SAND PINJEBY LANDS. 49 



effect of the fire is visible in the stunted growth of the young 

 trees; aspen, which in the original forest grow often several feet 

 a, year in height, remain short runts and it is not until ten and 

 more years of rest from fire have permitted the accumulated 

 litter to improve the soil, that a more vigorous growth becomes 

 apparent. Tracts of this kind occur in every county, but they 

 form only a small percentage of the* total area of cut-over lands; 

 they are troublesome to clear after the thickeits once have at- 

 tained considerable height and they furnish no good pasture. 

 To continue them as woodlands they require merely protection 

 from fire, and for their improvement pine should be supplied 

 either as seed or plants wherever it is wanting. 



2. Where the old stand of pine was broken, and a consid- 

 erable mixture of small pine and hardwoods existed, there re- 

 mains after the first fire a large amount of scorched and charred 

 standing, dead and dying material. In this, as in the following 

 form of cut-over pinery lands, young growth readily succeeds 

 provided fires are not repeated. But this happy accident does 

 not generally occur; the great quantity of dead material, most 

 of which does not fall during any one year, keeps the ground 

 furnished for several years with debris and thus invites the re- 

 turn of fires, which continue to come until the ground is largely 

 cleared. The area now resembles the case first considered; it 

 is a stump prairie, though usually not as clean. Here, too, the 

 return of tree growth is very slow and often discouraged alto- 

 gether for years. 



3. Where groves of sapling pine have been culled of their 

 larger timber and are then fired, the greater part of the remain- 

 ing growth is injured and much of it is killed. These injured 

 groves are generally of little promise in themselves; their growth 

 is hampered, their scorched butts doomed to decay; but they are 

 valuable in so far as they readily restock the ground with young 

 timber, providing this is not killed by fire. If fire occur, which 

 is the more common case, the entire grove is either gradually 

 burned and killed, or if the fire gets in during a very dry season 



p. w.— 4, 



