82 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



February, 



produce one cord a year per acre up to 

 thirt}' or forty years. Undoubtedly in 

 this growth some thinning could be done 

 to good advantage, for the purpose of 

 producing a larger number of cords than 

 could be secured in a densely crowded 

 growth. 



which a money loss occurs, has only 

 within the past year or two, at the ear- 

 nest solicitation of the State Forestry 

 Association, given any serious attention 

 to this class of fire losses. His principal 

 difficulty seems to lie in the fact that 

 town officials who are required to make 



The greatest enemy to the forest owner a report look upon forest fires as of little 

 is fire. A light fire will kill all white importance. Yet in some years in the 

 pine seedlings up to six or eight years country districts, it is probable that there 

 of age. A severe fire will kill the White 

 Pine up to a foot or more in diameter. 

 A very severe fire will kill the oldest 

 growth where it occurs in scattered 

 patches. A hardwood sprout growth of 

 four or five years is killed back to the 

 stump by a light fire, a severe fire will 



is as great a loss in actual value from this 

 source as from the destruction of build- 

 ings. 



In general, sprout growth near towns 

 increases in assessed value about $i.oo 

 per acre per year of growth up to the 

 time of cutting that is, a fifteen-year 



kill a growth of fifteen years, and an growth is assessed at about $14.00 per 



older growth will be seriously inj ured if 

 not killed. Furthermore, the severe fire 

 not only kills the top but it kills the 

 stump and burns up the top soil. Land- 

 owners fail to realize how serious this 

 loss is. Even the State Fire Marshal, 

 who is supposed to report all fires from 



Yearbook, 1899, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture 



PI.ANTATION OF WHITE PINE EIGHTEEN YEARS OI.D, SOUTH 

 ORLEANS, MASSACHUSETTS. 



acre. Now, a severe fire will destroy 

 all this value, and the average fire at 

 least one-half of it. 



Our laws provide for a fire warden, 

 who may employ men to fight fires and 

 pay them twenty cents per hour. There 

 is some evidence that forest fires have 

 been set for the sake of 

 securing such employ- 

 ment. It is known that 

 forest fires have also 

 been set by berry-pick- 

 ers, who burn over the 

 land for the purpose of 

 securing a better crop 

 the following 3- ear. 

 Many fires are set by ir- 

 responsible hunters and 

 ramblers in the woods. 

 For all this there is no 

 redress. A few convic- 

 tions under the law" for 

 carelessness or malicious 

 setting of fires will help 

 to make people more 

 careful, but until our 

 public officials realize 

 how much this loss 

 means to forest owners 

 it will be hard to secure 

 such convictions. 



There is one other 

 phase of the forest prob- 

 lem that may be consid- 

 ered a matter of senti= 

 ment on my part that 

 is, the preserv'ation of 

 fine individual trees, the 



