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PARAGRAPH X. 



IMPEDIMENTS TO CONSERVATIVE FORESTRY 

 IN THE UNITED STATES. 



The greatest impediments peculiar to conservative forestry in 

 the United States are: 



1. The imminent danger of forest fires. This danger is parti- 

 cularly great in the United States owing to the long periods of 

 drought frequently met with ; owing to the accumulation bf 

 debris prior to and after logging; owing to the insufficiency of 

 a country police ; owing to the habits of the people. 



It is quite true that a forest containing mature timber cannot 

 be killed by fire any worse than it is killed by the lumberman's 

 saw or axe. The cases are rare in which a mature forest is 

 actually consumed by the flames; so that, usually, the trees 

 merely killed by the flames are good for logging, and for the 

 production of. lumber, provided only that there are at hand 

 means of transportation by which the logs can be conveyed from 

 the burned woods to the saw-mills. 



hi the case of second growth, and notably in the case of 

 planted forests, the danger from fire is extreme. With young 

 second growth forests, the salvage obtainable from the woods 

 after burning amounts, in Europe as well as in America, to 

 practically nothing. 



Contributory to the great danger by fires is the land policy 

 of the United States, under which, on the average, 160 acres 

 were sold in separate holdings to different parties, with the result 

 that large and solid pieces of timber-land [which can be protected 

 by their owners] form the exception rather than the rule in the 

 United States. 



In Central Europe, no investment is considered so safe as 

 an investment in timber. It is in Central Europe alone that 

 conservative forestry has been practised and is being practised 

 to-day. 



