PROFITS FROM FARM WOODS 15 
In response to questions, Mr. Fowler tells his own experience: 
In February, 1926, I put out 10 acres of slash pine seedlings which 1 pulled 
from near-by woods. These seedlings were 2 years old and averaged 15 inches 
in height. They were set out in rows checked off 10 feet each way, and 86 
per cent of these trees lived and began growing from the start. (Tig. 9.) 
I had planned to set out several more acres of pines at this time. But the 
majority of my friends and neighbors promptly decided that I had lost my mind 
and should be sent to the 
asylum. They said any- 
body ought to know it 
would be a hundred years 
before these pines would 
be big enough for stove 
wood. I went = ahead 
planting my 10 acres and 
made plans for other 
planting later, if this 10 
acres didn’t land me in 
the bughouse. 
I was so well pleased 
with the growth of the 10 
acres put out in 1926 that 
I put out, in February, 
1927, 130 acres of 1 and 
2 year old_ seedlings. 
These I secured from the 
woods and old fields near 
Myeetwem.- 1 checked 
these off in straight rows 
of 460 trees to the acre. 
Early in the game 
Mr. Fowler realized 
the necessity of fire 
protection, and_ set 
about finding the best 
way of accomplishing 
it. He said: 
In the late fall of 1923 
fire crossed from near-by 
woods and burned part 
of the trees I had planted 
in the spring. In order 
to protect these trees 
from other fires, I plowed 
clean breaks 10 feet wide rm 
all around these trees. - i: ae i sees. ae: 
= TIGURE — g Sé gs er g g Ss 
The result was no more Te Cause of preecsHion Prom Ges Jame Mower ee 
fires. I found the follow- er of south Georgia, is locally a pioneer in protecting 
ing spring that I had and growing trees as a farm crop 
without knowing it pre- 
pared some good seed beds by plowing these fire lines and also caused good 
natural seeding. 
In the spring of 1927 I looked over the first plowed and burned fire lanes 
I had seen. I was so impressed with this disk plow and tractor work that I 
bought a tractor and side disk plow immediately and began plowing the woods 
two furrows 25 to 30 feet apart. and burning between these lines. I find 
that plowing the lanes clean will give more natural seeding, but this method 
is more expensive than plowing each side and burning between the lines. If 
the grass in the woods is very heavy it is difficult to plow clean, and if the 
lanes are not plowed very clean fire will cross them in dry and windy weather. 
I found that on account of the custom of burning these woods each spring, 
in order to make it more difficult to burn, I had to cut this land up into 10 or 
