West Virginia University Division of Forestry - Cruiser Yearbook (Morgantown, WV)

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which hogs relished. One hog could completely denude 40 acres in one season. Mr. Hardtner was informed by U. S. Forest Service men that if he excluded hogs and kept out fire, he would obtain longleaf reproduction. A plot was established and fenced known as the Roberts plot to demonstrate these conten- sions. But there was one factor on which no one apparently had counted. In 1917 I observed that the foliage of these pine seedlings was being kil- led by a rust known as septoria pini. This para- site had not previously manifested itself for the reason that the annual fires had destroyed its spores. The fires had burned annually as a mat- ter of custom to improve the grazing before Hardtner took over. It had taken a few years for the rust to reestablish itself by means of teleo- spores borne by the wind. A second method off distribution was by ascospores which were bounced along the ground by the splashing of rain drops. In the absence of fire, this rust an- nually defoiliated the longleaf seedlings, stunt- ing and finally killing most of them. A ground fire which destroyed the infected foliage gave the pine a new lease of life, for with the food stored in its root, it would produce a crop of new needles free from rust the following spring. In about three years the rust would reappear, re- quiring another winter burn. There was still another reason for burning at three-year intervals. T'he longleaf pine seedling cannot endure any shade whatever. It will be kil- led out by hardwood sprouts or even under sweet fern unless these plants are removed by fire. It thus became evident that these seedlings were not only able to resist fires if burned in the fall or winter but were dependent for their survival on these same fires. If the bud of the seedling is not killed, the loss of its foliage does not affect its survival. In fact, the foliage may be burned to within an inch of the bud without killing it. I tried the experiment of placing a cigarette paper on the bud and it remained unscorched while all of the foliage was destroyed except stubs an inch long. I am led to believe that the foliage expels a noninflammable gas which protects the bud. I wish there were some way to prove this. The question now arises as to what caused these fires which must have occurred over the eons of time required to develop this species and its adaptions. The answer is lightning. I collect- ed data on the occurrence of lightning fires on the National Forests in this region over a period of years and found that they had been numerous enough to account for a rough average of a fire every three years under natural conditions. These fires originated by lightning striking dead stubs which, after the storm had passed, would set the grass ablaze. The only natural barriers to their spread were streams and swamps. In this way nature had provided irregularly and sporadically the fire which this species required for its sur- vival, for the control of the brown spot tseptoria pinij and for the removal of competing shade. When I published these findings and conclu- sions, the battle was on, and lasted 20 years. The final result was inevitable for when pointed out, it was only necessary to observe what was taking place. The forest rangers in direct contact with the field, were the first to be convinced. Then the contagion spread to the Southern Forest Experi- ment Station at New Orleans and to the Atlanta office of the U. S. Forest Service and finally, af- ter bitter resistance by a few die-hards, the Washington office capitulated.. Meanwhile the private owners throughout the south had adopted a policy of hardwood extermination. In this ef- fort they used every available tool, including girdling, utilization, repeated fires, bulldozing, and the use of a chemical which killed hardwood foliage but not pines. The net result of this revolution in silvicultur- al practice has been to make possible the estab- lishment o-f many new pulp and paper mills throughout the south with an assured supply of raw materials. I made a calculation which indicated that through lack of knowledge of these facts, the south had suffered a loss of a billion dollars. But now with the new procedures universally applied, this great region will get its billion dollars back. This entire result may be attributed to the ability of foresters to use their eyes with which to see things and not merely to read statements with- out checking them.

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