Destruction and Deterioration 99 



This may be possible, but as far as I know no case 

 of such origin has ever been actually observed and 

 recorded. One popular writer repeats after the 

 other the story that forest fires have been caused 

 by two dry branches being rubbed against each 

 other by the wind. No experienced woodsman or 

 forester will believe in such a tale. It belongs in 

 the same category as the two-headed snake and the 

 hybrid between the rabbit and the lizard. 



Fires are kindled in the woods constantly for 

 perfectly legitimate purposes. Settlers are obliged 

 to get rid of the debris in clearing by burning it ; 

 cruisers, hunters, and other travellers build camp- 

 fires. Both these uses of fire cannot be avoided. 

 In some parts of the country, especially towards 

 the South, where the tree growth is very heavy, 

 the underbrush is fired for the purpose of killing the 

 trees, to make clearing more easy. This is a bad 

 practice, for several reasons, and should be discour- 

 aged as much as possible. Still less to be com- 

 mended is the custom indulged in throughout 

 much of the Alleghany Mountain country, in the 

 far West, and possibly elsewhere, of firing the dry 

 covering of the forest floor every spring, in order 

 to produce young shoots from the stumps, promote 

 the growth of herbage, and uncover the acorn and 

 chestnut mast littering the ground. All this, of 

 course, is done for the benefit of browsing cattle, 

 and especially that pest of southern woodlands, the 

 razor-back hog. Pasturing cattle in forests is rarely 

 an economical practice, but where it is favored by 



