Shades
of Northwest China!
Each Year in the Carolinas 6,400 Trains of 70
i
Cars Each Go Up in Smoke
By A STAFF WRITER
THINK of a stack of wood six
feet high and four feet wide ex
tending from the Atlantic to the
Pacific ocean and back again with
enough left over to reach from Charles
ton, S. C., to Chicago.
This should give you some idea of the
magnitude of the 6,900,000 cords of fire
wood that farmers of the Carolinas
burn annually, each farmer using an
average of around 15 cords a year to heat
the home, cook meals and cure the to
bacco crop.
To move this wood that Carolina
farmers convert into heat, ashes and
smoke each year would take 6,400 trains
of 70 cars each!
Shortage Stark Reality
Yet farmers are doing comparatively
little to safeguard and replenish the for
Loblolly pine at Piedmont Experiment Station, Statesville, N. C. Ono-year
seedlings were planted on poor, eroded ceeil clay in February of 1927. This pic
ture was made in August of last year.
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Looking into a stand of eight-year-old Loblolly pines planted March 3, 1927,
by J. E. Vanhoy on land owned by A. C. Vanhoy in North Carolina. The trees
are now 20 to 25 feet tall and measure four to six inches in diameter at breast
height.
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Timber stand improvement is demonstrated in mixed hardwoods and pines on
the farm of E. H. Brookshire, Caldwell County, N. C.
THE STATE FARMER SECTION
ests from which they take this wood.
Is it any wonder farm leaders are
becoming alarmed over the approaching
wood shortage—a shortage that is al
ready a stark reality in such North Caro
lina counties as Edgecombe, Wilson and
Pitt where farmers last year were forced
to go 50 miles to buy wood and then
haul it home in order to cure their to
bacco.
Shades of Northwestern China!
There farmers years ago cut down the
trees on the slopes and uplands. They
tried to put every acre into intensive
crops—but the slopes and uplands could
not continuously bear intensive cultiva
tion. The rain, no longer held back by
trees and grass, rushed down from the
mountains.. It carried _the soil away.
Millions of acres of sloping uplands be-
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Black locust five years after planting on an eroded cecil clay hill on the farm
of the W. E. Morrison estate, Iredell, N. C.
came waste and millions of people were
forced to leave the highef lands and set
tle in dense hordes on the alluvial plains
bordering the rivers.
Grain Roots for Fuel
And today in China wood is so scarce
that even the roots of grain crops are
dug up and used for fuel!
Physically, China is the farthest point
from the Carolinas, but at the rate we
are now going every day finds the states
made famous by the long leaf pine ap
proaching more closely China’s predica
ment of a depleted forest.
“What can we do about it?" we asked
our friend, R. W. Graeber, extension
forester at N. C. State College.
The answer: Conserve the forests that
are still left and practice reforestation by
planting trees on idle lands before it is
too late.
“We must use common sense in wood
cutting,’’ declared Graeber. “When a
farmer thins corn or chops cotton, he
doesn’t go to the edge of the field and
cut the first four or five rows down.
Yet we see thousands of farmers who,
when cutting firewood, go to the edge of
the timber field and clear cut a strip.
System Necessary
“Neither do you see a farmer cut the
best stalks of corn and leave the crippled
corn, the cockleburs and other Weeds.
Yet you see thousands of farmers cut
ting straight, clear pines, good white
oaks, clear hickories, or saleable ash,
while leaving such trees as crippled,
twisted pines, black jack and scarlet oaks,
sourwood, black gum and others which
are just weeds among our better tree
species.”
Graeber went on to say that most
Carolina farmers can increase the aver
age annual wood growth from the. pres
ent one-half cord per acre to a full cord
or even more by following a definite
system of thinning the over-crowded
stands and culling diseased, crippled, and
otherwise defective trees in any type of
stand. This policy gives the better spe
cies a chance to grow and makes possible
a restocking of the better species in the
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• Thinning demonstration in Loblolly ahortloaf pines (mixed stand) on the farm
of W. T. Parham, Vance County, N. C. After cutting 13 1-2 cords of firewood'
from the culls, 266 trees were left.
more open stands after such an improve
ment cutting.
The first forest planting in North
Carolina was made by Jacob Tickle, a
small but far-seeing farmer in Alamance
County—small because his land holdings
were not great, far-seeing because 48
years ago he had the initiative and fore
sight to reclaim 14 acres of gullies by
planting them in pines.
Today the forest on what was once
gullies is worth for fuel alone from $75
to SIOO an acre, but what is more im
portant, Tickle charted a course which
other farmers may well follow.
"As a rule, forest trees should be
planted in idle, open fields not suited
for the annual crops,” said (Graeber.
“Large openings in the woods where
root competition is not too great may be
planted. In the mountains and uppei
Piedmont where woods are open or poor
ly stocked, under plantings of white
pine, red pine, or Norway spruce is ad
visable. Black locust and pines are the
best species for eroding lands. Black
walnuts should be planted as individual
trees on every farm.
Consult County Agent
For general planting, Graeber recom
mended spacing forest trees six feet by
seven feet, this requiring 1,000 trees per
acre. In reclaiming gullies, a closet
spacing may be advisable.
The broad-leaved or deciduous trees
may be planted from Nov. 1 to April
30. Plant pines and other evergreens
in winter and early spring. Your county
agent wiM be glad to give you the source
of trees and make recommendations.
“Plant the seedlings,” Graeber said,
“immediately after they are secured it
possible. Otherwise, heel-in, getting the
roots well covered and moist. When the
package of seedling trees is opened do
not expose the roots to sunlight an<l air.
While planting, keep the roots moist in
a bucket with thick, creamy mud, made
with clay and water. Plant trees at same
depth as they grew in the nursery.
PAGE THREE