Care and Protection of Forests 



By R. S. MADDOX. 



Need of forests. We can not overestimate the value of forests. They 

 are a necessity. Without them human beings could scarcely exist, because 

 they play such a part in the conservation of our water supply, and be- 

 cause they are producers of lumber and other forms of wood so indispen- 

 sable to man ; in fact, forests may be said to make conditions on earth 

 possible for man's existence. They are cooler in summer, and warmer in 

 winter than bare land, and thus help to make climate more endurable. 

 They break the force and violence of wind. They help to hold the rain- 

 fall for a gradual seepage into the ground from which it reappears to 

 feed our springs and streams. They are a source of supply from which 

 man has always been drawing, a reserve which he has too long left un- 

 cared for, a gift which he has too often considered a spoil for plunder. 

 Much damage has resulted from their destruction or abuse. The cleared 

 land just as easily and freely pours the rainfall down the slopes, as the 

 well protected, wooded area prevents it from running off. Land unfit for 

 cultivation, and which should have been kept covered with trees, is a 

 great contributor of soil to the floods of water that rush over it. It is like a 

 vine with its tendrils cut off, having nothing with which to hold. If it has 

 been cut over, with the brush and trash left on the area, these furnish ex- 

 cellent fuel for the forest fire that runs through it to burn off everything. 



Care of the forests. The importance of caring for and protecting the 

 forests and forest land of Tennessee can not be emphasized too strongly. 

 They are disappearing from lack of proper use and protection. Too great 

 quantities of timber can not be cut continuously without exhausting the 

 supply, and much land that should be left for timber production is cleared 

 for cultivation. Not enough care is given to land already tilled. When one 

 area becomes washed and worn, another piece of woodland is cleared to 

 fill its place. A big per cent of the land used for farming will last only 

 a few years under the present system of cultivation, and it seems that our 

 woodlands are doomed to supply a never-satisfied want for more land to 

 take the place of that which is being discarded as unfit for further farm 

 use. Forestry and farming come close together and every farmer of the 

 State should be a practical forester. 



