THE PENNSYLVANIA 

 STA.TE COLJLEGE 



AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION 



BULLETIN No. 



FOKEST FIKES. 



BY WM. A. BUCKHOUT. 



The time of the year is at hand when forest fires are wide 

 spread and destructive. So common have they become in many 

 parts of our state that their appearance causes but little surprise, 

 and they are looked upon almost as a matter of course, little if 

 anything- being- done to prevent or to extinguish them, unless they 

 threaten to involve specially valuable timber, fences or buildings. 

 On our mountain and other lands from which the usable timber 

 has been pretty fully gleaned fire is almost an annual occurrence. 

 The drying- winds of spring put the loose combustible matter in 

 such condition, that the slightest spark starts a fire which spreads 

 with great rapidity, often involving several square miles of terri- 

 tory, and extending to a distance determined only by the character 

 of the weather and the amount of young sappy growth encoun- 

 tered. The common opinion seems to be that no great harm is 

 done since there is so little visible which has any market value, 

 and hence our mountain and other lands which should be in pro- 

 cess of reforestation are periodically burned over, and even the 

 owners appear to pay little heed to it. Every one admits that 

 if fire could be kept out new tree growth would gradually get a 

 foothold, and in time complete reforesting would take place 

 through seedlings and sprout growth. In favorable places which 

 have been protected from the inroads of fire this second growth 

 has often become an important factor in the timber supply ; and 

 in some parts even of the older settled districts there is now a 



