The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-01-15
GAME COMMISSIONER
 WARNS AGAINST FIRES
By HERvEY w. LAIRD.

Montgomery, January 14.-lSpecial)- The season of the year having arrived when the farmers of the state, in making preparation for spring planting, will like ly set fire to the fields, which con1ag- ration will escape to the woods, thereby seriously impairing the possibility of fu- ture forest growth, the state game and
 fish commissioner, John II. Wallace, Jr who Is also secretary of the state com. mission of forestry, sounds note of warning to the people o1 Alabama, eau tioning them against burning the fields.
 On yesterday Mir. Wallace said: Prob ably 70 per cent of the forest lands or Alabama are burned over annually or fires is so little appreciated by a large portion of the popuia.lon liiat II IS deenieu necessary to direct the attention of the people to the great damage done in order if possible to prevent such loss in the fu- ture. Many people consider forest fires seriously only when they destroy towns and buildings; the forest fires of Ala bama are usually surface or grass fires, but they destroy year after year seed lings and young trees which would per- petuate the forests
 Long leaf pine resists fire exceedingly well aItei Il Has ra4seu itself above tnD ground two or three feet but it takes at least five years for seedlings to reach that size, and during that time there are sure to be one or more fires Long leaf pine does not bear seed in abundance oftener than once in four to eight years, and with hogs roaming the woods, greed fly eating the mast as 1t falls and in the winter roofing up the tender seedlings 1t is little wonder that pine woods are clean and park-like with little or no young undergrowth to replace the mature trees when they are cut away.
 Young hardwood trees are much more fire-resisting than the pines, and they often sprout from the roots when the lit- tie trees are burned off. Hardwood for ests are none the less damaged, however. by fires, as Is shown by the stunted and deformed growth. decayed butts and the absence of healthy young trees. Some hardwoods, like blackjack oaks, suffer least of all and consistently recover from repeated burnings.
 Another most serious damage resulting from fires is the impoverishment of the soil. The rich humus or vegetable cover ing Is burned away, exposing the bed rock on steep mountain slopes and mak- ing the soil hard and impervious where there is clay foundation. While long leaf pine seeds best on a mineral soil and a light fire previous to the fall of the
 
 ing of the soil is a most serious hind rance to germination.
 There are many causes of fires, de- pending largely on the region. Through out the pine belts fires are frequently started by farmers to destroy the accum-
 ulation of dead grass and weeds that cov- CTS the ground, and thereby enable the
 stock to obtain the new grass earlier
 in the spring. Many fires are started
 s.<..-
 sponsible persons who roam through the
 woods in search of game and pleas- ure.
 Lastly, the railroads responsible for probably more than half the fires. During the dry season sparks from loco motives on logging and standard roads often start as many as a dozen fires in distance of 10 miles along their rights of way, especially where heavy trains are pulled up steep grades In the hard wood forests of the mountains, fires are seldom started intentionally and are of less frequent occurrence.
 When once a fire has spread where
 much dead and down timber makes 1t
 very hot, it is almost impossible to check 1t. When this is the case, addition | al help should be summoned and it should be checked at all hazards Tn a
 damp, heavy forest, fire usually travels
 SLOWLY, ana lew men II persistent may keep it in check by trenching. even though 1 they may not extinguish it, and must
 continue the watch until rain falls. In l dry open woods fire travels waster and | 1t Is often best to go some distance to , open ground and set back fires there. ] In handling back fires great care Is needed I to avoid useless burning The night l time or early morning Is best time to work whenever any choice exists, for l nearly all forest fires die down more or ! less during the cool of the night, and flare | up again during the heat of the day. It | would be well to bear the following gen. 1 eral principles in mind:
 | Protect the valuable timber, rather than | the brush or waste.
 Never leave a fire until 1t is entirely 1 out.
 1 Young saplings suffer more than old. l matured timber.
 | Surface nrss h opsn woods. though not