The following pages take it for granted that the owner desires to make the 

 woodlot a permanent and paying part of the farm. 



Ground Fires as Related to the Woodlot. 



Injury to Soil. Fire should never be allowed to run through the woodlot. By 

 burning off the leaf litter and vegetable mould or humus the soil is greatly weak- 

 ened. As was pointed out in previous pages, the healthy development of the forest 

 is dependent upon the humus condition of the soil. 



Injury to Be product ion. Ground fires also destroy the seed and young 

 growth and make it much more difhcult for seeds to germinate in the future. The 





Fig. 3. — Effects of ground fires on wliite oalc. 



natural seedbed of humus soil covered with the leaves gives a protected, natural 

 seedbed which is necessary for reproduction. 



Injury to Old Trees. Ground fires frequently pass through the woods in 

 spring and by the middle of the summer the woods seem to have recovered. This 

 is not the case, for usually large trees, which seem to bave bark thick enough to 

 withstand the small amount of heat of a ground fire, are injured in a manner not 

 at once visible to the observer. Tlio- heat from a ground fire, which it seems is 

 too small to injure a tree with heavy hark. rrc(|ucntly affects the tree very ser- 

 iously. The injury is of two kinds. 



By burning ofE the humus ami h'tter tlie soil is loft un])r()tected so that it 

 lacks moisture during the dry season, as well as weakening the soil in regard to 



