50 FORESTS OF WISCONSIN. 



and attains considerable proportions, the entire grove is changed 

 at once into a tangle of scorched and charred poles, which require 

 for their improvement either a great amount of labor and ex- 

 pense or else the starting of more fires to first get rid of the 

 debris. Where fire runs through slashings (in large timber) too 

 early in the season when the ground is stiU wet,, and also where 

 no fire occurs for several years after logging, so that the leaves 

 have become litter, and the small twigs are decayed, then the 

 slashings, even of wasteful operations where large amounts of 

 heavy tops and much dead and down material exists, are often 

 not burned clean and the ground is strewn with scorched logs 

 and tops, and many cases exist where settlers are logging today 

 on old slashings of this kind although not a living pine occurs. 



It is but natural that these several forms grade into each other, 

 and that nearly every slashing, especially during the first few 

 years, markedly changes its complexion. In general the bare 

 land form predominates in all pinery areas and occupies today 

 probably about 70 per cent, of the cut-over lands. 



Loam and Clay Lands. — 4. A greater admixture of hard- 

 woods, due to the presence of a larger amount of clay in the soil, 

 materially aflFects the condition of the cut-over land. If pine 

 was predominant and the hardwoods scant, as on the red clays 

 about Lake Superior and on the poorer gravelly loam, the re- 

 moval of the heavy stand of pine commonly involves almost a 

 total destruction of the hardwoods just as in the case of the regu- 

 lar pinery; the ground is soon cleared by a repetition of fires, the 

 aspen ceases to return. Unlike the sands, however, these loam 

 lands soon produce a fair amount of grass and the land is con- 

 verted into pasture. 



5. Where the hardwood is heavier, and especially where 

 hemlock enters into the composition of the forest, the dead tim- 

 ber remains standing for years. A forest of dead trees and often 

 400-800 cords of timber per acre may be seen after repeated and 

 often severe fires have swept over the ground. Such areas are 

 not rare; the fires of 1894 created quite a number. They are 



