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FORESTS,- FOREST LANDS AND FOREST PRODUCTS. 



tion for either fuel or building material. This, however, is what 

 some sections of eastern North Carolina are fast coming to, and 

 the fact is being recognized by not a few of their most thoughtful 

 residents. 



That the existence of a highly developed agriculture is some- 

 times entirely dependent on a forest is shown by the condition of 

 the lands between Bordeaux and the coast of France along the 

 bay of Biscay. This district is the seat of the manufacture of the 

 Bordelais wines, clarets and other light wines, and some of the 

 finest wines are made in vineyards east of the Medoc from vines 

 grown on a highly sandy soil. A great part of this land is cov- 

 ered with forests of pines, which were set out, at great expense, to 

 prevent the shifting of these sandy soils. Before the planting of 

 the forests these lands were sand dunes, or heather lands which 

 formed dunes of moving sand as rapidly as the low, scattered heath 

 growth was removed. 



In view of the facts stated in the preceding pages w^e are driven 

 to the conclusion that the most practicable plan of treatment of 

 these waste lands, with a view of making them again productive 

 of wealth to their owners, is that of protecting these areas against 

 the attacks of hogs and forest fires and thus permitting them to be 

 again covered with a new growth of long-leaf pine. 



COST OF SECURING A NEW FOREST GROWTH. 



The cost of securing a regrowth of long-leaf pine on most of 

 this waste land would now be very little in addition to what the 

 land-owners must necessarily pay to retain their land which has 

 ceased to be productive or give any returns. Interest on the 

 capital invested in the land probably has to be paid and taxes 

 must be paid yearW. The additional cost would be solely that 

 arising from protecting the land from fire and from excluding cat- 

 tle and swine for a certain number of years after a mast. 



The opposition such a measure would produce would be consid- 

 erable, especially among a class of indigent citizens who, owning 

 little or no land themselves, have always been accustomed to give 

 their cattle free range over the lands of others, to fire the dead 

 grass for bettering the pasturage, and even to cut timber for home 



