4 BULLETIN 364, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
for turpentine and rosin, has an annual output valued at approxi- 
mately $30,000,000. This industry, too, must either cease to exist or 
else move its operations to other portions of the country, unless 
provision is made now for a future supply of timber suitable for 
turpentining. 3 
FOREST FIRES. 
The chief obstacle in the way of the conservation of the region’s 
timber supply is forest fires. These kill many trees of merchantable 
size, destroy young trees and seedlings which otherwise would form 
the basis for new timber crops, consume the ground cover and soil 
humus, leaving the earth bare and subject to erosion, and sometimes 
destroy human life. 
As long ago as 1879, according to figures gathered for the entire 
region in the Tenth Census, 729 fires burned more than 5,000,000 
acres, causing a money loss in salable products and improvements 
of $2,250,000. This estimate was undoubtedly low at the time that it 
was made, since conditions were not favorable for gathering com- 
plete figures. 
While no other attempt has been made to obtain figures for the 
entire region, the present annual loss is unquestionably much greater, 
since the construction of railroads, the development of lumbering, 
and the practice of brush burning have gone on steadily. North 
Carolina is the only State in the southern pine region for which data 
on the present damage from fire are available. During the five-year 
period from 1909 to 1913 the average number of fires reported per 
year in North Carolina was 633; the average area burned about 
415,000 acres, and the average loss as follows: 
Vaine or timber destroyed 2-2 ee a ee ee ee $160, 000 
Value of youn’ srowth; destroyed22 44 Se eee ee eee 204, 000 
Value of forest: products destroyed 4 2 coe sae ee ee ee 218, 000 
Value:of improvementss:destroyed 2 ee ee eee 66, 000 
Total amiga cei he a ee $648, 000 
Number of lives lost_____- As I ala SF ala Wh Lala Sea ete 2 
Cost. to, private individuals to fight fire:—_ == SS eee $19, 000 
Concerning the value of young growth destroyed the State For- 
ester of North Caroline says: | 
The growing realization of the value of unmerchantable young growth is 
perhaps the chief reason for the apparently high money loss. Whereas in 
1911, the first year any general estimate was placed on destroyed young growth, 
the less from this one cause amounted to only 25 per cent of the total damage, 
in 1912 it comprised 33 per cent, while in 1913 it has increased to 45 per cent 
of the total estimated damage. An instance of the growing recognition of the 
destructiveness of woods fires comes from Transylvania County. A farmer 
there claimed $300 reduction in the tax valuation of his place because 300 
