344 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY. 



later decomposes, but the composition is surely 

 altered in the old timber as well as in the young 

 aftergrowth. Where the soft woods, which are 

 the most valuable and the most easily removed by 

 water transportation, had occupied a larger portion 

 of the mixed forest, or were found in pure stands, 

 or where hardwoods are lumbered, the case is less 

 hopeful for the future, the accumulation of debris 

 prevents largely a reproduction of valuable species, 

 and the succession is of inferior kinds and shrubs, 

 especially as the valuable seed trees have been either 

 entirely removed or greatly reduced. Sooner or 

 later fires run through the slashing, and if repeated 

 may destroy not only all the struggling after- 

 growth, but the humus, the soil itself, and so 

 render the land practically useless for genera- 

 tions. 



Sometimes a fire at the right time may, however, 

 have done good by reducing the slash, and, if seed 

 trees were left uncut in the neighborhood, a de- 

 sirable aftergrowth may have established itself, 

 which but for a repetition of the fire would grow 

 into desirable timber. 



In late years the severity of the culling pro- 

 cess has greatly increased, since with improved 

 means of transportation and reduced supplies 

 smaller sizes have become marketable ; as a 

 result the chances of a valuable aftergrowth are 

 greatly diminished, and most of the logged areas 

 of to-day, differing from those of twenty or thirty 



