68 



A PRIMER OF FORESTRY. 



the forests, that the owners can not afford, to pay 

 them and hold their lands. Consequently they are 

 forced to cut or sell their timber in haste and with- 

 out regard to the future. When the timber is gone 

 the owners refuse to pay taxes any longer, and the 

 devastated lands revert to the State. Many thou- 

 sand square miles of forest have been ruined by reck- 



Fig. 63.— A burnt forest in the Priest River Forest Reserve, Idaho. 



less lumbering because heavy taxes forced the owners 

 to realize quickly and once for all upon their forest land, 

 instead of cutting it in a way to insure valuable future 

 crops. For the same reason many counties are now 

 poor that might, with reasonable taxation of timber 

 laud, have been nourishing and rich. 



A short description of destructive lumbering will be 



