The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1908-09-26
Neglect of Yellow Pine Forests in the
South.

In many parts OF the country Inc
most progressive men of the lumber
industry have felt the greatest neces-
sity of adopting better methods OF
protecting their timber holdings from
fire, but in some places there still
remains much to be done. This ID
particularly true through part of the
great yellow pine belt of the south,
upon which the naval stores industry
of the world is largely dependent. A
timber owner OF Florida, 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 protect their
turpentine timber, rake around the
trees during early winter, and then
burn the woods. This is done to keep
off the forest fires of early spring.
These fires are supposed to be set by
the cattle interests, for the purpose of
burning of the dry grass, so that the
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.
IF these fires could be stopped, it
would solve the problem of re,forest
ing, as far as Florida is concerned. ]
have thought for long time that a nc
fence law would go far toward stopping
the burning of the woods. As it is now,
there is no regulation.
What / mean to say is, if you own
small piece of land, say 40 acres,
and had 10000 head OF cate, you are
at liberty to Craze your cattle on ms
10, 600 acres OF land, or on my neigh
boris 20, coo acres of land, and We
cannot help ourselves. If we would
catch you firing the woods and had
witness to prove it, We could prosecute
you, but this is hard to do. If we had
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 neighbours, besides being of in
finite benefit to poor people in start
ing little farms. In many instances the
fencing of the land is by all odds the
largest item of expense in starting
Fur oft ~
the reach of poor men who might
otherwise make a little start toward
farming.
THE burning OF the grass not only
kills millions of small pine trees, but
it impoverishes The soil and exposes the
ground to the heat Of the sun, thereby
retarding the growth of not only small
pine trees, but the large ones as we'll.
The thing that is necessary to make
the trees healthy and vigorous goes up
in smoke every year.
what | have mentioned, and the
many destructive methods being prac.
ticed in the cutting of timber in the
AC1 OSV aAA IA pA4O III it,
is costing the south millions of dollars
of which she is taking no account, aud
the present low prices of lumber and
naval stores will add to the destruc.
tion, for the reason that many of the
owners of timber and turpentine leases
will not have money to pay the ex-
pense OF raking the pines. Our naval
stores and lumber are being sent all
over the world, and in the majority of
cases we are not making expenses out
of our commodity, with total loss OF
our timber which is really valuable
saough to bring good, liberal stump
age. We are selling our turpentine at
35 and Sc cents per gallon, and it will
costSl rer ontoreproduce the forest
from which it is being taken. The same
thing will apply to rosin. We are
giving the world our crop of lumber
at al average of about els per thous-
and feet that will cost US from $40 to
$50 per thousand fest TO reproduce. y