DESTRUCTIVE WORK P>Y HOGS AND FIRES. 



57 



reproduction and growth it is more severely and continuously 

 attacked by a greater variety of enemies than any other. Besides 

 the natural drawbacks to its development from the peculiar man- 

 ner of forming several of its parts, and the fact that these parts 

 w^ien destroyed are not replaced, its large and sweet seed are eaten 

 in large quantities by foivl of various kinds, rats, squirrels, and 

 by swine, which prefer them to all other kinds of mast and, when 

 there is enough long-leaf pine mast, become very fat on it. 



As far as has been observed, young long-leaf pines are attacked 

 by no injurious beetles or bark-borers or by any fungi sufficiently 

 to injure them. The mature pines, however, have in past years 

 several times been attacked by bark beetles in such numbers as to 

 destroy the pine over large areas. A few trees which have been 

 killed from their attacks can be seen at any time around the edges ♦ 

 of districts where lumbering is in progress, or about districts which 

 have been recently lumbered. 



DESTRUCTIVE WORK BY HOGS AND FIRES. 



If the destruction by swine ceased with eating mast there would 

 still be sufficient seed left to reproduce some parts of the forests, 

 as the mature trees are gradually thinned out, for one-year-old 

 seedlings are common twelve months after a heavy mast. No 

 sooner, however, has the young pine gotten a foot high and its root an 

 inch in diameter than the hog attacks it, this time eating the roots, 

 which, until two inches in diameter, are very tender, juicy, pleas- 

 antly flavored and free of resinous matter. In the loose sandy 

 soil the piney woods hog, or "i^ooter," finds little difficulty in fol- 

 lowing and devouring these tender roots to their smallest ends. 

 Many small trees are destroyed in this w^ay. And cattle, further- 

 more, are said to bite off frequently the tops of the small plants, 

 and w^ith them the terminal buds, in the early spring. This is 

 doubtless done while grazing, more accidentally than otherwise. 



Fires often destroy all the young pines that escape the hogs. 

 They kill the small pines by burning the highly inflammable 

 bracts around thfe bud and so stop its growth, or in high grass fre- 

 quently burn all the leaves. Larger trees, even until they are 3 

 or 4 inches through, are easily killed in spring, when the sap is 

 4 



