Elaborating on the burning 

 problem, the examiner said, 



The early settlers found 

 here a rather open 

 mature forest with very 

 little undergrowth, and 

 plenty of excellent 

 grass. "To improve the 

 range" they regularly 

 burned it over. Much 

 mature timber was 

 killed or injured, and 

 the seedling 

 reproduction began to 

 multiply rapidly by 

 sprouts from the burned 

 stumps. . . . The people 

 continue to burn in 

 order to keep the 

 thickets down enough 

 for stock to get through. 

 But every fire multiplies 

 the young growth and 

 at the same time makes 

 it more scrubby 

 . . . The fires are so 

 constant, that erosion 

 is continual. . . . There 

 is hardly a section which 

 has not been burned 

 over from one to thirty 

 times in the last 40 

 years. Consequently 

 there is hardly any 

 forest floor. 



improves it. Also these 

 people are very much 

 accustomed to doing 

 as they please, and will 

 object to restraint of 

 any kind unless they 

 can be won from the 

 first by tactful and 

 straightforward 

 treatment. 



In Florida, the Ocala National 

 Forest was formed from a 

 "Great Scrub" area never 

 staked by homesteaders, 

 despite heavy settlement all 

 around it. The classification 

 studies emphasized that 

 this land was inappropriate 

 for agricultural purposes. 

 Its original 146,045 acres 

 were 97.7 percent sand 

 pine and 1.1 percent 

 scattered tracts of long leaf. 

 The classifier (Hill 1916a) 

 speculated that Florida's 

 supply of longleaf was 

 being slowly but surely 

 depleted-by extensive 

 logging and by "rapid and 

 destructive methods" used 

 in working the trees for 

 turpentine-and that as 

 longleaf declined, the sand 

 pine would increase in 

 usefulness and value. 



As a parting warning, the 

 examiner advised, 



Fires will undoubtedly 

 cause much trouble. 

 The country is full of 

 people who honestly 

 believe that burning 



The Choctawhatchee 

 National Forest was also 

 formed from public domain 

 lands upon which no 

 homestead claims had 

 been placed, apparently 

 because the land was 

 unsuitable for agriculture. 



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