est materials in the way of their best and most appropriate 

 conversion and distribution to supply the public needs. In 

 view of this primary right of the public, the most conser- 

 vative methods of handling that can be practically and rea- 

 sonably used in protecting, reforesting, and manufacturing 

 should be applied and practiced. This is a natural public 

 right to expect, and a personal obligation on the part of 

 the private owners. Some comprehensive system of pro- 

 tection from fire and bark beetles, also provision for that 

 which may be called enlargement of forests by the protec- 

 tion and encouragement of growth before the lands are 

 cut over, should be adopted. 



This would mean that the large hollow or defective butted 

 trees should be cleared around and the hollows or cavities 

 filled with loose dirt. The combustible material should be 

 cleared away around the small trees where the limbs are 

 so low that fire, when it runs, will bum them entirely, 

 and at the same time, carry the fire into larger sized trees, 

 and destroy them. The clearing up of the leaves, needles, 

 brush, and tops, and filling the cavity of hollow-butted 

 trees with dirt to prevent further damage by fire are neces- 

 sary preliminary operations that will make a large bill of 

 expense, but should be provided for. 



Burning over the forests after the protective measures 

 have been taken as above outlined should be made by the 

 Forestry Department at least every few years. If this is not 

 done, the combustible materials will so accumulate that the 

 damage will be greater and the destruction more sweeping 

 and general. If the present idea of forest protection is 

 carried on for too great a length of time — or until the 

 young growth has become very dense, and the leaves, need- 

 les, and brush very thick — it may make so great an ac- 

 cumulation that it would carry the fire up through the tops 

 of the large trees and become very destructive. We might 

 at least apprehend that timber fires might occur, where the 



