FOREST FIRE>. 119 



Street trees liable to this injury may be protected by burlap 

 sacking, straw, or other similar material. When injuries 

 from sunscald occur, the loose bark should be cut off down 

 to the live growth and the wood coated with paint, to prevent 

 its seasoning, or the wound wrapped in cloth. Trees inclined 

 to the northeast are most liable to sunscald because the rays 

 of the sun strike the trunk more nearly perpendicularly. 



Broken Branches and Decay. Large wounds are sometimes 

 formed by the breaking down of a branch or by decay which 

 may have started in a wound made by pruning. In such 

 cases the broken and decayed wood should be cleared away 

 and the exposed surfaces treated with a very heavy coat of white 

 lead paint, grafting wax or other material that will keep out 

 water and disease. If the wound is very large or forms a hole 

 in which water is likely to stand it should be cleaned and 

 painted as recommended and then covered with a sheet of 

 zinc carefully tacked on and the joints closed with grafting 

 wax to keep out water. 



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 wauld 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 

 timber before it could be made accessible to market. It is 

 undoubtedly 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 ac- 

 count 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 occasionally hap- 

 pens thattheland is not burned overor only slightly burned for 

 a number of years when it will generally produce a good second 

 cutting. Some land in this state that was first cut in the early 

 days of the logging industry, when it was customary to cut 



