ARTIFICIAL REPRODUCTION. 9 



area reforests naturally, because of the manner in which the cutting 

 is required to be done. Under ordinary methods of logging this 

 90,000 acres a year would be added to the area of waste land. Under 

 the system of cutting prescribed for the National Forests the charac- 

 ter of the forest is improved and an increased yield per acre is gotten 

 from the next crop. The possibilities in this respect are almost 

 startling. It is seldom that nature unaided produces a full-stocked 

 stand of timber, just as it is rare to find a volunteer crop of grain 

 equal to that of a well-tended field. There are thin spots and blanks 

 all through the untended forest. At present the average yield per 

 acre of timber on the National Forests is in the neighborhood of 4,000 

 feet. This undoubtedly can be increased four or five times, perhaps 

 more. 



Before the lands constituting the National Forests were put under 

 administration, fires ran through the woods uncontrolled, burning 

 over large areas each year. Sometimes great belts of virgin timber 

 were killed; more often the young growth was destroyed. The 

 system of fire patrol, inaugurated by the Forest Service, while ad- 

 mittedly inadequate through lack of funds, has nevertheless gone 

 far toward stopping this heavy annual loss and has given much of 

 the old burned-over land the opportunity to come up to young trees 

 again. From observation and from data collected upon the National 

 Forests, it is safe to assume that by keeping out forest fires, even to 

 the extent that has been possible with one patrolman to 100,000 acres, 

 natural reforestation is taking place in the small treeless openings at 

 the rate of at least 150,000 acres a year. Overgrazing, especially by 

 close-herded sheep, formerly prevented natural reproduction of tim- 

 ber upon large areas in certain types of forests. Not only did the 

 sheep injure the young seedlings directly by grazing and trampling, 

 but they did even greater damage through destroying the ground 

 cover, exposing the soil to erosion, and subjecting it to the drying 

 effects of wind and sun. The same effect has followed the excessive 

 grazing of cattle, horses, and goats, where these were allowed to con- 

 centrate around watering places or salting grounds. Under such 

 conditions it is difficult for tree seed to germinate, and still more 

 difficult for the tiny seedlings to grow. Grazing of all kinds 

 of stock within the National Forests is, under certain condi- 

 tions, both desirable and beneficial, but careful regulation of the 

 grazing and temporary exclusion of stock from certain overgrazed 

 districts has done much toward making it possible to obtain both 

 natural and artificial reproduction. 



