G 



MISCELLANEOT - CIR< I LAB 91 



forester modifies this struggle by cutting out defec- 

 tive trees and trees of undesirable species. When the 

 selected growth has matured it is cut and carried 

 out of the woods, under the forester's direction, in 

 such a way that young tree growth is left uninjured, 

 a certain number of older trees being Left also to scat- 

 ter their seeds over the area and plant still later 

 crops. 



First, last, and all the time the forester's care is 

 to protect the forest from fire. Travelers and recrea- 

 tionists bring danger into the forest in their match 

 boxes, and sparks from railroad and logging engines 

 form another serious hazard. In the West lightning 

 storms every summer start many fires. The forester's 

 big problem is to educate the public to extreme care 

 in the use of fire in the forest and to perfect means 

 of suppressing the fires he can not prevent. 



Charred stumps are all that remain of the forest that once 

 clothed this fire-swept mountainside 



The second purpose stated by ('(digress in setting 

 aside the national forests recognizes a function of the 

 forest which ranks with timber production in im- 

 portance—the protection of water supplies. How 

 forests affect stream flow may be simply explained as 

 follows: Rain falling in the forest is broken into a 

 mist by the thick mass of leaves and branches, and 

 next sinks into a soft, dense carpet of dead leaves 

 on the forest Moor. Through this carpet it passes 

 slowly into soft and porous soil. Little by little it 

 finds its way into underground streams, which at 

 lower levels appear at the surface of the ground as 

 springs. In this way the rainfall— and the same 

 thing is true of the water from melting snow — is 

 fed gradually into the streams throughout the year, 

 and in dry as well as in wet seasons. When the forests 

 are gone all this is changed. With the removal of 

 the leafy branches and of the soft carpet tbey deposit 

 on the forest floor, the sun dries out the earth and 



