PKICFACE. 



11 



Indeed, nothing in the way of forest management could be more 

 reckless and destructive than the treatment of our long-leaf pine 

 forests during the past few decades. In the boxing for turpentine 

 the trees have been cut so deeply and so extensively that both their 

 vitality and strength have been greatly weakened, and the storms 

 have prostrated many of the finest specimens. The lumberman 

 and the storms have been followed by forest fires, which have com- 

 pleted the destruction, already begun in so systematic a manner, of 

 large areas. 



Started at times by thoughtless hunters at night, by sparks from 

 an engine, by careless squatters or tenants, or even at times by 

 land owners, in the hope of improving the grazing capacity of their 

 lands during the following season, these forest fires sweep irresisti- 

 bly across miles of territory, destroying not only the mature for- 

 est trees, but also the young growth; and thus destroy the forest of 

 the future as well as of the present. And the few young pines 

 w^hich may have escaped destruction in this way soon follow the 

 fate of the others by being destroyed by hogs. Many of these long- 

 leaf pine lands which lie in the sand hill regions of Eastern North 

 Carolina have had their forest removed so completely that they have 

 become "waste lands," covered by a thin growth of nearly worth- 

 less scrubby oak. The total area of these waste lands is now nearly 

 half a million acres, and is steadily increasing. This Report 

 endeavors to show that while much of these waste lands are w^orth- 

 less for other purposes, they can be re-set with long-leaf pine forests 

 if they can only be protected against forest fires and stock. And it 

 is gratifying to find among the lumbermen themselves a growing- 

 realization of the fact that it is to their interest and to the interest 

 of the public at large that this destructive policy giv^ place to a 

 more intelligent plan which, while it does not seriously curtail 

 the utilization of the existing forests, it looks to their protection 

 -and perpetuity. 



It is devoutly to be hoped that this awakening will grow into a 

 change of both public and private opinion concerning the future 

 of our forests, and lead to the adoption and carrying out of rational 

 plans for their perpetuity and improvement. -The problems 

 connected with the accomplishment of this end will be discussed 



