MANAGEMENT OF CUT-OVER LANDS 



703 



Wisconsin, where hundreds of thous- 

 ands of stubs that would to-day have 

 been worth $20 a thousand if standing, 

 are all that is left of vegetation or of 

 soil which once was fertile land and 

 should to-day have a second crop ready 

 for harvest, and that crop worth ten 

 times the price received for the first. 



The old argument of the western 

 lo-gger is "burn when safe for it will 

 burn anyway and perhaps burn you." 

 This, if applied to your house, would 

 read, burn your house when it rains so 

 it won't burn your neighbor, but burn 

 it for it will burn anyway and perhaps 

 you. But the logger's argument is not 

 as good as the parallel, for the one 

 burning of the chopping only prepares 

 all for the second burning, which is 

 more likely to occur than the first, and 

 far more fierce. Your home once burned 

 is removed from further danger of fire. 

 To repeat, that which the first fire 

 takes would all have been nutriment 

 for the new timber crop in a year ; that, 

 and the young trees that were waiting 

 for the sun : that, and the trees left 

 standing ready to push ahead for early 

 cutting; that, and the brush which 

 would have in another year replaced its 

 broken parts and held a sunshade over 

 all ; that, and the vines and ferns that 

 would have helped keep all moist : that, 

 and preparation for fires to burn the 

 soil and all seed and bake the ground 

 into a condition of utter impotence from 

 which it can not recover in a genera- 

 tion. These things are all that the first 

 fire does, nor does the second fire clear 

 any land. I have known seven fires to 

 3 



run over the same ground and to-day 

 there is no living thing there except a 

 growth of fire weed, ready to carry fire 

 to the material still left, which is ample 

 for more fierce flames. 



Of all these forest fires the first is 

 easiest to prevent. Brush, moss and 

 the shade of the fallen tree tops keep 

 the ground still moist. The dead soil 

 and sun are ready to grow a shelter 

 while the new forest springs up to give 

 its perfect shade. Nature helps to keep 

 out the first fire and in a few years 

 places the old chopping in a condition 

 as safe as her older forest areas. 



The first fire is but the loss of the 

 nail, in the old proverb, that caused the 

 loss of the shoe, that caused the loss of 

 the horse, that caused the loss of the 

 rider. The moral is, replace the nail 

 and, in forestry, keep out the first fire. 



If the first fire had been kept out of 

 the state of Washington the annual 

 growth of the new timber crop would 

 be fully the equal of the annual timber 

 cut, and the land cut over in the 5o's 

 would to-day be ready to yield more 

 feet an acre than did the original 

 cutting. 



When, therefore, we have found a 

 practical method of preventing the first 

 fire in our choppings, where the land is 

 principally valuable for the timber crop, 

 we shall have solved the great problem 

 of timber conservation on the slope 

 from the Cascades to the ocean. All 

 else is detail. He who would leave to 

 our children that which is theirs must 

 keep out the first fire. 



