DEPARTMENT OF FORESTRY AND GEOLOGICAL DEVELOPMEN Vol. 3 ATLANTA, GA., FEBRUARY, 1933 No. 2 MALARIA PROMOTED , BY FOREST FIRES : A PUBLIC APPEAL GA. MARGINAL LANDS FOR TREE PRODUCTION State Board of Health Finds Malaria Worse in Drouth and Burned Regions of Georgia - Woods Fires Favor Breeding of Malarial Mosquitoes. The State Board of Health of Georgia reports an increase in the number of malaria cases in sections of Georgia following the drouth and forest fires of 1931 and 1932. It is believed by the board of health that forest fires were an important factor in this increase by creating conditions favoring the breeding of the malarial mosquitoes. It is pointed out by the board that the mosquitoes that transmit malaria breed in water that is neutral or alkaline, that thf'y avoid water that is acid. Except in the limestone regions of south Georgia, swamp waters, in the absence of forest fires, are too acid to make breeding places for the malarial mosquito, though they breed other mosquitos. As an example, Okefenokee swamp was carefully searched by federal men for larva of the malarial mosquito without' success. The waters of the swamp apparently contained too much organic acids to suit that breed of mosquitos. It has also been found that the greatest number of malarial mosquitos and the greatest number of cases of malaria coincide with the limestone belts of the state, showing that lime in solution in the water makes a condition favorable for breeding the malarial mosquito. Why forest fires make swamps less acid and more favorable as breeding places of the malarial mosquito, is explained by the fact that the ash left by fires contains lime, potash and other minerals which enter readily into solution of rain water. This neutral or slightly alkaline water has filled up dry or burned swamps and created a condition favorable for breeding of malaria mosquitos. The slow filling of dry swamps after a long drouth has probably favored the malarial mosquito more than in the absence of severe drouths. But the evidence seems to point to ash of burned W6ods leaching into swamps at any time as liable to so modify the chemical condition of the water as t.o favor the breeding of lllalaria mosquitos. An appeal is made by the State Forest Service to people everywhere not to set fire to their timberland and to use precaution burning fields or brush. A large acreage of young Abando~d Farms and Lands Exhausted for Profitable Crop Yields, Useful Only in Growing Trees. timber will probably be ruined or greatly set back in growth by fires, unless people can be made to realize that burning timber even in damp weather, can not be done without burning all needles off large saplings and killing outrig,ht the small seedling tree. People are urged by the Forest Service not to burn their land this year, and thus reduce the large economic loss to the State such burning annually causes. "Marginal land" is a term that has come to mean land not capable of being profitably used for agriculture. Marginal land may be land once used for agriculturai crops but now abandoned and for the present, at least, not needed for producing food. It may also include badly eroded land no longer suited to farm crops; marshes, overflow land, rocky, steep and inaccessible lands, cut-over areas not reforesting, and range lands of low quality. No survey has been made to determine how much marginal land exists in Georgia. The question might be asked as to whether the drying up of the swamps has not eradicated the natural enemies of the mosquito, notably fish. The answer to this is that in limestone regions, fish and other natural enemies of the mosquitos have never controlled the mosquito. Whatever effect the natural enemies may have the fact is that they are not now in the swamps that were dried up and therefore, can not be Estimates vary from three to five million acres. Some land that might be termed unprofitable farm land during the country's depression would strictly speaking be "marginal land", but would not be so classed under normal conditions. Nor would any land that is unprofitable because of poor farm practice be rightfully classed as "marginal land". More than 23,000,000 acres in Georgia looked to for aid. It is claimed by foresters I are classed as forest and potential forest that fish have been killed in streams and land. If 3,000,000 more acres were regardswamps by heavy leachings of wood ashes ed as marginal land; this would make 26,left by forest fires. Lye from wood ash is 000,000 acres available for tree growing. not good for fish. The present back-to-the-land movement The conclusion is that burning off woods favors malaria by creating conditions favoring the breeding 0f the particular mosquito that causes malaria. in Georgia, will probably increase the number of acres in crops hut not enough to materially affect the total available forest land. The cropped acres of each farm are now LARGE PLANTING OF TREES carrying the tax burden of idle or marginal lands, unless these idle lands are produc- ing something the farmer will continue to Archie Turner of Brooks county is plant- handicap his productive acres. In some ing 150 acres to slash pines this year. His states, notably New York, a survey to de- planting stock was obtained from the state termine marginal land areas is being made tree nursery at Albany and assistance in preparatory to the state purchasing such the undertaking has been rendered by Dis- land for reforestation. This of course, is trict Forester H. D. Story. easily possible in a wealthy state like New York where it would not be possible in Thelma Naval Stores Company at Thelma, near Valdosta, has purchased 36,000 acres of land on the Clinch-Lowndes county line and operation of 26 crops will be- less wealthy states. Some states are undertaking to encourage reforestation of marginal land by imposing only a nominal tax or by deferring gin this season. (Continued on Page 2, Column 1) 2 FORESTRY-GEOLOGICAL REVIEW Forestry-Geological Review Published Monthly by the STATE WATER SURVEY NEW MEMBERS OF SOUGHT BY COMM ISSION COMMISSION APPOINTED DEPARTMENT OF FORESTRY AND GE OLOG ICAL D E V ELOPMENT State Capitol, Atlanta C. A . WHITTLE, Editor BONNELL STONE, Oxford Capacity of Stream Flow, Tempera- Two Old Members Reappointed, ture and Chemical Analysis of Two New Appointed to CommisStreams of Sufficient Volume for sion Forestry and Geological Municipal and In,dustrial Uses Development. Desired. Forestry Division B. M. Lufburrow, State F orester ....Atlanta C. A. Whittle, Educational Mgr., ....Atlanta H. M. Sebring, Asst. State F orester, Atlanta E. B. Stone, Jr. Dist. Forester....Gainesville C. B . Beale, District Forester......Waycross W. D. Young, District Forester............Rom e Jack Thurmond, District Forester, ---~--- Savannah C. N. Elliott, District Forester......Augusta H. D. Story, Jr., District Forester....Albany W. G. Wallace, District Forester..Columbus Mrs. N. N. Edwards, Stenographer JAtlanta Mrs. R . S. Thompson , Stenographer ------------Atlanta Geological Division S. W . McCallie, State GeologisL..Atlanta R. W . Smith, Asst. State Geologist, ........................ -- A t l a n t a G. W. Crickmay, Asst. State Geologist, ..........................................Atlanta Miss Margaret Gann, Clerk....-----Atlanta A committee appointed by the Commission of the Department of Forestry and Geological Development consisting of J. M. Mallory, Mrs. M. E. Judd and Bonnell Ston e, to report on the cost of a Georgia Water Reso urce Survey, reported at the last meeting of the Commission favoring such a survey. From the report t he following excerpts are made: " We do not consider stream gaging n ecessary in Georgia for either navigation or f or power development, because such uses are co nfin ed to larger streams and are gauged by the federal government or have bee n developed or surveyed. What is n ee ded is the flow or capacity of smaller streams of sufficient volume for municipal or industrial purposes, upon which there is now no data. Besides the flow of these Alex K. Sessoms, Cogdell and Mrs. M. E. Judd, D-alto n , two old members of the Commission of Forestry and Geological Development and two new members, Robert E . Price, Kingsland and L. L. Moore, Moultrie, were appointed to membership in the commission, by Governor Richard B. Ru ssell before his retirement from office. The personnel of the Commission as it Research Division, Savannah st reams we sl