HANDBOOK FOR CAMPERS. 43 



extreme care. This means, then, that the fire must be kept 

 under control, which would entail prohibitive expense as com- 

 pared with the cost of keeping fires out entirely. One large 

 tract of private timber in the northern Sierras was cleaned up 

 in this fashion at a cost of .50 cents per acre. The owner be- 

 lieved firmly that light burning was tlie proper way to protect 

 his stand ; but as a practical lumberman he recognized also the 

 necessity of expensive control. At the same rate the expense of 

 " light burning " the whole of the yellow-pine belt in California 

 would amount to at least .$5,000,000. 



But besides the prohibitive cost these are two other objections 

 to this practice. One is that the young growth is inevitably 

 destroyed ; in fact, since thickets of young growth are specially 

 inflammable, it is one of the objects of light burning to con- 

 sume them. But the forests of the future can not be created 

 all at once when they are needed. They require a develop- 

 ment period of at least 100 years before they produce material 

 fit to cut into lumber. Any system which protects the mature 

 timber at the expense of the young growth which is to replace 

 it violates the principles of forestry and, unless the sacrifice is 

 absolutely unavoidable, of common sense as well. It was for- 

 merly argued that the sacrifice was necessary; that, unless the 

 debris which collected on the floor of the forest year after year 

 was burned, unless the thickets of young growth were kept 

 down, the final result would be a conflagration that nothing 

 could control. This argument upon examination is found not to 

 hold. The record of the Forest Service in California during 

 recent years proves that very severe fire conditions can be 

 handled v%'ithout any considerable loss of timber. 



But what is still more important, it is found by experiment 

 that burning decreases the amount of litter not for a period of 

 years but at most for an interval of only a few months. The 

 litter upon the ground at the time of the burning is consumed, 

 but is replaced with more than normal rapidity by the debris 

 shed from the trees scorched by the fire. 



