28 FOREST CONDITIONS IN LOUISIANA. 



and inferior kinds gain a foothold. Nevertheless, owners of stock 

 continue to set fires, though by so doing they reduce the yield of for- 

 age later in the season. As long as stock is allowed to graze unre- 

 stricted in the open pine woods recurrent fires will remain a problem 

 to be dealt with. Without adequate laws against setting fires, fencing 

 the stock seems the only solution. While complete restriction of the 

 right to graze stock in the open woods might be a hardship to poor 

 farmers who depend entirely upon the pasturage to be found there, 

 some sort of restriction is exceedingly desirable. Besides reducing the 

 fire danger, the fencing of stock would prevent them from being 

 killed by railroad trains and make possible better control of in- 

 fectious diseases. The mere construction of a certain number of 

 fences in the pine woods would tend, through fear of destro} T ing them, 

 to decrease the number of fires. 



LUMBERING. 



In yellow-pine logging the removal of small trees, the lumber from 

 which is scarcely worth the cost of manufacture, is an exceedingly 

 wasteful practice. Much young growth too small to cut is destroyed 

 by the fall of older trees, and in few yellow-pine operations is any 

 great care taken to preserve the young growth from damage. Waste 

 results also from leaving sound logs in the tops of felled trees, cutting 

 high stumps, and in the future to cut trees affected with red-heart, 

 but which contain one or more sound logs. On account of the low 

 price of yellow pine lumber, only the best grades can be profitably 

 handled. Logs which could be cut into the best lumber, however, are 

 often overlooked entirely or not cut into proper lengths. 



Some yellow-pine companies, on the other hand, haul entire trees to 

 the mill and manufacture into charcoal the tops and other portions 

 that can not be sawed into lumber. One or two companies operate 

 distillation plants for the manufacture of turpentine from slabs and 

 other refuse. In other cases plants for the manufacture of paper 

 from pine waste are being constructed. 



In hardwood logging, where long hauls to the railroad are neces- 

 sary, only the best material from the most valuable trees can be util- 

 ized, and the waste is correspondingly great. In the production of 

 staves and ties there is more waste in proportion to the wood actually 

 utilized than in any other use made of the timber. Distillation plants 

 for the manufacture of wood alcohol and other products from beech 

 and other species could utilize most of the material now wasted. 



In the swamps there has been much waste of tupelo and other 

 species associated with cypress. A great deal of this was unavoidable, 

 on account of the low market value of the lumber. In future, how- 

 ever, tupelo, when treated with preservatives, should be marketable as 

 poles and piles. 



