LOGGING PRACTICE IN THE LAKE STATES 11 
distillation (“chemical wood”), whereas in other districts such 
material can not be handled profitably and is left in the woods. 
However the stand has been cut, the slash is as a rule left as it hap- 
pens to he when logging is finished, and even when the cordwood 
has been taken out a great tangle of drying débris remains on the 
ground. With few and rather minor exceptions, this slash presently 
burns. Whereas many slash fires are accidental, some are deliber- 
ately set by the owners of the land, or by neighboring settlers, with 
the idea of clearing the land for agriculture, or for other reasons. 
The first hardwood slash fires usually generate much and pro- 
longed heat and not only consume most of the logging débris but 
along with it the occasional defective or otherwise unmerchantable 
seed trees which may have been left standing, and the seedlings. 
In many instances a second tangle develops within a few years, this 
time consisting of blackberry or raspberry bushes and more or less 
tree growth. A second fire is now to be expected, and although it 
is not so hot as the first fire as a rule, it leaves very little of the 
original species save an occasional basswood sprout, and the land is 
now in typical “ cut-over ” condition. 
The first tree growth which comes in following clean cutting and 
slash fires is usually aspen, pin cherry (Prunus pennsylvanica), 
paper birch, and a few scattering trees of basswood, maple, and 
elm—trees similar to those which formed the original stand. The 
proportion of the species of the original stand present in hardwood 
second growth is usually dependent upon the severity of the fires. 
If the fires happened to be light, much maple, elm, and basswood will 
be mixed with the aspen, paper birch, and pin cherry. 
Where hardwoods have been cut clean and the slash has not been 
burned, with few exceptions, the land is immediately taken by a new 
and thrifty hardwood growth originating from the stump, from 
seedlings left after logging, or from the germination of tree seed 
in the ground, and supplemented by new seed blown in from neigh- 
boring uncut timber or from the scattering mature trees left because 
of defect. The mixture of tree species in second-growth hardwoods 
which have come in following logging, but without fire, is usually 
very similar to that in the original stand but, as a rule, with less 
beech and little or no hemlock. The presence of the old tops and 
débris of logging, as the old slash rots away, does not seriously 
impede the development of such second-growth hardwood. It un- 
doubtedly assists the new forest by developing a mulch of rotten. 
wood and by liberating food substances for the tree roots. (PI.1,A.) 
In instances where only a few of the largest or most valuable trees 
have been taken out during the first cutting, or where windfall 
has opened the original stand as if by partial cutting, the openings 
are nearly always filled at once by young growth more closely similar 
to the neighboring old growth than that following clean cutting. It 
is quite certain, therefore, that partial cutting of mature hardwood, 
when not followed by fire, will result in the prompt development of 
new growth very like the original stand. 
Hemlock remaining after a severe or clean cutting of the hard- 
woods dies out rapidly, evidently as the result of exposure to light 
and drying. Hemlock is also very susceptible to damage by fire, so 
that even a single light fire may practically eliminate the hemlock 
