Washington County. 



125 



and the annual consumption of 17,500,000 board feet of wood. From 

 the standpoint of labor and profitable markets for raw material pro- 

 duced, "Washington County could not afford to be without them. 



Although such industries are not always directly dependent for 

 their operation upon nearby forest resources, there are a goodly num- 

 ber of them which rely upon local woodlands for the timber they man- 

 ixfacture. The owners of the latter in turn depend upon the Hagers- 

 town market, and a trade between them has been built up which is in- 

 valuable to both, and of actual cash value to the county as a whole. 

 Right management of local forests will contribute to a maintenance 

 of the present cvit and a continuation of the dependent industries. In 

 the past the mountain forests, the most extensive in the county, have 

 been greatly damaged, repeatedly, by fires. This is especially true of 

 the section in the northern Blue Ridge and that along the Potomac 

 west of Hancock, railroads in both cases having been the chief offend- 

 ers in the past. Adequate fire protection throughout the county, ac- 

 tive and hearty co-operation on the part of residents, and a general 

 improvement in prevalent farm woodlot management, are the surest 

 means to guarantee a sustained forest production and a continuance 

 of the forest industries which must depend upon it. 



