362 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



August 



In these dense thickets one may still 

 find the roots of manzanita and ceo- 

 nothi and see the scare of old fires on 

 the seed trees. There could not be a 

 better example of the results follow- 

 ing an exclusion of fire. 



The best method to bring about 

 such an end is a systematic fire patrol 

 and a system of telephone stations 

 for reporting fires and calling assist- 

 ance. Fire in this type is not difficult 

 to check, especially if it is taken early. 

 The Diamond Match Company has 



the hopeless class of the chaparral 

 field. On the unburned land of this 

 type there is almost always good re- 

 production and in many places it is 

 quite remarkable. In almost every in- 

 stance, however, the young growth is 

 heavily interspersed with chaparral 

 and debris. Fig. 7 shows a good ex- 

 ample of such land. With adequate 

 fire protection there is no doubt of 

 this becoming an excellent young for- 

 est in which the chaparral will be al- 

 most wholly excluded. (Fig. 9.) At 



Fig. 8. The same forest as Fig. 7 after fire ; the destruction is total. 



instituted such a system and finds that 

 it bears excellent results at a reason- 

 able cost. 



(b) The Protection of Old Logged 

 Land. Although this area is not 

 large in comparison to the total forest 

 it is nevertheless of sufficient impor- 

 tance to justify separate discussion. 

 Strange to say only a limited part of 

 these logged lands have been burned, 

 but where this has occurred the de- 

 struction of young growth has been 

 total and the tracts are reverting to 



present it is peculiarly liable to con- 

 flagration and the mixture of slash 

 and chaparral is a certain agent of 

 destruction. Fig. 8 shows the lum- 

 bered land through which fire has run. 

 Every seed tree and sapling has been 

 destroyed and there is no future for 

 the tract but reversion to chaparral. 

 In the case of the land shown in Fig. 

 8, the fire not only destroyed the fu- 

 ture of the logged land, but gained 

 such impetus that it ran into neighbor- 

 ing green timber and destroyed a large 





