62 



RECREATION. 



trees should be planted which will grow 

 in the shade and eventually replace the old 

 growth. Maple, beech, box elder, ash and 

 many other species are useful for this pur- 

 pose. In removing trees only the poorest 

 timber which can be used for the desired 

 purpose should be taken. This is con- 

 trary to the general practice in which tall, 

 straight and vigorous timber is often cut 

 down for firewood when the less thrifty, 

 crooked or branchy trees would serve just 

 as well. 



The wood lot should be fenced up to its 

 border. If a margin of grass land is al- 

 lowed between the border of the wood and 

 the fence, the temptation to use the whole 

 for pasturage may prove too great. 



If undesirable kinds of trees are present, 

 more desirable kinds should be planted, 

 and as soon as these have been established 

 the others may be removed. It should, 

 however, always be remembered that for 

 firewood poor soft woods often yield in the 

 aggregate a greater profit than the slower 

 growing hard woods. Thus poplars and 

 willows will pay much better in a given 

 time than the more valuable hickories and 

 hard maples. 



Some species of trees will produce 

 marketable material, such as poles and 

 posts, in 15 to 25 years, while timber of 

 large dimensions will take 40 to 100 years 

 to grow. 



METHODS OF FIGHTING FIRE. 



The best method of fighting fire depends 

 on the location and conditions. The chief 

 requirement is to fight, by some method, 

 and to commence as soon as possible after 

 a fire is discovered. Often a fire which 

 could have been stopped with little exertion 

 at first, results in heavy losses as it spreads 

 almost beyond control. 



A favorite and usually successful method 

 of fighting fires is by trenching around 

 them. A trench 2 or 3 feet deep should be 

 dug, care being taken to remove all the old 

 roots and twigs to stop the progress of the 

 fire in the ground. Then with plenty of 

 help the fire can usually be checked by the 

 time it has burned to the trenches. 



Where water is near, good service can 

 be done by a bucket brigade. Surface fires 

 can be checked, if not of too much volume, 

 by beating them out with green branches. 

 Dirt or sand thrown on fire is one of the 

 best means of putting it out. Setting back 

 fires is another way of stopping destruc- 

 tive fires. The back fire must be allowed 

 to burn only against the wind and toward 

 the main fire, so that when the 2 fires 

 meet they must both go out for lack of 

 fuel. To prevent back fires from moving 

 with the wind, they should be started on the 

 windward side of a road, or clearing, or 

 some Line which they can be kept from 



crossing. Back fires are sometimes driven 

 beyond control by a change of wind, but 

 the chief danger from their use is lighting 

 them at the wrong time or in the wrong 

 place. Still, there is no other means of 

 fighting fire so powerful, and none so effec- 

 tive when rightly used. Fire lines, strips 

 kept free from inflammable material, are 

 useful in checking small fires and of great 

 value as lines of defense in fighting large 

 ones. — Exchange. 



FOREST EXHAUSTION IN SIGHT. 



We may as well realize that our efforts to se- 

 cure a more rational treatment of our forest re- 

 sources and apply forestry in their management 

 are not too early, but rather too late; that they 

 are by no means sufficient; that serious trouble 

 and inconvenience are in store for us in the not 

 too distant future; that the blind indifference and 

 the dallying or amateurish playing with the 

 problem by Legislatures and officials is fatal. 



We can summarize the situation, which justi- 

 fies the urgent need of the foresters' art in the 

 United States, from the point of view of supplies, 

 as follows: 



The consumption of forest supplies, larger than 

 in any other country in the world, promises not 

 only to increase with the natural increase of the 

 population, but in excess of this increase per 

 capita, similar to that of other civilized industrial 

 nations, annually at a rate of not less than 3 to 

 5 per cent. 



The most sanguine estimate of timber standing 

 predicates an exhaustion of supplies in less than 

 30 years if this rate of consumption continues, and 

 of the most important coniferous supplies in a 

 much shorter time. 



The conditions for continued imports from our 

 neighbor, Canada, practically the only country 

 having accessible supplies such as we need, are not 

 reassuring, and may not be expected to lengthen 

 the natural supplies appreciably. 



The reproduction of new supplies on the exist- 

 ing forest area could under proper management 

 be made to supply the legitimate requirements for a 

 long time; but fires destroy the young growth 

 over large areas, and where production is allowed 

 to develop, in the mixed forest at least, owing 

 to culling processes which remove the valuable 

 kinds and leave the weed trees, these latter re- 

 produce in preference. 



The attempts at systematic silviculture, that is, 

 the growing of new crops, are, so far, infinitesi- 

 mal, compared with the needs. 



B. E. Fernow, in the Forestry Quarterly. 



FOREST EXPERIMENT STATION. 

 The Bureau of Forestry of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture has established a per- 

 manent forest experiment station at the University 

 of California. Dr. W. K. Hatt, recently called 

 from the chair of applied science in Purdue Uni- 

 versity to serve as civil engineer in the Bureau 

 of Forestry, has gone from Washington to organ- 

 ize the station. The resources of the civil engi- 

 neering laboratory of the university have been 

 placed at his disposal. A civil engineer who will 

 go from Washington to take charge of the work, 

 and his student assistants, will be continuously 

 engaged hereafter in commercial and scientific 

 investigations as to California woods. San Fran- 

 cisco lumber dealers have offered to supply all 

 the timber needed. Laboratory investigations will 

 be conducted as to the strength of various Cali- 

 fornia timbers, the effects on timbers of wet and 

 dry weather, of heat and cold, elasticity and dura- 

 bility, preservative methods, ways of seasoning, 

 arid the like. The results secured at this station 

 will be made available for general use by publica- 

 tion as bulletins of the Bureau of Forestry. — 

 Forestry and Irrigation. 



