IMPORTANCE OF EARLY ACTIOX. 



71 



constantly increasing. This land is covered only with a low, 

 scrubby growth of sand black-jack oaks and in places has mixed 

 with these oaks scattered long-leaf pines, unfit for lumber and 

 exhausted of turpentine by the continued tapping. Malpractice, 

 especially the custom of firing the barrens and allowing stock full 

 range on them, has never given the long-leaf pine an opportunity 

 to reproduce itself except over very limited areas, and where pro- 

 tected. From this cause this pine, which will always have the 

 highest value, both for its timber and the abundant resin which it 

 contains, is in danger of becoming extinct in North Carolina, and 

 indeed in all the States where it now grows, at least as far as its 

 commercial importance is concerned. 



IMPORTANCE OF EARI^Y ACTION. 



If the long-leaf pine which is still standing is allowed to seed 

 these lands, and the seed and young pines protected from destruc- 

 tion, a regrowth can be obtained with comparative ease, but if the 

 long-leaf pines now standing are once destroyed, the securing on 

 these waste lands of a growth of trees which will be of economic 

 importance will be both a difficult and costly undertaking, since 

 this pine is the only tree of value in the arts which naturally 

 grows on these barren lands. It will cost very little more to secure 

 a regrowth than it does to retain the lands in their present impover- 

 ished and unproductive state, since taxes and frequently the inter- 

 est on the original investment must be paid. 



The adoption of some general law for these districts, requiring 

 stock, especially swine, to be confined, would be of great help in 

 securing a regrowth, but it would be imperative, at the same time, 

 to prevent any fire from passing through the barrens, since one 

 fire can kill in a few hours a growth of pines several years old. 

 The final value of the growth would depend, too, on fires being kept 

 out even wdien most of the trees were large enough to be unin- 

 jured by burning. By the time such a growth reached maturity 

 or became large enough to furnish timber, all the original forests 

 will have been cut over and the usually thin and scattering 

 regrowth will be called upon to furnish not only most of the fuel, 

 but all lumber and timber required in building and manufacturing. 



