est fire, and which in the parlance of the district "does 

 no harm." But like the second, so the third fire killed 

 the beginning of a new forest cover and left Nature to 

 "try again." 



Nevertheless, the third fire and the later corners of 

 this sort differ very materially from fire Nos. i and 2. 

 There is no longer the large amount of material, the 

 thousands of cords of resinous tops all dried to tinder, 

 the fire is a mild affair, runs along slowly and fails 

 to cover large areas at a time, nor any area as thor- 

 oughly, since it lacks the intense heat necessary to 

 create the strong draft or accomplish complete de- 

 struction. It is a matter of a few acres here, a couple 

 of hundred at some other place and a large proportion 

 of the lands often remains unharmed for considerable 

 length of time, say- ten years and more. In such 

 places Nature succeeds in restoring considerable 

 cover. After this has continued for considerable time 

 and a semblance of forest cover is restored, these very 

 places become danger points and the native of the 

 region speaks of such places as "needing fire" needing 

 "burning over' to avoid more serious conditions and 

 dangerous conflagrations. "I have had practical ex- 

 perience with these fires all my life and I find that the 

 only way to fight fire is with fire ; the thick woods need 

 burning over if you want to make them safe." This 

 statement was made to the writer only a few months 

 ago by one of the residents of this section and illus- 

 trates the perverted notions regarding forest prop- 

 erty which the indifference on the part of the State 

 and county have gradually brought about. Here we 

 have a sane, well disposed, law abiding citizen rec- 

 ommend in good faith to burn a crop in order to 

 secure it. 



The amount of lands thus saved from fire for a 

 reasonable time differs with many conditions, notably 

 wet and dry seasons, length of time since large fires 

 have occurred, number of people engaged in little 

 wood cutting operations, berry picking, hunting, etc. 



It is in this condition that we find the lands of the 

 Reserves today. The real forest is gone; the estimate 

 of 10 per cent forest according to the usual standard is 

 correct; the country is and looks denuded; a visit in 

 April reveals a landscape far from inviting; but with 

 all, there are thousands of acres where a little respite 

 from fires has led to a partial re-stocking. Accord- 

 ing to the old standard of estimating timber there is 

 no merchantable timber on the land; according to the 

 present standards as set by the inhabitants of these 

 sorely devastated districts, there is but little merchant- 

 able material and this is restricted to the swamps. 

 But there is a new forest cover; there are millions of 

 young trees from the little seedling to young trees 

 twenty and even thirty feet in height covering thou- 

 sands of acres of this Reserve, all growing as fast as a 

 rugged climate and a sorely impoverished soil permits 

 them, with thousands upon thousands fast nearing a 

 size where they will be merchantable. 



To replace these millions of young trees would re- 

 quire many thousands of dollars, to protect them re- 

 quires but a mere trifle. 



It is these trees, it is their growth, it is the wood 

 which they are making every year, that is to be pro- 

 tected. 



Does it pay? 



The survey covering a part of this land indicates 

 that in District No. 2 the following conditions were 

 found : 



Of 986 acres surveyed, 44 per cent of the land was. 

 returned as upland woods where the ycung growth 

 over 5 feet made woods dense enough to cover over- 

 twenty per cent of the ground. In addition there was 



