34 BULLETIN 426, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
PROTECTION. 
No scheme of management should be undertaken or can be success- 
fully carried out unless the area invoived is adequately protected 
from destructive influences. Fire, insects, and disease are the most 
active agents of tree destruction. Of these, fire is the most important, 
because it not only kills all young growth and injures or kills mature 
trees, but also depletes the soil by consuming the humus, and destroys 
other forms of property as well as life. Within the National Forests 
of California during 1914, 1,304 fires occurred, causing an estimated 
loss of about $77,000. 
Virgin stands in which no cutting is being done should be protected 
by eliminating the causes of fire as mich as possible by the use of 
suitable warning signs and other regulation and by a systematic 
patrol for the detection of fires. The efficiency of any patrol is con- 
siderably increased by installing telephone lines and by a good sys- 
tem of roads and trails pondeaaeed wherever possible, so as to act 
as firebreaks. Under such conditions one patrolman, at a salary of 
$300 for himself and horse for the danger season of four months, 
should take care of from 25,000 to 30,000 acres. An adequate patrol 
system should not cost over 2 cents per acre per annum. 
Fire risk naturaily increases when lumberig operations start, be- 
cause of the presence of engines and men as weil as slash. Precau- 
tions are therefore particularly necessary. ‘The most effective pre- 
caution is the disposal of slash by burning. On National Forest sale 
areas in California all slash is piled at once in tepee-shaped piles and 
burned at a faverable season. This operation costs from 20 to 30 
cents per 1,000 feet board measure. 
All engmes used in connection with legge shouid, when —— 
burn oil. If this is not feasibie, they should be saat with ade- 
quate spark arresters and with hose and water under pressure for put- 
ting out fires which start in their vicinity. Supplies of shovels and axes 
should be readily available at convenient points about the operation. 
The importance of the contre! of insects and tree diseases is only 
secondary to the controi of fire in managed forests. 
PLANTING. 
On treeless areas, or where natural reproduction can not be secured 
by leaving seed trees, planting must be undertaken. Thus far, in 
California, Nationai forest tree pianting has been confined principally 
to treeless areas which once undoubtedly bore forests. The brush 
fields common in northern California are representative of this type 
of land. On pine iands where practically all of the trees are mature 
it may be found after planting methods have been perfected and 
cheapened that it is more profitable to cut all of the timber and 
plant, but at the present time this is not considered feasible. 
ay 
