190 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY. 



Partial burning and piling of the brush reduce 

 the danger somewhat, but hardly in proportion to 

 the expense. The readiest remedy, where forestry 

 is to be practised under such conditions, is to make 

 a clean sweep, that is, clearing, burning up the 

 debris, and replanting, or else, if natural regenera- 

 tion is to be relied upon, adopting the strip system, 

 when the opportunity of burning the debris totally 

 is still possible. 



The danger from the debris continues longer in 

 coniferous woods than in the deciduous-leaved, the 

 wood of which decays more readily in contact with 

 the ground, although usually, in these latter, larger 

 amounts of d6bris result. For instance, in the hard- 

 wood forests of the Adirondacks, the merchantable 

 log material presents only one-third of the total 

 amount of wood, two-thirds being cordwood and d6- 

 bris. The only hope here, in the absence of a paying 

 home market for fuel from this inferior material, 

 is to establish chemical works for its conversion on 

 a large scale into charcoal, acetic acid, wood alco- 

 hol, and other useful manufactures. 



trees, even of hardwoods, blaze when struck by lightning, and prop- 

 agate the fire in spite of a pelting rain. Of 509 fires occurring in 

 the Bavarian state forests during 6 years, 4 were demonstrably ac- 

 credited to lightning and 7 to locomotives. Of 156 conflagrations 

 in the Prussian state forests during 10 years, 3 were the result of 

 lightning and only 4 from locomotives, 7 years out of the 10 being 

 without any record of fire from this last cause, and that on a 

 property of 7,000,000 acres, over half of which was stocked with 

 pine on dry sandy soil 



