6 BULLETIN 364, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
and will eventually, be put to its most profitable use—real farming 
land to agriculture, real forest land to timber culture. For the 
present, however, all land which is not actually under cultivation or 
needed for pasture purposes should be in timber, as a means of main- 
taining productiveness and of conserving the fertility of such parts 
of it as will eventually be put to agricultural use. 
The exclusion of fire from cut-over areas will practically insure 
new stands of timber in place of the old. Little or no planting will 
be necessary. The abundant reproduction of yellow pine wherever 
the young growth has escaped the ravages of fire is evidence that 
yellow pine will reproduce itself naturally if only given a chance. 
The protection of cut-over lands from fire will, of course, entail an 
expenditure, the full burden of which most private owners of timber- 
land will hardly feel themselves in a position to bear on account of 
the long time element involved in growing future crops of timber. 
This is the situation in practically all the large forest areas in the 
United States, and many of the individual States are recognizing the 
public interest involved by assisting in the protection of such lands. 
Another and very important reason for State aid in forest fire pro- 
tection, and one which is especially strong in the southern pine 
region, is the danger from floods, which is greatly increased by the 
destruction of the forest cover on the watersheds of streams. Losses 
from floods along the Southern Appalachian streams alone during 
the ten years preceding 1908 aggregated more than $35,000,000.1 
Floods, erosion, and soil washing are together a serious menace to 
the steady development and continued prosperity of the southern 
States. Control of forest fires is one means of removing their cause. 
Forest fires occur in the southern pine region, because there is little 
or no public sentiment against them. They are accepted as inevitable 
and as uncontrollable. This, however, is just the opposite of the 
truth. Experience elsewhere has demonstrated that most fires can be 
prevented; with prompt action all fires can be controlled. The prob- 
lem is largely one of education; public opinion must be focused upon 
the subject. The fact must be constantly reiterated that forest fires 
can be prevented with a little care, and that, unless they are pre- 
vented, the welfare of every citizen of the State is affected. Educa- 
tion of this kind can only be effectively carried on through organized 
effort on the part of the State. The value of a protective force patrol- 
ling the woods, warning persons against the careless use of fire and 
securing their good will and cooperation in preventing and extin- - 
guishing fires, has been demonstrated over and over again by a 
prompt and impressive decrease in fire loss in every State where it 
has been tried. The States in the southern pine region have all 
1 Preliminary Report of the Inland Waterways Commission, 1908, page 522. 
