FOREST PROTECTION. 149 



in this case is not a fair standard by which to measure 

 the loss, since at this stage of their growth they are making 

 their most rapid increase, and their value should be com- 

 puted as the amovmt upon which the increase is paying 

 a good interest. For instance, the Division of Forestry 

 of the Minnesota Experiment Station found land that 

 was well stocked A\dth young White Pine (six inches in 

 diameter and fifty feet high) that could be bought for 

 about one dollar per acre, and yet the annual increase 

 on the trees would pay five per cent on a valuation of 

 $100.00 for the next twenty years. The reason why 

 such a state of affairs exists is that there is such great 

 danger from fire that the investment fails to command 

 the money of careful investors. 



The Destruction of the Forest Floor by fire greatly 

 lessens the probability of an immediate renewal of valu- 

 able tree-growth upon the land, and therefore is one of 

 the greatest injuries to forests. The value of the forest 

 floor can hardly be estimated, but the expense that would 

 be necessary after a severe fire to produce conditions 

 as favorable to the seeding of our timber lands as those 

 found in unburned forests would often be not less than 

 twenty-five dollars per acre. 



Light Fires, which repeatedly run over the ground, 

 and which, by the casual observer are thought to be of 

 no importance, often destroy the seeds in the surface 

 soil and the young tree seedlings, besides injuring the 

 forest floor, and unless such fires are prevented, it is im- 

 possible to secure a good growth of timber on any land. 

 The fires that burn over the land shortly after it has been 

 logged, and which feed on the tops and other waste parts 

 of the trees, generally destroy a large number of young 

 seedling trees, perhaps all of them, so that in order to se- 

 cure a new growth seeds must be brought from a distance. 

 Owing to the great heat developed by such fires in dry 



