GEORGIA FORESTRY Men And Machines Conquer Wildfire The towering mountains and tem- pled hills of Georgia's northern r:im again were the scene of ' 'poss- ible impending disaster'' as Geor- gia's greatest forest fire crisis of this season developed to the highly critical stage and portended a possible wildfire blowup during the second and third weeks of No- vember. But the blowup was a- verted- preparedness, fore- planning and organization had their reward. I:Uring the 12 day period from November fl through 19, more than ~00 wildfires struck with savage fury at north Georgia woodlands, as parched, tinder-dry forests and ground cover fell easy prey to searing flames. An estimated 13,500 acres burned during this period. The fire crisis had developed over a period of several months as the extended drought of last August carried into and through a warm, almost rainless Indian Summer and on into 0ctober that brought with it killing frosts and death to the annual greenerv. A backfire torch is used to combat forest flames on a Fulton Councy fire. The stage was set and curtain time was at hand for Operation Wildfire as November came in with its deadly combination of bonelike dryness, low humidity, and increased wind velocity. The situation gradually worsened as Canmission officials, keeping a close watch from the Rome, Gainesville and Atlanta headquarters, noted an increasing fire incidence and extremedifficulty in suppressing and contacting fire. A veillike pall of smoke and haze hung over north Georgia making fire detection from towers and planes either very difficult or impossible. This hazard of closeting smoke held its grip on north Georgi~ ~hroughout the period of the Cr1S1S. ~ I '.. ~ This month, as the shipi ing season for Ceorgi a's record breaking crop of 100,000,000 forest tree seed lings gets in to full swing , tribute will be raid to the man who he 1red make the record possible - - M. F. ~"ur phy, who two decades ago this December began a career with the Ceorgia Forestry Corrmission which was to rrah 1im known as ''the dean of Southern forest tree nurserymen. ' ' Mr. Murpl1y actually began his cal eer experience in nursery work at the age of 12 as understudy to his father, who produced fruit and ornamental trees at Faye ttevi 11 t , Ceorgia. Following 1is father's death he orerated a store for two years be fore the call of the '' grt>en thumb'' once again prevailed and he returned to take charte of his father's nursery. Here he stayed unti 1 19?.~, V~l-en he came to the Hcrty Nursery at the offer of B.M. I ufburrov., Georgia's first state fur ester. There at the Her ty Nursery, which was then ' 'in the country on the Albany-Newton Poad, '' but which is nov. almo:,;t 011 the outskirts of Albany, on a bleak Saturday afternoon on tiP first day of December twenty years ago, Mr. Murphy began the phase of his career which had made him one of the leading, on the ground authorities, in nursery practice and techniques, and has experted a pronounced influence on,forestry throughout the South. He is the oldest employee of the Forestry Commission, in point of years of service. His mi 11 ions of growing pines - many o f v.hich are today being turned in to pulp in the state's mills stand as living memorials to his devotion and handiwork. ~re than 2~0 million of these young trees have been grown and shipped to landowners under !:is watchful eye . When the tree- rai sing team of ~~r. ~ndr.hs. Murphy first arrived at Herty they found the state's only nursery covering a total area of 7~ acres and supporting a crop of POO, 000 trees. Today the nursery stretches over 63 acres and grows 22 million seedlings a year. They found only two buildings - the pump house and a small packing shed. Since that time he has supervised construction of a residence which he and his family occupied in 1934, a new and greatly enlarged packing shed and office, a storage shed, two large equipment sheds, anJ two new wells with modern, high c~aci ty pu!JT>s. The irrigation system, originally covering two acres, now mechanically sprinkles the entire 63 acres. J n 1933 he employed three men full tj rre, and 15 on rush days. This year his average force numbers 16 men and women emrloy- ees and during the shipping season S3 persons wi 11 be required to lift, grade and ship seedlings. One of his pnme countinous endeavors has been to increase the production of healthy seedlings per unit area, and in this he has been eminently successful . He j s now producing twice as many seedlings per block as ten years ago and has realized his objective of reachir>g a rroduction of one million trees per acre. Visitors fran far and wide trek to the Herty Nursery to observe Mr . Murphy's techniques and get the benefit of his seeming! y infinite knowledge of treegrowing methods. He has recei ved visitor s frorn nearly every state iP the Union and from many foreign countries. Internationally known authorities on nursery practice often seek his consultation v.hen assembling j nformation for publication . Murphy speaks with inter s f and well- founded pride as he re- ~---....:c-----or-~-.......... ~~-- .:~;-:_ _:.::=-- ...-. .~.....r-- 1 '#t $' q. . . .... " TOP QUALIIT PLANTING SroCK," says Murphy as he clo sely i nsp ects trees in one bed of the nursery. (upper left photo) 1liE TRAINED EYE of th e master nurseryman scrutinizes th e seedlings as Murphy en v isions thes e mill ions of little trees as fu t ure pulp wood and sawlogs. (upper righ t photo) NURSERY PANORAMA--Acres of fully-st ocked seedling beds stretch almost to the horizon. (bottom photo) lates his many experiences down through tl e years. He calls this year's stando f seedlings ''the nearest perfect crop I ever t1ave seen - a crop I've been working twenty years to produce,'' and looks upon this twentieth anni versar y p r oduction of seedlings "ala Murphy" as a fitti ng climax to "1he 20 years d: a t have been the best and rnost enj oyall e of my en tire life.'' Mrs. Murrhy Learns as she shows the equal pride she justifiably holds in the progress at Hertyprogress ir1 wbich as a guiding hand beside her husband she has had a big part. ''\\e don't even have time to go fishing'', they both say, ''even though we hold li ft.-time hllilting and fishing licenses as gifts of the state. ' ~everal experiences stand out in ~\Irphy's memory as of special significance in the advancement of his methods, but outstanding amrng these is one which changed his entire procedure in preparing seed for plan tin g. He had some seed in cold storage in an ice plant which burned on a Friday. Smoke, fumes and fire damage prevented him froowbtaining the barrel of seed until the following Monday. At that time he found the barre 1 and seed was completely covered with water. (Continued on Page 10) 9 GEORGIA FORESTRY Rangers In The News Polk County Forest Ranger James Carter reports answering a call to three fires simultaneously at Felton, where his unit saved two store buildings and one house. One store building was burning when the unit arrived on the scene, Carter said, and the house and other building blazed up upon his arrival. The unit put the fires out with a portable water pump mounted on the Forestry unit's pickup truck. The fire was under control when the fire department fromBuchannan arrived on the scene, Carter said. ~/ ~ The Bank of Sc reven County has recently purchased a mechanic al tree planter to be made av ai l a b l e to Screven County farmers for reforestation purposes. The tree planter has been turned over t o the Screven Cotmty Forestry Uni t for management . John A. Mills, Jr., ban k president, said, ''The bank has purchased this machine bec au se of its realization of the need for expanding our for est l ands and to assist farmers in setting seedlings with a minimum ofdi ff iculty . This program has the endorsement of all the agricultural agencies in the county and these agencies will assist any farmer in preparing his forest management program.'' FIRE WARDEN SI GNS GO UP-- Crawford County Ranger J. H. Rigdon points out one o f the many signs being erected in hi s county to mark t he location s of volunteer fj re wardens. Ben Hill Cmmty Forestry Ranger J. C. Bowen has corre up with a novel idea to arouse public interest in forestry. In his weekly Fitzgerald Herald news column, he wrote a short quiz to test the forestry knowledge of the general public. Mr. Bowen reports that his quiz seems to have been well read and that public response was very good. Leon Ray, Emanuel County Forest Ranger, has been named co-chairman of the 1953-54 Keep Georgia Green Contest in Emanuel County. This ye ar's contest will be under the sponsorship of the Emanuel County Pine Tree Festival which is held annually for the purpose of giving Emanuel County citizens a better unde rstanding and appreciation of the Pine tree and the part it pl ays toward the advancement of t he coun t y. Vol. 6 GEORGIA FORESTRY December, 1953 Published Monthly by t he GEORGIA F ORESTRY COMMISSION, State Capitol, Atlanta, Georgia Gu y ton DeL oach, Director No. 12 Member s, Board of Commissioners: G. Philip Mor gan, Chai r man _________________________________________________ Savannah J ohn M. McElrath-____________ Macon K. S. Varn ___________Waycross C. M. Jordan, Jr._______________ Alamo H . 0 . Cummings ____Donalsonville Georgia Forestry is entered as second class matter at the Post Office under the Act of August 24, 1912. Member of the Georgia Press Association. EDITOR _ __ _ ______ *___ _*__ * *_ ____ _ __________Richard E. Davis A SSOCIATE EDITORS__ __ Robe rt Rutherford , Catherine Dismuke * * * * DISTRICT OFFICES, GEORGIA FORESTRY COMMISSION: DI STRICT !- Route 2, St atesboro DISTRICT VI-P. 0. Box 505, Milledgeville DISTRI CT 11-P. 0. Box 26, Camilla DISTRICT III- P. 0. Box 169, Americus DISTRICT VII-Route 1, Rome DISTRICT VIII-P. 0. Box 811, Waycross DISTRICT IV- P. 0. Box 333, Newnan DISTRICT IX-P. 0. Box 416, Gainesville DISTRICT V- P . 0. Box 328, McRae DISTRICT X-P. 0. Box 302, Washington .. .. - Zack Seymour, Assistant District Fbrester, District 4, rakes a line, above, to halt flames on a Fulton County forest fire. Men, Machines- Herty Superintendent (Continued from Page 1) Lookout Mountain. Here was the nerve center of operations in this district with fire crews being dispatched from this point. Meanwhile in the Gainesville and Newnan Districts, the fire problem was simultaneously gain 1ng momentum and numerous blazes were being fought, with operations harrpered by a similar pall- of smoke and haze. Though fire occurrence reached a high point in thes e areas, the regular per sonnel and equipment we re a ble to mee t the situation and acreage losses were held to a minimum i n prote c t ed counties. In the three unprotected counties of ~hite, Banks and Dawson counties, racing fir e s cut down thousands of acres of woodlands and threatened surrounding protected counties. Crews fought 56 fires that burned 785 ac res i n the Gainesville Distri c t and 107 fires that burned 1100 acre s in the Newnan distri ct i n 12 days . At the same t ime wea thennen predicted i ncreased wind veloci ties with ''no rain i n sigh t ' ' for the next several days . Firefighters battled on and bla zes in the s t ate were decre ase d ste adi ly, bu t t he danger of a fire '' bl owup' ' s ti 11 remained. After more days of fi ghting, all fires were out l a te in th e evening of Novembe r 19, with a chance of scattered showe r s forecast for the late afternoon of Friday, November 20. On tha t d ay, a drenching rain finally came. The danger was over, t he fires we re out. Emergency crews and equ ip ment were rroved out of the area . ''Operation Wildfire '' - in its first test of the year-was hi story. (Continued from Page 8) Common practice at that time was for seed to be kept corrr letely dry until plan t e d, with t he result t hat about six weeks was required for germination. nowing he could not afford to lose the see d wh ich were wet from the fire , he imne di a tely plan t ed the wet seeds as a d e.sparate resort. Within lC' days he had full germination o f t he s eed which had been soaked and an excell ent stand begun in these particular beds. Seed which had been previously planted dry did not germinate unti 1several weeks l ater. From that time he has been stratifying all s e ed by soaking in wate r overni g}-.t , and as a result has gre at l y reduced the period r e qu i r ed for germination. He has al so pioneered in sever al oth er ph ases of nursery opera tio n . In 1938 he carried on weed con trol by spraying -one o f the fi rs t ti me s this was done on a major scale. This reduced his weed ing crew from more than 1.(() to abo ut 12 pe rsons. He has kept a s ee d record since 19 34, when he f irst sta r ted co llecting s eed , and has Sl!ccessfull y stored seed as long as nine years. He now is carrying on a project in es t ablishment of seed tree orchards from which he hopes to procure superi or, di sease-resi s talit pi nes. He plants seed f rom selected trees to obtain seed f rom wh ich superior trees can be grown . Bill MD rray , Management Fb rester, District 6, uses a back pump to suppress a Rising Fawn fire. (Continued from Page 3) Spe akers on t he afte rnoon' s program included J. D. S tr ange, U. S. D. A. Forest Service , who covered ' 'New Practices and Assistance Availah le to Farmers Through Area Fore s ters,'' Dr. W. A. Campbell, Schoo l of For estry, Un i ve r s ity of Georgia, who spoke on'' Insect and Dise ase Control of Shade Tree s ' ', and A. R. Shirley, Secre t a r y, ATFA, Valdosta, who in dis cussing ' 'What Is New In Marketing of Naval Stores'' predicted that within the next ten years more and more big timber land owners would make their stands available for working for naval stores . '' The closing phase of the short course was devoted to demonstrations of forestry practices held indoors due to the inclement we a ther. E. 0. Powers, Area Fores- ter,N S C P;Tifton, and Dyer show- ed advanced naval stores prac- tices; Frank Bennett, IRese arch Forester, Cordele and John Harrison, Ranger, Tifton, demonstr a- ted hardwood killing; J . F. Spi ers , Forester, Central of Ge orgia Rail- road, Statesboro, and Mitchell Parker, Internationa l Paper Co., Panama Ci t y, Fla., explained pu lp wood practices, and Car los Mcleod , Asst. bridg District F :, gave a tree oprleasntetir ~gdBeamionn- stratlon. Georgia Forestry December, 1983 ::}- Entered as second class matter at t he P ost Offic e, Atlanta, Georgia. You Can't Pull Christmas Trees Out Of A Hat Maybe you can pull a rabbit out of a hat, but it takes time to grow a tree. Nature provides the magic. When forests are protected from fire and harvested wisely, new trees continue to sprout and grow. A wellmanaged forest will produce trees for use forever. We can grow trees without being magicians, but we must be careful with fire in the woods to Keep America Green. .l'o Dtr,di to jJ 11.ool of l .. ( ivcrsi 'br '' "" ' 1,..... r~ ~ r.,.. !""'!