of this short-sighted 

 policy of the State in controlling the lum- 

 bering and the annual firing of the vegeta- 

 tion, there appears to be little hope of the 

 preservation of the forests. 



What the result of this neglect will be 

 can not be foretold at present. Just how 

 far the changed climate in the South At- 



