5A 
prairie” remains. On the poor sandy soil, with the small humus cover 
destroyed, there comes first a crop of fire weeds, then Aspen and Sweet 
Fern with other weeds, and then some grass and isolated bushy Scrub 
Oaks (often some Willows) cover the ground sparsely. As soon as 
enough dry leaves and other material have accumulated the fire recurs 
and the small Aspen and other growth is killed. By this time the 
eround is much reduced in fertility, Aspen is slower to return, and the 
eround is largely taken by weeds and grass. <A few repetitions of fire 
change the ground sufficiently to prevent the further growth of Aspen 
for years, and there are many areas where this tree has given up all 
effort to restock the land. 
This type seems to be the common form of slashing in heavy pine. 
Such areas furnish little forage for live stock; they are naturally poor, 
and this condition is much aggravated by repeated fires and exposure 
to wind and sun. To an attempt at restocking with timber they offer 
no obstacle save their poverty, which would soon be changed by grow- 
ing timber. 
If the fire is not repeated in such a slashing the Aspen forms dense 
thickets, in which Pine, Birch, and Maple gradually find suitable con- 
ditions for their growth. For years the detrimental effect of the fire is 
visible in the stunted growth of the young trees. Aspen, which in the 
original forest grow often several feet a year in height, remain short 
runts, and it is not until ten and more years of rest from fire have per- 
mitted the accumulated litter to improve the soil that a more vigorous 
growth becomes apparent. Tracts of this kind occur in every county, 
but they form only a small per cent of the total area of cut-over lands. 
They are troublesome to clear after the thickets once have attained con- 
siderable height, and they do not furnish good pasture. To continue 
them as woodlands they require merely protection from fire, and for 
their improvement Pine should be supplied either as seed or plants 
wherever it is wanting. - 
(2) Where the old stand of Pine was broken and a considerable mix- 
ture of small Pine and hard woods existed there remains after the first 
fire a large amount of scorched and charred standing dead and dying 
material. In this, as in the following form of cut-over pinery lands, 
young growth readily succeeds, provided fires are not repeated. But 
this happy accident does not generally occur; the great quantity of 
dead material, most of which does not fall during any one year, keeps 
the ground furnished for several years with débris, and thus invites the 
the return of fires, which continue to come until the ground is largely 
cleared. The area now resembles the case first considered; it is a 
stump prairie, usually not as clean, and here, too, the return of tree | 
growth is very slow and often for years discouraged altogether. 
(3) Where groves of sapling Pine have been culled of their larger 
timber and are then fired, the greater part of the remaining growth is 
injured and much of it is killed. These injured groves are generally 
