xxxvi INTRODUCTION 



roof covering. Then, too, much government tim- 

 ber was stolen by lumber companies operating in 

 the vicinity of valuable government timber. After 

 the land had been stripped of everything of value 

 a fire was started in the slashing, which among other 

 things burned the stumps and thus practically oblit- 

 erated all evidence of trespass. Had this destruc- 

 tion continued there would to-day have been little 

 timber left in the West, and the development of 

 the country which demands timber all the time, and 

 not only at certain intervals, would have been re- 

 tarded, if not stopped altogether. 



How terrible the forest fires were in this western 

 country is well illustrated by what an old California 

 settler once told me, and what I have heard re- 

 peatedly in many Western States. He said: "In 

 the years before the Forest Service took over the 

 care and protection of the forests around here, the 

 mountains within view of my ranch were not visible 

 for many months at a time, being almost continu- 

 ally enveloped in smoke from the big forest fires 

 that were raging in the forests all summer without 

 ever being under control. They started in the 

 spring as soon as it became dry and were not sup- 

 pressed until the late fall rains and snows put them 



