THE FOREST IN RELATION TO MAN 385 



425. Advantages of public control. The extent of the national 

 forests is shown in the map on page 384. In these forests are 

 conserved and protected the water supphes for more than a 

 thousand cities and towns, for over twelve hundred irrigation 

 projects, and for over three hundred water-power plants. In 

 these forests nearly ten million head of sheep, horses, and 

 cattle graze every year, and in them nearly half a million people 

 find recreation. The forest service sells timber to private users 

 and gives away firewood to settlers in agricultural lands included 

 within the forest areas. 



426. Forest dangers. The forest is exposed to four serious 

 dangers : 



1. The person who cuts recklessly and destroys for imme- 

 diate profit what ought to last practically forever. This enemy 

 can be regulated either by enforcing very strict rules as to the 

 uses of private forests or by making it impossible for individuals 

 or corporations to profit at all through the exploitation of forests. 



2. Fire. Since this is probably always of artificial origin, it 

 can be controlled through suitable regulation or supervision. 

 In the national forests there are well-organized fire patrols. 

 They have succeeded in preventing many fires and in keep- 

 ing the total fire damage in the national forest down to a small 

 fraction of what it is in privately ow^ned forests. The rules 

 for fire prevention in forests are posted on trees, and every 

 person who has occasion to go into the woods should heed 

 these regulations. 



3. Various species of insects. 



4- Various species of fungi. These classes of organisms 

 (insects and fungi) destroy every year trees and timber worth 

 millions of dollars, and there is no one way to fight them all. 



427. Other forest relations. The forest is related to human 

 affairs as the home of many animals and of many plants other 

 than the trees. It is in the forest that valuable game and fur 

 animals find their food and shelter, and the destruction of the 

 forest means the extermination of many of these animals. 



