PINES AND PINE FORESTS 259 



similar effect is exerted by forests everywhere, although it 

 may not be so considerable. What rivers are fed by the 

 streams from Yellowstone Park ? Why are our pine forests 

 of special importance as conservers of moisture ? 



Destruction of pineries. Millions of acres of pine have 

 been cut down by lumbermen, but they do not reseed the 

 land cut over. They are interested only in the pine, which 

 nature grew without any labor or expense on their part, and 

 when that pine has been cut, they let the land revert to the 

 respective states or counties for taxes, while their axemen in 

 thousands move into virgin forests. However, the lumber- 

 man's axe would never destroy our pineries, for the forests 

 would soon reseed themselves and they would nourish as 

 before, if no graver danger were induced by it. The great, 

 the awful, destroyers of the pineries are the forest fires. These 

 fearful conflagrations, which almost annually sweep over 

 hundreds of square miles, are caused in several ways. 



The brush and dead trees which lumbermen leave soon 

 become bone-dry under the summer sun, and furnish an 

 enormous amount of the most combustible material. ' Fires 

 which are built by lumbermen, hunters, campers, and 

 Indians, and are carelessly left burning, may be fanned 

 by the wind into widespread forest fires. The burning of 

 brush by settlers, and especially the sparks from loco- 

 motives, are frequently causes of forest fires. It must not 

 be forgotten that in the periods of drought which are so 

 common a feature of our summers, a smouldering match 

 thrown on the dead pine needles will almost certainly start 

 a fire ; and it is a sad fact, but nevertheless a fact, that the 

 fools who do not think, and the brutes who do not care, are 

 always with us. The awful extent of ruined forests which 

 one sees along the railroads in the pine regions of Minne- 

 sota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Canada shows only too pain- 

 fully the fearful destruction human negligence has wrought. 



