32 WHITE PINE TYPE 



Both the fire hazard and Kability are high in this type so that 

 damage from this cause is frequent and severe. Locomotive 

 engines and smokers riding on the raibroads, in automobiles, 

 behind horses, or walking for business, pleasure or to hunt are 

 the commonest offenders. Two-thirds of the forest fires are due 

 to these two causes alone. For the other third, fires started to- 

 clear land, stationary engines and incendiaries are responsible. 

 The important point to recognize with reference to the fire 

 haz3,rd in this type is that it is so situated that it is brought into 

 direct contact with nearly all the human activities of the states 

 in which it is found. It occupies the low lying land near the 

 seacoast where the railroads form networks of interlacing tracks. 

 Farms surround it and cut it up. As a consequence it has had 

 to suffer from every kind of fire carelessness of which man is 

 capable. 



But worst of all is the amount of damage which fire can do. 

 The young stands are completely wiped out because the inflam- 

 mable tops fxurnish fuel for even a gentle ground fire. Older 

 stands suffer as badly if there is a wind because the fire leaps 

 from the ground and becomes a crown fire. In both cases the 

 thin bark is usually scorched so that the tree dies. Taking every- 

 thing into consideration white pine stands are as poor a fire risk 

 as any of our timber wealth. After a fire they must be imme- 

 diately cut. If allowed to stand the sapwood quickly decays and 

 the loss is often as high as 50 per cent within three years. 



In addition to fire white pine stands have recently been 

 threatened with another devastating agency. This is the white 

 pine blister rust, an imported European disease with two hosts, 

 the five needle pines and currants or gooseberries. Unless 

 prompt measures are taken for its suppression it threatens aU 

 our five needle pines and there is a chain of them across the con- 

 tinent including such important commercial species as the 

 eastern white pine, the Idaho white pine or silver pine, and the 

 sugar pine of Cahfornia. It is most serious with small trees. 

 Fortunately the disease can be controlled by the eradication of 

 currant and gooseberry bushes, both wild and cultivated. 

 Prompt action on the part of New Hampshire, Vermont, Massa- 



