378 ANNUAL KEPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



burned over annualh' or ])eriodically by a light fire under complete 

 control without injury to the Forest. The stands where this is 

 feasible are prinuuily in the open yellow-pine forests. If this j)lan 

 were adopted in such stands, the expense would be very large, because 

 it would be necessary to keep the fire under absolute control and to 

 keep it out of the younger stands, which if burned would be destroyed 

 or very seriously injured. But in most of the National Forests there 

 are immature trees and young growth scattered among the older 

 trees. The annual or periodic burning of such Forests would be 

 utterly out of the question unless the idea of continued forest pro- 

 duction were entu-ely given up. If the future interests of the For- 

 est were to be sacrificed in order to protect the scattered large indi- 

 vidual trees w'hich would be capable of resisting these fires, then 

 the plan might be adopted. It is inconceivable that there should 

 be seriouslv advocated a treatment of the Forest which w^ould inevit- 

 ably result in the very rapid diminution of its density to a point 

 where ultimately there would be no timber at all. This process 

 has been demonstrated over and over again in the parts of eastern 

 forests, which have been repeatedly burned and where to-day there 

 is practically a barren waste. 



The principle of burning the surface of the ground to prevent the 

 accumulation of forest litter is applicable, therefore, to an exceed- 

 ingly limited area, and its application is expensive. It should be 

 applied not in burning over the whole surface, but in clearing broad 

 and well-placed fire lines. Thus in the yellow-pine forests fire lines 

 burned here and there may be effective breaks to stop incipient fires. 

 As a matter of fact, there has been no difficulty in protecting these 

 open yellow-pine forests. The Forests which it is difficult to pro- 

 tect are those of a character to which this plan is entirely inappficable. 



The first necessity is roads and trails and telephone lines; the 

 second, more men. All the experience of the past emphasizes the 

 Talue of trails and telephone lines. During the season of 1910, when 

 on account of the drought and high winds the most difficult condi- 

 tions of fire protection were encountered, it was proved that with 

 adequate means of transportation and communication the fires were 

 controllable. Thus, for example, along the railroads and near roads, 

 the fires wliich were started were in most cases put out in their 

 incipiency. The same was true in all Forests which were even moder- 

 ately well equipped with roads and trails. In the Bitterroot Forest 

 a very large number of fires started near valle}^ bottoms, at the edge 

 of the Forest. These were nearl}^ all extinguished before they 

 reached any considerable size; only one or two burned over more than 

 a few acres. In the Lolo Forest, where trail construction has been 

 well developed, of the many fires which started nearly all were rap- 

 idl}^ brought under control. Over the Divide there are enormous 

 areas of undeveloped and inaccessible forests, and fires which started 

 in these swept over the Divide and destroyed a large amount of 

 timber in the Lolo Forest. This was a clear demonstration of the 

 disastrous effects when there are regions in which the fires can not be 

 reached. 



The Forest Service is also constructing fire lines. These fire lines 

 stop small fires. No fire line will stop a crown fire. It is, however, 

 a point of vantage for back fij'ing against a crown fire. 



