1 8 USE OF THE NATIONAL FORESTS. 



have been remarkably successful in keeping it down. 

 Since the fire patrol was started less than one-third of 

 I per cent of the total area of the Forests has been 

 burned over, and the money loss has been insignificant. 

 This is a wonderful improvement over the old conditions 

 on the open public domain, where fires were incessant 

 and enormously destructive. 



Hundreds of millions of feet of timber are sold from 

 the National Forests each year. That is why the Forest 

 is protected. The timber is for use. The cuttings do 

 not damage the Forest, because the lumbering operations 

 are so carefully done that the stand is left in first-class 

 condition for a second crop, and after that a third crop 

 and any number of future ciops. Fire is kept out of the 

 cut-over lands to give the young growth a fair chance. 

 By wise use the timber crop is made perpetual, and its 

 quality is improved by encouraging a new and better 

 growth of the most useful kinds of trees. 



The actual results on private lands where the owners 

 do not care what happens after they have skinned them, 

 are quite different. These lands are usually cut over 

 with the sole object of getting everything possible out of 

 them at one stroke. They are stripped of timber, while 

 the slashings which are left on the ground make good 

 fire traps. Very soon the whole area bums over and the 

 ground becomes a nonproductive waste. A glance from 

 a car window in Michigan, Wisconsin, or Minnesota shows 

 the now absolutely ruined lands which but a short time 

 ago produced magnificent stands of white pine. Think 

 of the great wealth which the people of these States 

 might have made permanent, simply by using the Forests 

 wisely. 



