THE ULTIMATE UTILITY OF THESE WASTE LANDS. 



59 



now be large enough- for small mill timber and for turpentine; 

 while the burnings of the present and future, if not soon discoi> 

 tinned, will mean the final extinction of the long-leaf pine in this 

 State. 



THE ULTIMATE UTILITY OF THESE WASTE LANDS. 



It has been practically demonstrated, in the vicinity of South- 

 ern Pines and elsewhere, that, after having been richly fertilized, 

 considerable portions of these sandy pine-barren lands, containing 

 a small portion of loam and organic matter mixed with the sand, are 

 adapted, by their southern situation and light, friable soil, to a high 

 state of productiveness in fruits and vegetables ; and these branches of 

 agriculture are rapidly increasing in North Carolina. They appear 

 to be more especially suited for vinticulture and gardening. It is 

 probable, however, that large portions of these waste lands will not 

 be brought into cultivation during the next fifty years, nor at any 

 time, owdng to the extreme poverty of the soil. What then is to be 

 done with this 400,000 acres, once covered with long-leaf pine, 

 but now of little more value than a similar area of a genuine 

 desert? If the present lack of policy in regard to their manage- 

 ment is continued, it is only a matter of a few years before the long- 

 leaf pine which is now standing on the sand-hills will also have 

 been destroyed without giving profitable returns to its owners or 

 leaving behind it a young growth of pine to take its place. It 

 becomes manifest at once that if the scattering trees, which might 

 serve as seed trees, are entirely removed from this waste land, it 

 will not only be a very difficult but a very costl}^ matter to secure 

 a regrow^th of long-leaf pine or any other valuable building tree, 

 either pine or hardwood. 



No matter what is the ultimate use to which the land may be 

 put there must necessarily be, on a considerable part of it, trees 

 which grow large enough to furnish timber and fuel more abun- 

 dantly than the black-jack oak can do. A pine alone can supply 

 such wants when there is only an impoverished soil to grow^ on, arid 

 the long-leaf pine can do this better than any other pine. 



No community, least of all one devoted to agriculture, no mat- 

 ter whether it raises cotton, garden truck or fruit, can be inde- 

 pendent while at the same time it is dependent on some other sec- 



