FORESTRY ON THE PENINSULA OF

EASTERN VIRGINIA.

EING especially interested in the treatment of sandy lands, and the protection and culture of forests of the Smooth-bark or Shortleaf Pine, I was led to visit the two counties of Virginia, Northampton and Accomac, the southernmost portion of the peninsula formed by the confluence of Chesapeake Bay and the Ocean. According to Dr. Mohr, the Smooth-bark or Shortleaf Pine (Pinus echinata) is for many reasons the forest tree of the future for a large portion of the Southern Atlantic States.

The large Coastal Plain, beginning with Southern New Jersey, would soon be capable of producing almost limitless quantities of this valuable timber were it properly protected from reckless devastation. With Cypress and White Cedar in the swamps (the latter equaling, if not excelling the White Pine in quality of its wood) and Shortleaf Pine on the uplands, this region is capable of yielding a perpetual supply of timber suited to almost all kinds of construction. The Shortleaf Pine is well fitted for coarse stuff-for houses and ships, and boards for floors and ceilings, and is excellent for pilings and timbers for wharves, and poles for telegraph and telephone lines, while the Cypress * and cedar serve for shingles and finishing boards, and other purposes for which the pine is not suitable.

I was told that in the two counties mentioned above the forests were being properly cared for and even propagated without the aid of foresters or forest laws. My surprise was of course great when I found the region even more than was anticipated, and that at least in one part of the Eastern States the forests are free from fire, and the sentiment of its people wholesome in reference to their natural resources. This little spot in Virginia demonstrates that if the people are of the right mind the protection of pine forests is not only possible, but simple, easy and inexpensive.

The region reminded me of the Medoc, and the fields of young pines resemble the blocks of the Maritime Pine along the shores of Gascony. Almost every farm has its pine forest. These, of course, are of all sizes and ages, varying from fields as thick

The region of the Pokomoke River, as far as the writer has been able to observe,

is the northernmost limit of the natural growth of the Cypress.

There were

and dense as wheat to forests fit for large size timber. few signs of forest fires, which the natives say are always promptly extinguished.

The truth is, in fact, the inhabitants have a forestry system of their own, which Americans can study to great advantage.

The soil of this region is light and sandy, being dunelike in nature along the shore. The pines grow close to the shore, although a few have been killed by the shifting sand. The natives recognize the value of the forest in holding the soil in place and in protecting their truck patches from the force of wind, which would naturally at times sweep furiously over this narrow peninsula.

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On entering one of these forests one observes at once that although there are small trees of Sweet Gale and Holly, the ground is free from litter and brush. If one happens to visit the region at the proper season he will see men and women raking up the forest litter. The pine chats," needles" or "brows" are valuable for a fertilizer and are spread on the neighboring fields. They are also used for bedding stock-Accomac being famous for its blooded horses. In fact, it is a land of plenty, with all the bay and sea afford, besides wild game in abundance. The pine chats produce a fine grade of sweet potatoes. The writer is unable to say whether there is a peculiar manurial value in the pine leaves, or whether they merely add to the porosity of the soil, acting, no doubt, at the same time as a mulch, although they disintegrate and disappear in the course of a single season.* About this season of the year one can see field after field covered with pine chats to be ploughed under just as soon as the weather permits. In fact, the fields are laid out in squares by means of the plough, in order that the pine chats can be easily measured, and thus evenly distributed. Just as soon as a field becomes fallow the farmer leaves it to Nature. The neighboring seed pines furnish the mast, the winds sow it, and soon a fresh young green growth appears, as dense and level as a field of grain. Here and there throughout the forest there are avenues which, although constructed to facilitate the collection of pine chats, serve at the same time the purpose of fire lanes.

Now the great question is: Why don't they have fires? Stranger still, their jails are often empty, a very suggestive and important concurrence of circumstances. Because of the value

of the pine chats the forest floor is free from inflammable

* The German literature on this subject is quite exhaustive. The manurial value of pine straw lies mainly in its nitrogen contents. From one acre there may be had annually about 2,500 pounds of straw furnishing about 20 pounds of nitrogen, 12 pounds lime, 31⁄2 pounds potash, 3% pounds magnesia and less than 3 pounds phosphoric acid. -EDITOR.

materials just at the time when fires are most likely to occur, namely in the spring. The removal of this debris may be contrary to the principles of German forest management, because it naturally impoverishes the forest soil, but on the other hand, a part of the forest increment, to the ultimate good of everything concerned, is converted into as fine a grade of sweet potatoes as ever grew. In the course of time, however, these potato fields are allowed to come up in pines and fresh fields are cleared when the pines have been cut. This, fortunately, is easy, because the sand is soft, the stumps do not sprout, but are quickly honey-combed by woodeating insects, and finally decay.

how to extinguish,

Another point of great advantage is that the forest is not continuous. but cut up into parcels with farm lands intervening. The land is also in the form of so-called "necks," that is, small peninsulas jutting out into bays, or strips of land between small bays or streams. There is only one railroad, which runs straight down the peninsula. This road is ballasted with oyster shells and ditched on both sides. What, however, is most important in reference to the fire question is the fact that the people are an honest and law-abiding set. The truth is, the shameful condition of our forests is, as Dr. Fernow says, a question of morality. In regions inhabited by a wild, heterogeneous set of half-starved rogues you will find forest fires and full jails. The great question in connection with American forest fires is not but how to prevent them. The employment of wardens to extinguish fires is like caring for the sick in a typhoid epidemic without purifying a contaminated water supply. Time spent in extinguishing forest fires is to a certain extent time lost, because there ought be no fires to extinguish. The real work of the forester does not begin until fires are stopped. The prevention of fires, or at least all fires except those accidentally, unavoidably set, belongs to detectives, sheriffs and the courts. The first step in the prevention of fires is the conviction and punishment of all persons or corporations guilty of causing them. Well-enforced laws of this kind will reduce the record seventy-five per cent. The forest owners, being encouraged by the prospect, will be less apathetic. After fires are stopped Nature, with a little help, will do the rest, as she does on the peninsula of Virginia. It is not so much a question of forestry as it is of justice. The same applies to other industries as well.

JOHN GIFFORD.

* The best way to keep a garden clean is never to let the weeds start.