52 Our Field and Forest Trees 



western mine has made sure of getting trees 

 enough by keeping its own forest, cared for by its 

 own foresters. Recently it has been discovered 

 that the dead trunks left standing where forest 

 fires have raged " fire-killed " wood, can be used 

 in mines to great advantage. Engineers prefer it 

 to freshly cut timber because it is light to handle or 

 ship and it does not readily decay. And as the 

 sap is already out of it, any preserving chemicals 

 which may be used soon sink deep into the wood. 



Quantities of " fire-killed " timbers are used in 

 the mines of Colorado. In the Pike national for- 

 est " fire-killed " logs are being cut for railroad 

 ties, and the trunks of " fire-killed " trees are also 

 being used for telephone and telegraph poles — 

 which is another use for trees of which our fore- 

 fathers knew nothing. Every year the country 

 needs more than a million poles for telegraph and 

 telephone lines and electric car cables. 



One new use of wood causes terrible destruction 

 in the forests, and that is the making of paper out 

 of wood pulp. Before this process was invented, 

 spruce trees five or six inches thick used to be safe 

 from the lumbermen. But now these youngsters, 

 too, are worth money. Quaking asp trees, which 

 used to live in peace because their wood was worth 

 so little, are good enough to be turned into wall 

 paper, or into bulky Sunday newspapers. Yet 

 these quaking asps do great things for their coun- 

 try, for their roots bind together barren gravelly 



