84 



FOREST CONDITIONS IN WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA. 



trees whicli occur in a group of larger trees should be cut with the rest 

 of the group. The result will be scattered openings surrounded by 

 young growth, instead of scattered groups of trees surrounded by clear 

 cut areas as under the first case. 



The most important consideration in any logging operation in the 

 spruce forest, even of far more importance than the system of cutting, 

 is protection against fire. Fire is extremely destructive in any class 

 of forest, but particularly so in spruce. In hardwood forests some of 

 the seedlings killed may come up again by sprouts, in spruce forests 

 new seed must fall and germinate; in hardwood forests a fire injures 

 the base of the larger trees and kills the smaller ones, in the spruce 

 forests a fire kills all trees outright; in hardwood forests a fire greatly 

 damages the forest floor and hinders the growth of trees, in spruce for- 

 ests a fire utterly destroys the forest floor and banishes the very pos- 

 sibility of the existence of a forest. 



The safest means of obviating the danger of fire caused by the in- 

 flammable material left after logging is to pile and burn all the brush, 

 burning with every precaution and at a time when fire is least likely 

 to spread. This, however, would cost from 25 to 50 cents per thousand 

 feet cut, and is therefore hardly to be expected of the lumberman, par- 

 ticularly where the timber is difiicult of access and expensive to log 

 at best. The most effective alternative, and one costing but little, is to 

 lop the branches from the tops so that they will lie flat on the ground. 

 In the State Forest Preserve counties of E'ew York the cost of lopping 

 the tops is only ten cents per cord; and many operators find that this 

 cost is counterbalanced by the timber saved and by the greater ease 

 in skidding. The result is that the brush will rot and cease to be in- 

 flammable in about three or four years, whereas if left just as it fell 

 it will be a fire menace for ten or fifteen years. In addition to lopping 

 the tops, the owner should guard carefully against the occurrence of 

 fire while logging is being carried on. He should provide beforehand 

 that any fires which do start shall be immediately extinguished. 



Hardwood Forest. 

 The chief object of management in the hardwood forest, as in the 

 spruce forest, is to secure adequate reproduction. Since many of the 

 hardwoods reproduce largely from sprouts, methods of handling will 

 differ to some extent from those suited to the spruce forests. Fire is 

 still the greatest enemy to be combated, and must have continued atten- 

 tion. The results of a single fire are not so disastrous for the future 

 prospects of a crop as in the spruce forest, because of the power of 

 many of the hardwoods to grow again from the roots after once being 



