FOREST commissioner's REPORT. 13 



acre and have a good growth now coming up to he of value. 

 Another tract that was burned over al)out the same time and 

 was burned several times, but for the last forty years was 

 protected from the ravages of tire, and was covered with a 

 white birch growth. This last named tract was worthless for 

 cultivation but the owners realized about lour dollars per 

 acre and left a growth of small trees on this tract that in tif- 

 teen or twenty years will yield as much more. There is no 

 time when fires running over forest lands (whether the trees 

 be large or small) do not injure the land or growth. Our 

 second growth white birch has been cut for spools within the 

 last few years and has brought large sums of money into the 

 State and given emplo3'ment \o laborers. I understand that 

 this timber usually grows where tires have run many years 

 af;o, but have been protected from a second burning. 



This question of protecting our torests from fires is a great 

 one, and one that we can not easily grasp without careful 

 study of facts. There is an alarming indifference upon the 

 subject among the people, l>ecause they do not investigate the 

 facts suflSciently to learn the importance of it. It is but a 

 few years since the clearing away of the forests and getting 

 rid of the timlier by the easiest means possible was the only 

 way for civilization to advance. 



It was well said by the late ex-Vice President Hamlin that 

 "the forests and the savages were the two elements which the 

 early settlers had to contend with." Now the condition has 

 chanired — the savasfes have retreated before "advancinsr 

 civilization" and we be^jin to see that the forest is needing^ 

 our special care or it will retreat to our sorrow. The first 

 and most important thing to do is to educate the people up to 

 the importance of preserving our growth. Farmers that are 

 successful and pursue their avocation as the}' ought, have 

 looked upon the encroachments of the forest, upon their fields 

 and pastures as an invasion of their premises to be resisted, 

 and it is not easy for them to appreciate fully the importance 

 of protecting, in the proper place, this old eneni}'. It will 



