FOKEST FIRES. 281 



Mr. Russell. I think if you will read this lecture over 

 carefully when it is printed, you will see that it states that 

 the effect of burning it off prevents the production of the 

 pine for a much greater length of time than if it was merely 

 cut off. Mr. Sargent says in this paper that, in the ordi- 

 nary course of nature, the pine will appear in from fifty to 

 one hundred years. 



Qdestiox. On the same ground ? 



Mr. Russell. On the same ground if it is burned over. 

 The crops that come in the meantime are, first, fire-weed. 

 That covers the denuded land with vegetation, and enables it 

 to take up the seeds that are dropped by the birds ; first, of 

 the briers ; next, of the cherry and similar trees ; then the 

 larch, birch, and other inferior trees, which in time are 

 followed by those trees that come from the seeds brought by 

 squirrels, and the maple seeds that are blown by the wind ; 

 and, in the course of time, the white pine will again appear ; 

 that process being, as I understand from this paper, much 

 slower than if we cut it off in the ordinary course. 



Mr. Jewett of Pelham. If I understand the law correctly, 

 it provides for the punishment of persons who wantonly or 

 maliciously set forest fires. The fire that burned al)out two 

 hundred acres in our town last year was caused, not wantonly, 

 but by smoking out bees. I do not think the men intended 

 to burn the forest, and they supposed they put the fire out. 

 Such fires are often caused l)y hunters smoking out squirrels. 

 They are not set maliciously or wantonly. 



Mr. Russell. The words of the statute are " wantonly 

 and recklessly." 



Mr. A. A. Smith. I believe it is considered a law of 

 nature that the same species of trees will not follow ; but 

 before we criticise a valuable paper, I think we shall find, 

 if we examine it closely, that the writer did not use the lan- 

 guage that, if the pines should be cut off and the land burned 

 over, the same kind of trees would come up, but he said if 

 the pine should be partially cut off, trees of the same kind 

 would come np again. I understood it so. 



Mr. Shepard. I think that is a fact. The second growth 

 of pine that is used so much in the manufacture of wooden 

 ware arc trees that grow up in old pastures. Many of them 



