64 BULLETIX 1402, IT. S. DEPARTMEXT OF AGRlCrLTrRE 
the owner's aim. Leaving of slash, under intensive patrol, has not 
yet this recommendation, but is a possible substitute well worthy 
of further study and test. 
Even with piling and burning, systematic fire protection of all 
lands remains the key to growing timber. Besides piling and burn- 
ing slash, it will be found desirable to fall snags on all cutting 
areas. The trifling cost per thousand feet cut is more than repaid 
by the greater ease and certainty of stopping fires if no snags are 
present to aid in spreading the fires by spotting. 
COST OF SLASH DISPOSAL AND SPECIAL FIRE PROTECTION 
The various practices that have been recommended entail direct 
costs per thousand feet cut, varying from low to high as follows: 
Piling and burning slash SO. 40 to $0. 50 
Clearing around donkey settings . 02 to . 03 
Falling snags . 03 to . OS 
Special patrol after logging . 03 to . 05 
General protection measures . 02 to . 03 
Total . 50 to .69 
Against these costs must be balanced the saving of suppres- 
sion costs on large fires, which on one large operation amounted 
to 21 cents per thousand: also the loss of equipment and merchant- 
able stimipage, and loss due to shutdown of operations, the values 
for which are unknown. Because of the greater productiveness 
of the lands, systematic reduction of hazard by piling and burning 
and protection of cut-over lands are good business practice for the 
owner who is growing timber. 
PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS AND DISEASES 
In addition to fire-j^rotection measures, provision should be made 
for treatment of forest insects and diseases. The methods for con- 
trolling tree-killing beetles, particularly those of the genus Dendroc- 
tonus, are being worked out by the Bureau of Entomology of the 
United States Department of Agriculture. Control measures should 
be used as recommended. 
The control of the important wood-destroying fungi and other dis- 
eases can, under present economic conditions, best be apjDroached 
through cutting the diseased trees at the time each area is logged. 
If the white pine blister rust becomes established in the sugar 
pine, special measures will be necessary to prevent serious loss of 
this most valuable species. Under such circumstances the advice 
of the forest pathologists of the Bureau of Plant Industry, United 
States Department of Agriculture, should be the guide. 
METHODS OF LOGGING 
Damage to advance growth is inevitable in logging the forests 
in the California pine region; but, as has been seen, the serious 
loss of seed trees that occurs with high-lead and high-speed log- 
ging is not necessary to the profitable exploitation of forests. The 
measures already discussed aim to j^reserve at least 50 per cent 
of the young growth, with the least alteration in existing practices. 
