

356 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



August 



nothing better than fire as a method of 

 driving game or of opening the forest 

 that hunting may be easier. To this 

 may be added the extreme likelihood 

 of accidental fire. Small hunting par- 

 ties, wandering through the moun- 

 tains, gave infinite chances, in their ut- 

 ter carelessness, to spreading confla- 

 gration. In this manner, between de- 

 sign and accident, it is easy to see how 

 a forest, tinder dry for five months, 

 could be largely burned over in the 

 course of a short period, and thor- 

 oughly swept of debris. 



workers in natural science, and must, 

 perforce, be acceded to the forester. 



The forests of the Sierras and 

 Coast Range are composed of trees 

 which grow with great vigor and 

 which are mostly plentiful and regular 

 seeders, showing themselves in every 

 way adapted to the soil and moisture 

 conditions. From this it follows that 

 the trees normally grew in close order 

 and formed a continuous forest cover. 

 When the stand of timber in any lo- 

 cality waxed old and commenced to 

 grow open in its decline, a young for- 



Fig. 2. Open forest with chaparral ground cover as result of continued fire 



Granting, then, the prevalence of 

 Indian fires and the partial cleanness 

 of the forest floor as an effect, let us 

 go on to determine at what cost this 

 result was obtained. 



Forestry would not be an art could 

 it not study the present forest and 

 from it give a fairly accurate picture 

 of its original before it fell under the 

 touch of man. Similar powers in 

 in their line of work are acceded to 

 the geologist, the biologist, and other 



est immediately began to take its place, 

 and the dense cover was re-established. 

 Where fire, fed by lightning, or where 

 the hurricane made an opening in the 

 timber, a young even-aged stand suc- 

 ceeded to the old, and grew in luxu- 

 riance. 



There is every reason to think that 

 this forest was unbroken over the en- 

 tire region where soil, temperature 

 and moisture conditions allowed the 

 component species to make their best 







