A Phase of Fire Protection. 631 



position and to reprisal by incendiarism. To-day one sees goats 

 and hogs in federal forests where they are formally forbidden 

 entry under the existing forest code. But, as an old ranger put 

 it — "If one must take poison, it's better, if you have the choice to 

 take the poison, which, altho it does make you sick, does not ac- 

 tually kill you." In other words, they have found that if graz- 

 ing is strictly prohibited, the local herders, whose very exist- 

 ence is at stake would set fire and burn the forest. With grazing 

 winked at, there are still fires, but many less than when incen- 

 diarism was rife. 



But to continue — after the final fellings — a series of disastrous 

 fires during especially dry seasons swept over many of the im- 

 portant pine forests, as for example — Vizzanova, Marmano, Ba- 

 vella and Marghere. These fires destroyed not only the young 

 growth but also even aged saplings and pole stands since many 

 of the more open stands have a heavy understory of bruyiere. 

 For the most part, veterans escaped destruction. To-day the 

 shelterwood system has been abandoned and both with Corsican 

 and Maritime pine (which grows in mixture with Corsican pine 

 up to three thousand feet elevation ! ) they have adopted the se- 

 lective system with what is probably the longest official rotation 

 for a coniferous species to be found any where in the world — 

 namely three hundred and sixty years and, in my opinion, at 

 least a century or a century and a half too long. With the selec- 

 tion system, they felt that after fires the standards would remain 

 to seed up the burnt areas — Perhaps the German would call the 

 system in all a grange system, because in theory at least, small 

 changes of trees are cut so as to admit plenty of light for an 

 intolerant species. In the working inspected, however, mostly 

 single mature trees had been cut and only 20 per cent, to 40 per 

 cent, (roughly estimated) of the total stand was removed. When 

 the openings are stocked, the working plans call for thinning, al- 

 though it must be admitted they have been sadly neglected be- 

 cause there was no demand for small size wood. 



While it cannot be claimed the method has been tried out and 

 found successful, yet it must be admitted that the principal of 

 bearing in mind fire dangers in choosing a system of cutting, is an 

 important one where dangerous fire conditions prevail or success- 

 ful protection is doubtful. 



