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>r^7 v 



Effects of a Forest Fire (page 6) 





arc allowed to run without hindrance 

 there will be no young trees coming on 

 to take the place of the older ones when 

 they are cut. State legislation must pro- 

 vide right fire laws and adequate means 

 for their enforcement. Forest taxation 

 should be so laid that its burdens do 

 not fall unjustly upon timber. This, 

 again, is a matter for state legislation. 

 The -tales also have a duty which they 

 cannot escape in the management of 

 cut-over lands, which, where not suit- 

 able for farming, often are utterly un- 

 protected and revert to the state for de- 

 linquent ta\e>. Such tracts should be 

 made into state forest reserves, and 

 otlur tract- of a similar character 

 which can be purchased at nominal 

 ]'!' should be added to them. Prop- 

 erl) cared for, they will become an im- 

 portant source of future timber supply. 

 Along the^e tlinv lines of fire protec- 

 tion, of right taxation, and of state 

 forests, the states have duties which 

 HUM be performed if the forest re- 

 of the South are to be perpetu- 

 ated N'eedless to say, state action on 

 ^ihjects should be as nearly uni- 



form as differences in local conditions 

 wil permit. 



Individual forest owners, and es- 

 pecially the owners of the larger tracts, 

 also have duties which they cannot es- 

 cape. The forests which they hold are 

 not merely pieces of private property. 

 They are a public trust, upon whose 

 right administration the welfare of 

 many depends. Unless the owners 

 realize this, unless they do their ut- 

 most to conserve their forests while 

 using them, public sentiment is likely 

 to force the state governments to exer- 

 cise powers of control which the states 

 undoubtedly have, though these powers 

 have so far lain dormant. 



And, lastly, the Federal Government, 

 too, has a duty in the maintenance of 

 the southern forests. More than 150.- 

 000,000 acres of public forest land in 

 the Western States, essential for the 

 protection of watersheds and of non- 

 agricultural value, have been proclaim- 

 ed National Forests, have been made 

 a source of permanent timber supply, 

 and a permanent conserver of water 

 necessary for irrigation and power Not 



10 



