2SS 



THE FORESTER. 



November, 



These bodies of pine timber, are sepa- serve as a whole, the amount of timber 



rated by long draws or gulches, which destroyed from this cause is surprisingly 



contain good agricultural land and usually small. If the forest officers, in charge of 



enough water to serve the needs of a the Reserve, can keep out the fires, the 



rancher. These draws are being rapidly future of the forest is assured, for the 



settled upon by squatters much to the de- natural reproduction of the pine, espe- 



AN OPEN PARK OR DRAW, BLACK HILLS FOREST RESERVE. 



light of the forester, who sees in these strips 

 of cultivated land, sepaiating bodies of 

 timber, excellent natural fire lines. These 

 squatters have developed some very val- 

 uable farms and are a desirable, hard- 

 working class of settlers, who are directly 

 and deeply interested in the welfare of the 

 Reserve. For this reason it is hoped that 

 the General Land Office will not carry out 

 its threatened policy of expelling them from 

 the Reserve. 



The growth of grass, especially on the 

 limestone soils, is very luxuriant, and will 

 furnish feed for thousands of cattle or 

 sheep. At present the law allows each 

 rancher to run 120 head of cattle on the 

 Reserve, but up to the present time no 

 sheep have been permitted to graze within 

 its boundaries. 



Around the mining centers, in the north- 

 ern part of the Hills, forest tires have done 

 considerable damage, but taking the Re- 



cially on the granite soils, is remark- 

 ably fine. Planting will only be neces- 

 sary in one or two ' sections in the 

 north, where all the seed trees and young 

 growth have been destroyed by repeated 

 fires. 



The greatest enemy of the timber is the 

 spruce and pine bark beetle {Dendrocto- 

 nus rufipinus) which has destroyed the 

 timber on whole townships in the northern 

 Hills. This tremendous spread was un- 

 doubtedly partly due to the old wasteful 

 methods of logging, which left all except 

 the best logs to rot in the woods and so 

 furnished a breeding place for legions 

 of beetles. The only remedy seems to 

 be to cut out the beetle-killed and in- 

 fected timber as soon as possible, and 

 insist on clean logging. No timber should 

 be cut in spring or summer, as the beetles 

 breed in the fresh cut tops and stumps 

 when the sap is up. This season only a 





