INJURIES TO TREES. 113 
FOREST FIRES. 
Forest Fires are the one great cause of injuries to forests 
in this section. All other causes of injury are very slight in 
comparison to it, and could this one cause be removed it is more 
than probable that the natural renewal of our timber lands would 
be sufficient to maintain the timber industries of Minnesota for 
very many years to come. 
Fires in this state have destroyed large areas of pine log tim- 
ber before it could be made accessible to market. It is undoubt- 
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Figure 29. Agaricus melleus, a fungus that is occasionally very injurious 
to trees by destroying their roots. (a) <A fruiting portion of the fungus 
| 
Wl tee 
edly true that in this section of the country more pine timber has 
been destroyed by fire than the lumbermen have ever cut. 
On account of this great danger to pine timber, and on 
account of high taxes, the lumbermen have been discouraged 
from holding their pine lands for a second growth, but prefer to 
cut every tree that can be made into salable lumber and then 
abandon the land. But even under such conditions it occasion- 
ally happens that the land is not burned over, or only slightly 
burned, for a number of years, when it will generally produce a 
8 
