INJURIES TO TREES. 



113 



FOREST FIRES. 



Forest Fires are the one great cause of injuries to forests 

 in this section. All other causes of injury are very slight in 

 comparison to it, and could this one cause be removed it is more 

 than probable that the natural renewal of our timber lands would 

 be sufficient to maintain the timber industries of Minnesota for 

 very many years to come. 



Fires in this state have destroyed large areas of pine log tim- 

 ber before it could be made accessible to market. It is undoubt- 



Figure 29. ~Agaricus melleus, a fungus that is occasionally very injurious 

 to trees by destroying their roots, (a ) A fruiting portion of the fungus 



edly true that in this section of the country more pine timber has 

 been destroyed by fire than the lumbermen have ever cut. 



On account of this great danger to pine timber, and on 

 account of high taxes, the lumbermen have been discouraged 

 from holding their pine lands for a second growth, but prefer to 

 cut every tree that can be made into salable lumber and then 

 abandon the land. But even under such conditions it occasion- 

 ally happens that the land is not burned over, or only slightly 

 burned, for a number of years, when it will generally produce a 

 8 



