44 WORKING PLAN, FOREST LANDS IN ALABAMA. 
sufficient amount of young growth 2 years old. If the present cut- 
ting is carried on along the lines recommended there will be a sufficient — 
number of trees to seed up such openings as are left in other parts of 
the forest. | 
In order, however, to enable this reproduction to develop to the 
best advantage into a third crop, it is absolutely necessary that fire be | 
kept out of the tract. If rule No. 7 regarding the lopping of trees is 
observed, the danger from slash fires after the logging will be elimi- 
nated, but the damage from surface fires will still continue. Absolute 
protection from fire would undoubtedly prevent an annual loss of 
merchantable timber, and, by improvement of the soil, would increase 
the rate of growth, with the result of a larger future yield. 
The tract is broken by interior holdings and cut up by public roads, 
which heighten the danger from fire. The maintenance of a force of | 
rangers sufficient to patrol the tract thoroughly, to watch the bound- 
aries of all the interior holdings and all the traveling upon the public 
roads, would be expensive. It would be necessary to employ at least 
five men permanently, and to pay them enough to enable them to 
devote their whole time to the work of patrol. At $400 per year 
apiece, the cost of maintaining this force of five men would amount 
to 6 cents per acre per year. The additional expense of hiring extra 
help to fight fires, which at first would undoubtedly occur frequently, 
would probably raise the annual cost per acre to nearly 10 cents. 
If the whole area of 35,984 acres, with which this report deals, were 
owned in one solid block by the company and were crossed by no 
public roads, it is safe to make the estimate that the annual cost of 
absolute protection from fire would amount to less than 4 cents per 
acre, and that the raising of a third crop of pine would be feasible. 
In its present condition, however, the question of raising a third crop 
can not be considered. 
THE BIBB COUNTY TRACT. 
SITUATION. 
The Bibb county tract occupies the high land which forms the divide 
between the Cahaba River on the east, on which is located Centerville, 
and which is a tributary of the Alabama, and, on the west, the Black 
Warrior, or Tuscaloosa River, which flows by Tuscaloosa and Mound- 
ville into the Tombigbee. The total area of the tract is 70,588 acres. 
It comprises, wholly or in part: 
Sections 7 to 36, inclusive, of township 23 north, range 6 east; sec- 
tions 1 to 36, inclusive, of township 23 north, range 7 east; sections 
6, 7, 18, 19, 30, and 31 of township 23 north, range 8 east; sections 1 
to 18, 20 to 29, and 34 to 36, inclusive, of township 22 north, range 7 
east; sections 5 to 8, 17 to 20, and 29 to 32, inclusive, of township 22 
north, range 8 east. 
