TXHto £tf t on *0e (£oc8i«f 



for the reforestation of millions of acres of de- 

 nuded areas in the West. In many places on the 

 Rockies it would, if given a chance, make com- 

 mercial timber in from thirty to sixty years. 



I examined a lodge-pole in the Medicine Bow 

 Mountains that was scarred by fire. It was two 

 hundred and fourteen years of age. It took one 

 hundred and seventy-eight years for it to make 

 five inches of diameter growth. In the one hun- 

 dred and seventy-eighth ring of annual growth 

 there was a fire-scar, and during the next thirty- 

 six years it put on five more inches of growth. 

 It is probable, therefore, that the fire destroyed 

 the neighboring trees, which had dwarfed and 

 starved it and thus held it in check. I know of 

 scores of cases where lodge-poles grew much more 

 rapidly, though badly fire-scarred, after fires had 

 removed their hampering competitors. 



There are millions of acres of young lodge-pole 

 forests in the West. They are almost as impene- 

 trable as canebrakes. It would greatly increase 

 the rate of growth if these trees were thinned, 

 but it is probable that this will not be done for 



many years. Meantime, if these forests be pro- 



194 



