FOREST FIRES. 275 



land nearly all over New England, if freed from the plough 

 and the scythe, and guarded from tire and pasturage, grows 

 up again with Pine. The different processes, however, by 

 which ^yhite-Pine land, on which the forest has been de- 

 stroyed by tire, has been again brought into the condition to 

 produce spontaneously another crop of Pine, have occupied 

 a long period of time, — so long, indeed, that it must extend 

 through generations of hurhan life. The forest fire, then, 

 which destroyed the Pine trees growing upon the land, 

 destroyed, also, the capacity of the hind to produce again, 

 during a period which may be set down at from fifty to one 

 hundred years, a similar crop of trees. The damage inflicted 

 upon the laud by forest fires is, of course, not irreparable in 

 a climate like that of New England, where the annual rain- 

 fall is sufficient to always ensure a growth of trees of some 

 sort, if the ground is left entirely undisturbed, and sooner or 

 later, in the ordinary \vorkings of nature's laws, forests will 

 succeed each other here. But in some parts of the country 

 where the rain-fall is so slight that there is a constant and 

 severe struggle between the forest and the plain, and where 

 trees under the most favorable conditions barely exist, a 

 forest fire not only kills the forest but it makes any future 

 growth of trees impossible. 



We, in New England, are more fortunate, and it is entirely 

 within our power to regulate the composition of our forests, 

 and maintain a proper proportion between forest areas and 

 farming laud. 



If, however, forests are subject to constant and unneces- 

 sary danger of destruction by fire, there can be no proper 

 system of forest management introduced into the usual 

 economy of the community. There is little inducement to 

 plant a forest, or protect and encourage the growth of natural 

 woodlands, so long as the condition of public sentiment is 

 such that the authors of forest fires are not held responsible 

 for their acts. A man cannot be expected to expend money 

 or labor on his trees, or allow them to grow a year after he 

 can find any market for them, if he has the danger of forest 

 fires constantly before his eyes. There is no inducement, 

 under these circumstances, to allow a forest to mature for 

 timber; it is safer to cut it off for cord-wood at the earliest 



