Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1908-09-27
NEGLECT OF YELLOW
 PINE IN THE SOUTH

| industry nave felt the greatest ne- eessity of adopting better methods of protecting their timber holdings from fire but in some places there l still remains much to be done. This is particularly true through a part of the great yellow pine belt of the South upon which the naval stores l industry of the world is largely de- pendent. 4 timber owner of Flor l ida, in writing to the Forest Service at Washington, talks of the matter as follows:
 Speaking of fire protection There is absolutely nothing being done. The turpentine people, to l protect their turpentine timber, rake around the trees during early winter, and then burn the woods. I This is done to keep off the forest fires of early spring. These fires are supposed to be set by tic cattle interests, for the purpose of burn ing off the dry grass, so that tae young grass will come up, on which the cattle feed. In doing this, they destroy millions of young pines that have just started to grow and are too small and tender to stand the heat of the fire.
 eff these fires could be stopped, it would solve the problem of re- foresting, as far as Florida is con- cerned. l have thought fer lCng time that no fence law would go far toward stopping the burning of the woods. As it is now, the"e is no regulation.
 What l mean to say is, that if you own a small piece Of land, say cattle, you are at liberty to graze your cattle on my 10000 acres of land, or on my neighbours 2O,000 acres of land, and we cannot help ourselves. If we would catch You firing the woods and had a witness to prove it, we could prosecute you. but this is hard to do If we had a no fence law, you as cattle owner, would be compelled to keep your cattle in an enclosure, which would remove the temptation of burning the woods of your neighbors, be- sides being infinite benefit to poor people in starting little farms. In many instances the fencing of the land is by all odds the largest item of expense in starting a small farm and often puts it beyond tl1-'e 'e"e of poor men who mier sA' o'nef"i IS ,,o1. ,;..,o a.o. s~toward farming
 ..The hnrni- g of the grass nc o,,, ,.,n.l4s millions of small pin :, lees but it impoverishes the so
 and exposes the ground to the hes
 of the sun, thereby retarding tn
 growth of not only small pine tree
 but the large ones as well. Tn
 thing that is necessary to make tn trees healthy and vigorous goes |.
 in smoke every year.
 What l have mentioned, and tn
 many destructive methods hein
 practiced in the cutting of timber i
 the forests and in the manufactm , of it, is costing the South million
 of dollars of which she is takin" n , account. and the present low price r of lumber and naval stores will ad . to the destruction, for the reaso 2 that many of the owners of timbe 2 and turpentine leases will not hay ] money to pay the expense of raEin the pines. Our naval stores an lumber are being sent all oyer tn
 world, and in the majority of case
 We are not making expenses out c
 commodity, with d total loss of ou
 timber which is really valuabl enough to bring a good. libera
 stumpage. We are selling our tur
 pentine at 35 and 36 cents per gal
 lon, and it will cost S1O0 per gal
 lon to reproduce the forest iron
 which it is being taken. The sam,
 thing will apply to rosin. We are
 giving the world our crop of lumber
 at an average of about S15.O0 pel
 thousand feet that will cost us from
 $4o.o0 to S30.00 per thousand feet to reprodrce."