CARE AND PROTECTION OF FORESTS. 69 



fort, and at an expense of money and hard work ; our farm lands yield 

 us provisions, and products for quick money, and any injury to these 

 possessions affects us at once. But the benefits from our forests are not 

 so direct, and therefore if they burn, the loss is not felt so quickly. A 

 stand of young timber may burn over and no marked damage show at a 

 glance; a majority of the trees may put out leaves the following spring, 

 and the area appear full of life. The same woodland burns over every 

 few years and still shows, especially at a distance, a good cover of leafy 

 tree tops in the summer, yet this stand of young trees has suffered and 

 will continue to suffer as long as fires run through them. Portions of 

 bark on the butts have been scorched and have died ; the dead places give 

 rise to disease, rot and hollow butts which stay with the stand throughout 

 its lifetime, and render a big per cent of the timber unfit for lumber. A 

 great many trees break off at the ground because the stump was weak- 

 ened first by fire and then was attacked by insects, fungi, or disease of 

 some sort. Such is the case everywhere, and people have no doubt be- 

 come so accustomed to it that they take it as a matter of course without 

 stopping to lay the cause to forest fires that began when the trees were 

 very small, and have recurred at irregular periods. 



The saw-mill operator is well acquainted with these defects whether or 

 not he thinks of the cause, and when he buys standing timber he is sure 

 to make a certain per cent reduction in his estimate, because of them. 

 The farmer often wonders why so many of his trees have hollow butts. 

 One of the chief reasons is their having been burnt repeatedly from the 

 time they were small. The burnt places on the stumps decayed, perhaps 

 became infected with insects, and when the next fires came along the 

 dead wood burned a little more, helping to kill the sap next to it, thus 

 enlarging the size of the burn. It can be easily seen how this process, re- 

 peated time and again, results in a number of diseased and hollow butts 

 by the time the area has on it a stand of large trees. 



Our future timber supply must come from the sprouts and seedlings 

 of our woodlands. They stand for the same thing among trees that babies 

 and children do among men. A large amount of the timber that could 

 be produced is lost on account of damage from fire. The very part of 

 the tree that should give the clearest, strongest and best lumber has to be 

 left in the woods. The total of such butt logs makes a large amount, and 

 this loss places upon the people an extra tax in the form of a higher price 

 of lumber, to say nothing of the inferior grades. No tree can grow its 

 fastest if constantly burned and diseased ; no land can produce its best if it 

 constantly has the decayed vegetation removed. In order to keep our 



