45 



While the crop is developing it is, of course, necessary to protect it 

 against damage of various kinds. The young seedlings of some species 

 are apt to suffer from frost or drouth, which is avoided by growing them 

 under shelter of older trees, by draining wet places, securing opportunity 

 tor cold air to draw off, etc. mostly preventive measures. In prairie 

 and plain it may be possible to assist their resistance to such damage by 

 cultivating the ground ap the farmer does, but in the real forest country 

 such means are excluded by the character of the ground and the expense. 



Animals, and especially insects, are frequently injurious to the new 

 crop, and insects also to old trees, by their defoliation. This damage, too, 

 can be largely obviated by preventive measures. 



Since many, if not most, injurious insects feed on one species, or at 

 least one genus, mixed forests resist their danger better, since the number 

 of host plants is reduced and the intermixed trees impede progress and de- 

 velopment of the pest. 



Wind-storms are a danger to older timber, especially of shallow-root- 

 ed species, like the spruce, and on soft soils and exposed slopes or mountain 

 tops. Here, care must be taken in keeping the stand well thinned, so that 

 the trees may get accustomed to the swaying of the winds in more open 

 stand. In this way they are induced individually to form a better root sys- 

 tem and become wind-firm, while in the dense stand their strength was only 

 in the union with neighbors. 



The greatest danger to forest properties, however, is fire, and the pro-i 

 tection against this most unnecessary evil resulting mainly from man's 

 carelessness, absorbs a large part of the energy of the forester. Proper po- 

 lice, but also silvicultural measures, reduce the amount of danger and dam- 

 age. Young crops, during the seedling and brushwood stage, are readily 

 killed, while older timber may stand scorching without much or any 

 damage. 



A damage even greater than the loss of the crop is experienced in the 

 loss of the soil cover, the litter and duff, which is the forester's manure. 

 This loss may become irreparable in localities where only a thin layer of 

 mineral soil overlies the rock, and the opportunity for starting a new crop 

 may be entirely destroyed. The fire danger in Canada, while much re- 

 duced, is still so great that in many localities it almost prohibits the practice 

 of forestry ; for who would want to invest money and energy in a property 

 which is exposed to extra risks from fire by the absence of proper legisla- 

 tion, or by the lack of police and moral support on the part of the commun- 

 ity in enforcing it, by the unpunished negligence or malice of incendiaries, 

 and by the populational conditions of the country, which prevent the econ- 

 omical disposal of the debris from logging operations ? 



Partial burning and piling of the brush reduce the danger somewhat, 

 but hardly in proportion to the expense. The readiest remedy, where for- 

 estry is to be praticed under such conditions, is to make a clean sweep, that 



