INVESTIGATIONS OF THE ROTTING OF SLASH IN ARKANSAS. 7 
tity of the brush thus situated, little of it is attacked by the ground 
fungi, and the benefits thereby derived are correspondingly slight. 
At the end of five to six years all of the brush (twigs and small 
branches) which was scattered will have rotted, and much of it will 
have disappeared. It was also no uncommon thing to find partially 
rotted brush, whether piled, scattered, or lopped, attacked by white 
ants (termites) and the partially rotted wood replaced to some extent 
by dirt. 
BLACK-OAK AND POST-OAK SLASH. 
Black-oak and post-oak slash was attacked by practically the same 
fungi which rot the white oak; however, but little of this type of 
slash was seen. The twigs and small branches of the black oak in 
most of the cases examined seemed to rot somewhat more slowly 
than white-oak slash of the same character, while the post-oak slash 
seemed to rot with about the same rapidity as the white oak. 
Polyporus cinnabarinus was occasionally found rotting the large 
limbs and boles of the black oak, while the small twigs and limbs of 
the post-oak slash were sometimes attacked by Schizophyllum com- 
mime, and call logs and stumps were occasionally attacked by 
Lentinus lecomtei. Stereum ochraceo-ftavum> was the principal 
fungus found rotting fire-killed oak bushes 2 inches or less in diam- 
eter, while Polystictus pergamenus was the fungus usually found 
attacking fire-killed trees and fire-killed areas on standing living 
trees of all species of oak. 
SHORTLEAF-PINE SLASH. 
Shortleaf-pine slash was examined on areas which had been logged 
from two to nine years. 
FUNGI WHICH ROT THE SLASH. 
Two main fungi were found rotting the shortleaf-pine slash. One 
begins work in the ends of the small branches and works downward 
toward the trunk. This is usually Lenzites sepiaria, a dry-rot organ- 
ism prevalent throughout the United States. This fungus has never 
been found by the writer attacking slash which was not exposed to 
the direct rays of the sun. 
The second fungus enters the cull logs, boles of the tree tops, and 
branches 2 inches or more in diameter. It is what the writer pre- 
viously has called the "white-fir fungus" (Polystictus ahietinus). 1 
It is a sap-rotting organism and usually rots but little, if any, of the 
heartwood. 
1 Long, W. H. A new aspect of brush disposal in Arizona and New Mexico. In Proc. 
Soc. Amer. Foresters, v. 10, no. 4, p. 383-398. 1915. 
