134 FOREST PROTECTION 



Par. 11. Protection Against Snow and Sleet. 



Snow is Beneficial: 



By preventing fires; 



By storing water and by preserving soil moisture; 



By facilitating the logging operations; 



By covering sensitive plants; 



By removing dead side branches; 



By preventing frost from entering deeply into soil; 



By reducing the felling damages. 



A. Snow is Technically Obnoxious: 



By preventing the use of wagons or railroads; 

 By endangering skidding on steep slopes; 

 By increasing sledding expenses (when snow is too deep); 

 By causing extra outlay in cutting stimips low to the ground; 

 By reducing the accessibility of the woods. 



Remark: Winters of excessive snow are known as winters of re- 

 stricted output of liimber. 



B. Snow is Physiologically Obnoxious: 



By bending down saplings and poles with or without their roots; 

 By breaking off branches and crowns or by breaking down poles 



and trees with the roots; 

 By causing rodents and game to attack trees and saplings for food; 

 By exposing trees after breakage to the attacks of insects and fungi; 

 By increasing storm damage at a time when the trees are loaded 



with snow or sleet. 



C. Factors of Damage. 



Species and mixture of species; 



Age and size of trees; 



Method of regeneration and notably the density thereof; 



Climatic constellations (e. g., coincidence of storm; succession of 



thaws and snows; occurrences of snow in Octover, before the 



fall of the leaves); 

 Preceding treatment by thinning; by removal cuttings; by leaving 



standards after coppiceing; by road making. 

 Locality, elevation and aspect: 

 Steepness of slope; 

 Depth of soil (Coxehill); 

 Rate of growth (fast grown yellow pine and top whirls of fast grown 



white pine at Biltmore;) 

 Prior injuries by fire, by boxing, by insects and fimgi (black locusts). 

 Remark: Remember the following illustrations: 

 White cedar in swamps of South Carolina; 

 Cuban pine in Alabama; 



