FOREST PROTECTION. 



JOHN C. GIFFORD. 



According to the latest and best au- 

 thority, 37 per cent, of the land area of 

 the United States is in forest. Our forest 

 resources are still considerable. It is not 

 necessary at present that we should enter 

 into vast planting operations. With proper 

 care and judicious cutting, the 37 per cent. 

 of forest area is quite capable of yielding 

 forever an immense supply of timber in al- 

 most every form and of every kind. 



Few subjects are of more importance 

 to Americans than forest protection. It 

 is useless to attempt modern forestry 

 methods, adapted, of course, to American 

 conditions, until at least a small degree of 

 safety may be assured against conflagra- 

 tions. Of the many agencies destructive 

 to the forest, fire is the first and most im- 

 portant in this country. 



Mi) THE CAUSES OF FIRES. 



Fires have played a much greater role 

 in molding the nature of the surface of 

 the earth than is ordinarily supposed. 

 Great conflagrations have occurred on this 

 continent for many ages, no doubt before 

 mankind existed. 



Lightning has been, and is still, a com- 

 mon cause of forest fires. Although of lit- 

 tle practical importance, it is of passing 

 interest to note other natural ways which 

 have possibly produced fire in the past and 

 which produce it, perhaps, to-day at rare 

 intervals. 



When one sees how easily fire can be 

 produced by rubbing two pieces of wood 

 together, it is not a rank supposition to 

 infer that the same occurs sometimes in 

 nature. In fact, records of such causes 

 are not uncommon. Captain Geo. S. An- 

 derson, U. S. A., in charge of the Yellow- 

 stone Park, in one of his reports says that 

 fire caused by the rubbing of two trees 

 together by the wind is not uncommon. 

 Mr. A. G. Theobald, who lived many 

 years in the jungles of Southern India, as- 

 sured Mr. W. T. Hornaday that fires often 

 occurred in the Animallai forests from the 

 rubbing of the bamboos in a high wind. 



Mr. Geo. Goodfellow is authority for 

 the statement that fires were caused by the 

 friction of sliding boulders during an earth- 

 quake in Arizona in 1878. 



There may be other causes, chemical in 

 nature, to say nothing of fires from vol- 

 canoes, which are, of course, not infre- 

 quent in volcanic districts. 



Spontaneous combustion is not uncom- 

 mon in hay mows, cotton bales, masses of 



* The next two papers will relate to the effects of fire 

 and 10 the methods of preventing and extinguishing fire. 



wet coal, and in piles of rags or tow, espe- 

 cially when oil is present. In tropical 

 countries garbage piles sometimes take 

 fire spontaneously. 



At any rate, there are evidences of fire 

 in the forests on this earth of long stand- 

 ing, and it has been without doubt a very 

 potent agency in molding the nature of the 

 surface of this globe. 



Before the great fires of Minnesota in 

 the late summer of 1894, according to Mr. 

 Ayres, the dead material became so dry 

 that when pulverized and sprinkled in a 

 flame it would ignite with an explosive 

 flash. Add to this a hot, dry wind, an air 

 filled with combustible gases and dust, 

 and the conditions are right for the slight- 

 est spark to ignite this tinder. 



Mason, in his book on the "Origin of 

 Inventions," says: "The splendid victory 

 of man over the earth was achieved liter- 

 ally with the firebrand. The memory of 

 conflagrations seems to haunt the dreams 

 of bears and jackals and tigers, and all 

 ferocious beasts. The naked African has 

 only to kindle a little flame and lie down 

 to sleep among ravenous lions. The wolf, 

 the cougar, the wildcat, were long ago 

 taught the hopelessness of resisting its 

 fury. Great hunting excursions were made 

 successful by setting the grass on fire. 

 Venomous serpents and insects and bitter 

 enemies of man, visible and invisible, had 

 to yield to the brand." 



With the implements of modern times 

 man no longer needs fire to help him sub- 

 jugate the wilderness, although it may 

 often be used by the forester to good ad- 

 vantage if kept under control. The human 

 race has passed through the first stage 

 of progress in the development of the sim- 

 pler arts of life, and through the second 

 stage, which is the domestication of ani- 

 mals and the cultivation of plants, and is 

 entering now upon the third stage, which 

 embraces the subjugation of the wilder- 

 ness for the production of perpetual wood 

 supplies and the reclamation of the waste 

 lands of the earth. 



Although the savage in many countries 

 still burns down the forest, plants his crop 

 in the ashes between the charred stumps, 

 and when the fertility is exhausted moves 

 to another spot, the tendency of the 

 times is to form permanent homes and 

 develop more extensive methods, both in 

 agriculture and forestry. This method of 

 clearing the land reminds us of the 

 "log rollings" in this country, and the time 

 when trees were burned solely for their 

 ashes. 



269 



