PROTECTION 159 
The State or county or township ownership, or 
combined ownership, of a system of tire lanes, should 
be as palatable to the American taste as the State 
ownership of roads. In fact these lanes may serve 
at any time as roads, or may be converted into such on 
short notice at almost any time. In the course of 
time the whole fire-lane system may be converted 
into a great road system, which would add much to 
the value of the land, and increase the value of the 
wood, owing to the ease with which it could be trans- 
ported. Once institute a perfect system of fire 
lanes and patrol under State control, and the 
number and severity of the fires will be reduced 
to such an extent that the evil will gradually 
fade away, and modern systems of silviculture will 
gradually creep in as the value of wood and land in- 
creases. 
The greatest damage done by the lumberman is 
not in cutting the forest. The main purpose of the 
forest is to yield timber, and most of the wood cut in 
the past has been overripe. He has left the ground 
covered with slash, so that destructive fires have fol- 
lowed in his wake. This has prevented natural re- 
generation. If the destruction due to these fires could 
have been prevented, Nature would have replenished 
these cut-over areas long ago. The more the lumber- 
man cuts and the fire burns, the fewer become the 
