FOREST FIRES. 291 



it, but we want to stop fire getting into it, and then why 

 shoukl we destroy that brush? It acts on the soil as a 

 mulch. It protects the young trees that are coming up, 

 and in the course of time decomposition takes place, and 

 then it is a benefit to the soil. There is an absurdity to me 

 in that proposition. As I said before, I should have to 

 think a good while of this before I could suggest a proper 

 remedy ; but that there can be a remedy, or a partial rem- 

 edy, seems plain. It is an important subject, and one of 

 the most important that we could discuss. 



I understood that paper precisely as my friend Mr. Smith 

 understood it in regard to the pine — that a gradual removal 

 of the forest did not destroy the growth of pine. I know 

 it is so. If you go into a pine forest you will find the 

 young pines growing up all around. If you do not remove 

 all the trees at once, you do not destroy it so but what the 

 seeds of the old pines will renew that forest, which is the 

 profitable growth. I should disagree with Mr. Manning in 

 regard to the seeding of the pine. Mr. Manning told you 

 a few moments ago that there had been but very little pine 

 seed for some years. I never saw the white pines covered 

 with such an abundance of cones as they were a year ago 

 last August or September, so that some of the trees were 

 brown with the cones. But what he says in regard to the 

 white pine seeding is true in a measure ; it does not produce 

 that large crop of cones every year. Then, again, if you 

 want to grow a pine forest, undoubtedly the most feasible 

 way is to sow the seed, but it is not an expensive way to 

 transplant. You need not put the young trees into nursery 

 rows. Any of you living in any town about here where 

 white pine grows, can find plenty of pastures where you will 

 see seedling pines coming up, if there is a pine forest near ; 

 and if you do not want to have the white pine take posses- 

 sion of the land, you can take those white pines, all the 

 way from eight inches to three feet high, and by cutting a 

 little circle around the trees, you can put in a spade, raise 

 them up, and carry them oflf, being very careful to protect 

 the root, which is very sensitive to air and heat. Remove 

 them in a dull day and keep them from the sun, and you 

 will not lose more than three per cent, of them if they are 



