254 



FORESTRY IN NEW ENGLAND 



Forest Fires. — The general effects of forest fires have been, 

 stated in the chapter on that subject. All classes of fire injury 

 as there described may be found in this region. Owing to the 

 nature of the soil on many sites (usually slopes), consisting of a 

 thick layer of duff immediately underlaid with loose rocks or a 

 thin layer of mineral soil, injury to the soil is especially marked. 



By permission oj Ihe U. S. Forest Service. 



Fig. 87. — A steep slope once clothed with merchantable timber, but now stripped of 

 humus and soil by forest fires. 



Undoubtedly the greatest damage is done on such situations 

 where a fire entirely consumes the duff and soil, leaving the bare 

 rocks, which may lie unproductive for centuries. 



The three kinds of fire, ground, surface, and crown fires, all 

 occur; ground fires being the most typical, because common 

 here and not ordinarily found in other New England forest 

 regions, where the accumulations of duff are much thinner. The 

 dangerous season is in two periods, beginning in the spring as 



