FIRE PROTECTION FOR FOREST LANDS 



283 



to improve the pasturage for a cow or two, and almost always this 

 is land unsuited for grazing and the property of others, perhaps 

 absentee landlords. 



Instances are frequent where the woods are fired to "improve" 

 the huckleberry crop. These fires occur on lands unsuited to agri- 

 culture. They are inherently forest lands stocked with stands of 

 young hardwood timber of great potential value, but they are 

 utterly neglected because of the fact that they are non-agricultural. 

 Yet they are the very lands to which Ohio must largely turn for its 

 future timber supply. It is doubtful whether any soils anywhere 

 will produce any better quality of hardwood timber and yet be 

 classed as non-agricultural. But timber cannot be grown in com- 

 petition with its arch enemy fire. 



Hardwood trees destroyed outright by forest fire 



Protection more essential than planting. Many owners, in the 

 face of rising stumpage values, are desirous of adopting progressive 

 measures in the handling of their forest properties^Jbut there is no 

 assurance that their efforts of years may not be obliterated in a few 

 hours by fire. It is neither common honesty nor good policy for the 

 State to encourage them in such efforts without giving them the 

 fullest measure of protection against fire, the same to which the city 

 property owner is entitled and receives. 



