28 THE FORESTS OF TENNESSEE. 



of Tennessee is growing with increasing rapidity. While 

 the state has yet an ample supply of timber, it is every 

 year becoming apparent that some legislation is demand- 

 ed for its preservation and reproduction. What shall this 

 legislation be? 



First, there should be a severe punishment inflicted on 

 all persons who wilfully or maliciously set the woods on 

 fire. From time immemorial it has been the custom of 

 those living in thinly settled regions to burn off the leaves 

 from the wooded lands in order that the wild, coarse 

 grasses may spring up and supply pasturage for domes- 

 tic animals, and especially for cattle and sheep. There 

 is no Record of the damage done to the forests in Tennes- 

 see by such fires later than for the year 1880, when the 

 census reports showed that 985,420 acres of timber were 

 thus, destroyed. Of these destructive fires, nineteen per 

 cent came from burning off the woods in order that the 

 early grass might come. An equal percentage of fires re- 

 sulted from the burning of brush in clearing lands. Six 

 per cent was charged to railway locomotives; fourteen 

 per cent from hunters' camps; fourteen per cent from 

 malicious persons, and one per cent from smoking. This 

 is a serious loss to the people of Tennessee, amounting in 

 one year to about six per cent of the entire wooded area 

 of the state. No doubt the percentage is much larger 

 than that reported, for from many of the districts in the 

 state no returns whatever were made. 



The loss of the timber does not cover the damage done 

 to the soil by the destruction of leaves, humus, and un- 

 dergrowth. The forests of the future are swept away, 

 and even the seeds and germs of plants are destroyed. 

 Careful inquiry as to the damaging effects of forest fires 

 in Michigan lead me to believe that the value of the tim- 

 ber is scarcely one-half of the loss sustained by suck fires 

 in that state. It is a rare thing to see in any burnt dis- 

 trict other growth than dwarf birch, hemlock, scrub oaks, 

 and other shrubs of no value whatever. Indeed, scarce- 

 ly any crop will grow vigorously when planted on a burnt 

 district in Michigan. I do not believe that fires injure 

 the productive capacity of the soils in Tennessee, but they 

 doubtless impair the durability of the soils. 



