44 BULLETIN 1061, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
10 feet, and planting the seedlings at about the same distance apart. 
Soil preparation, although helpful at the start, is usually not neces- 
sary for the growth of seedlings. 
Blackjack oak lands. — The presence of much scrub or blackjack 
oak on cut-over lands is generally considered to be a great interfer- 
ence with the securing of a good natural reproduction of pine. Much 
of the oak did not " come in " after logging but was already present 
as stunted shrubs hardly noticeable at the time of logging. Undoubt- 
edly the oak hinders reproduction by forming a thick layer of leaves 
which prevents many seeds from reaching the soil. The absence of 
young-growth pine, however, is often directly traceable to the ab- 
sence of sufficient seed trees and to repeated fires. This type of oak 
occurs most commonly on dry ridges where fires are frequent and 
unusually severe. Young pine which gets a start, therefore, stands 
small chance of living against such odds, while the oaks sprout and 
seem to become more dense as a result of the action of the fire. If 
sufficient seed trees were left in logging, and young growth got 
started, it is likely that the hot fires would weaken or kill many of 
the seedlings in the first few years. A good growth of longleaf 
seedlings and saplings has repeatedly been observed among oak 
thickets (PI. XI) in various parts of the South. 
It may be found advisable to cut out some of the oak and make 
openings for the pine to get a start, as has been done by at least 
one lumber company in Louisiana. Various preparations, or " herbi- 
cides", are on the market for use in killing trees, and the Department 
of Agriculture, Washington, D. C., upon request furnishes informa- 
tion regarding their preparation and use. In oak thickets where seed 
trees are present in sufficient numbers, and where no fires have oc- 
curred in several years, in order to secure pine reproduction, many 
people believe that it may be advisable to burn over the land in the 
winter preceding the fall in which a good seed crop is anticipated. 
This will allow the seed to reach the soil. Protection against fire 
should thereafter be afforded. In the absence of good seed trees, at 
least an average of one to each acre, artificial methods of seed-sow- 
ing or the planting of seedlings must, obviously, be employed. 
PROTECTION. 
PROTECTION AGAINST FIRE. 
Every informed and right-thinking person knows that the stop- 
ping of forest fires is the first step in the reproduction of forests. 
Fires in the woods have lost to the South a rich heritage amounting 
to many hundreds of millions of dollars. If the lumbermen had 
already cut every stick of the original-growth pine, but, if from the 
start, fires had been kept clown, the South undoubtedly would today 
