Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-01-20
DESTROYING FORESTS
Practice Of Burning Over Wood
Lands Is Foolish and Destructive.
INFORMATION ABOUT THBlPIEE TREE
Average Yearly Cut Since 1893 Has
Been One Billion. ;Feet--No Taxes
Paid on Output Of the, ,Mills--At-
tention Directed to Subject Of Vast
I,,nott,n,..2@ :: - itffH'

BY James Henry Rice, Jr.
Perhaps, instead Of abusing people
that call attention to our low standing
in education, it might be just as well
TO eradicate the ignorance by giving
the people genuine practical education
with no politics in it.
When Sir Charles Lyell, the great
seoiogist, said III 1854, that the Souths
difficulty arose from devotirg too
much attention to the production of
orators and politicians and too little
to making scientists and men of af-
fairs, he struck home We are still
doing it.
When college graduates advocate
the burning over Of forests, a prac-
tice condemned by every authority in
tho civilized world, it is high time
that proper education be given these
gentry before turning them loose to
sow ignorance broadcast among the
people.
What can be expected of an ignor-
ant bushman when so-called educat-
ed men utter such language?
Test of Capacity.
Forest conservation is fair test of
a mans intellectual capacity. If he
cen not reason out such thing to its
conclusion, he is either BORN weak
minded, or has been woefully neglect
ed in his education.
Why did civilization abandon the
plains of Mesopotamia? why are
there buried cities in the sands Of
North Africa? why are thousands of
square miles of Chin:. smitten with
famine? The answer lies in the des-
truction of the forests on which civil
lization depended. 1t Is, and always
has been, Impossible to build up civil
lization in q treeless region. A few
people can exc out existence there
perhaps, making fire from camel dung
In the East and from llama dung in
the West; but II will bear little re-
semblance to civilization.
The subject Is a vast one. It is not
easy to comprise in short space its
manifold bearings. We can, however,
throw out hints strong enough to con-
vince anybody but born fool.
This we are trying to do.
The Pine.
Commercially, the most important
timber in the state is pine. For prac-
tical purposes pines may be divided
into Long Leaf, or Yellow pine and
Short Leaf pine. There are many
varieties of Short Leaf, known by
various names in different communi-
ties. They have different qualities,
but for trade purposes they are all
grouped under the one name, Short
Leaf" sometimes marketed as "Old
Field" or North Carolina" pine.
1t is called North Carolina Pine"
because a little of it grows in North
Carolina, its rarity attracting n spec
iGl name perhaps; most of it grows in
other states.
Up to the year 1898, Short Leaf pine
was regarded as worthless, or nearly
Sc, in South Caroline, by the state.
This was one of the sad defects in their
education. Plenty Of other people
knew better, but it was no business Of
theirs to inform timber owners of the
value of what they owned; whereby
some hundreds of millions in property
were lost to the people Of this state.
Ignorance is a costly commodity,
and it's purveyors are luxuries. We
could afford 70 ignore such a loss
when every year we were turning out
a noble army Of orators and politicians.
What is money any how?
The average cut of pine timber
since 1898 has been Il billion feet a
year, with the exception Of one war
year, when it dropped to 545,0OO 900.
Did the people of the state get any
return for this vast amount of produc-
ton? They did not; but then the
lawyers did and as our principal edu-
u 'slIOlldi output was lawyers, we may
be said to have benefited through
them. 1t was encouraging the fine
arts. But the tax department is no
richer. There has not been cent
paid on stumpagc or standing timber;
there has not been cent paid on the
output Of the mills.
Very few states are rich enough to
give away so much. and South Caro-
lima is to be congratulated.
Ten cents a thousand on the mill
output would have meant one hun
hundred thousand year, or more
than two million dollars since the rush
began.
Work of Years.
In forty years n pine tree will mako
good sap lumber. Covered with paint
it will have n long life. North Caro-
lima has almost nothing but this sort
of timber left. For its full growth into
heart stuff a pine tree requires near
ly two hundred years, at least $50
years-meanng Short Leaf. of course.
yellow pine requires n third more
time.
If there has been selection in cut
ting, if no tree under 10 or II inches
in diameter at small end Of the first