DECORATIVE PLANTING 213 



timber can be grown. Many of these are being reforested by 

 planting with young trees. It is probable that in time all 

 such regions will be again covered with forest. At present a 

 wood lot managed as a growing crop of fence posts, railway 

 ties, and telegraph poles may be made to yield quite as much 

 as the same area planted to annual crops, and with no greater 

 amount of labor or capital spent upon it. The steadily advanc- 

 ing prices of all kinds of timber make it clear that in future 

 a much greater revenue may be derived from such wood lots 

 than from the ordinary crops. 



Enemies of the forest. The three greatest dangers that 

 threaten the forest, aside from wasteful cutting, are fires, in- 

 sects, and plant diseases. To reduce these to a minimum, it 

 is desirable that all dead and dying trees and underbrush that 

 might furnish food for the fire or a lurking place for insects 

 and fungi be removed. Vigorous trees are least susceptible 

 to insect and fungous attacks, and only the best trees should 

 be left to grow. The misshapen specimens and others that 

 crowd the good trees for light and room should be removed. 

 In the forest, trees whose timber is of no value are as much 

 weeds as are mustard and pigweed in a field of grain. In 

 extensive forests, where injury from fires is most likely to 

 occur, the ground is divided into sections by fire lanes 

 broad, cleared strips wide enough to confine the forest fire, 

 once started, to a single section. The custom of allowing 

 cattle to graze in the forest is extremely harmful, since the 

 young trees are destroyed and the perpetuation of the forest 

 prevented. 



Quite aside from their value as a source of timber and fuel, 

 forests are of great benefit in preventing floods by delaying 

 the run-off from rain and melting snow. In forested areas 

 much of this moisture sinks into the soil, to reappear later in 

 springs which keep the small streams from drying up in 

 summer, 



