206 North American Forests and Forestry 



lands, they must leave the saplings ; but there at 

 least an effort is made to prevent the fires. 



Another step towards conservative lumbering, 

 which is likely to be taken when the fires diminish 

 in frequency, is that of preserving the young 

 growth from injury in felling. At present nothing 

 is further from the minds of logging crews. Where 

 a tree standing in the midst of a number of young 

 ones is cut a certain amount of injury to the latter 

 is rarely avoidable. But it is not necessary, as is 

 done now, to let the oxen and horses trample down 

 the seedlings, to roll logs upon them, to let skids 

 and sleds run over them, and where a sapling is an 

 inch in the way to chop it down. All this is the 

 every-day practice of American lumber crews every- 

 where. In the few places in the United States 

 where silviculture has been attempted, as in Bilt- 

 more forest, one of the first things the forester has 

 had to teach his men has been to take heed of the 

 young trees. But as soon as lumbermen generally 

 discover that the fire is likely to keep out of their 

 slashings, this lesson will be speedily learned. 



All this, and much more in the future of Ameri- 

 can forests, depends upon the restriction of fires. 

 We have seen in this chapter that a proper fire 

 police cannot, as a rule, be kept up by the own- 

 ers of timber-lands themselves, owing to the scat- 

 tered manner in which their holdings are ordinarily 

 situated. We have learned that government must 

 intervene by proper legislation to protect the for- 

 ests, just as governmental agencies protect city 



