Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1895-08-22
Great Forest Fires.

1894. Prof FeTnow says that such ca
tastrophes are preventable, if only
laws We're made providing for proper
supervision and control of the wooded
lands of the country.
He further says that the loss by fire,
great as it is, is insignificant in COM
parison with the damage done TO the
soil. To create a mould one foot deep
requires from three to five centuries.
In few hours it is burned up and the
land is rendered unavailable for ag
riculture. 1t is roughly reckoned that
every year in the United States $4,000
acres of forests are swept by flames,
involving an immediate loss of $685.
GOO 900.
If forest is destroyed by fire, all the
trees, old and young, giants ready for
the AK and terminating seedlings-the
embryo forests of succeeding centuries
are swept away. The underground
needed to protect the young trees, the
roots of perennial heritage and the seeds
of all plants are consumed. The ability
of the burned soil to produce again
crop of trees similar to the one de-
stroyed is lost, and the subsequent
recovering of burned land with the
species of the original forest is accom-
plished, if accomplished at all, through
the restoration of fertility following
the slow growth and decay of many
generations of less valuable plants
The pine and spruce forests, when de-
stroyed by fire, is succeeded by
growth of brambles, in time replaced
by dwarf birch, poplar and bird cher
RES, OF no economic value. Scrub OAK
follow these, and the pine rarely re-
/ Annl4rC N hot
ually burned over and covered again
with forests, as in parts of Kentucky
and Tennessee, valuable species like
the white oak and yellow poplar are
scarce or entirely wanting in the new
growth
The forests of the northern Pacific
coast offer an exception to the law.
otnerwlse general. that change of for
est crop follows forest fire. The fir
forests of West Washington and Ore
gon, when destroyed by fire, are quick
~ replaced by vigorous growth of
the same species, and the fires which
nave consumed great bodies of the Cal
norma redwood have not prevented the
reproduction of those trees by seeds
and shoots.
Inc Importance of preserving the for
ests becomes more evident when it is
considered that their annual increase
by natural growth, representing the in
terest which we are at liberty to draw
without impairing the principal. ex-
ceeds in the United States alone ten
times the value of the gold and silver
output of this country. 1t is worth
more than three times the product of
all our metal and coal mines put togeth-
er Ii TO the value of our total mining
product be added the value of all the
stone quarries and petroleum resources
and this sum be increased by the esti-
mated value of all the steamboats,. sail
ing vessels and canal boats plying in
american waters, it will still be less
imam the value of the annual forest
product OF the nation by a sum suf1-
Gent 10 purchase at cost of construc-
tlon all the canals. buy up at oar all
stocks OF the telegraph companies, nav
their bonded debts and equip all the
telephone lines. The annual product of
the woods would more than wipe out
the entire public debt.
If left without Interference Nv man
nature would keep the entire earth
covered with forests, save only in a few
localities There is excellent cause for
believing that the great central plains
OF the United States were not always
treeless, and that their nakedness
might once more be covered bv the
adoption of proper means to that end
me barrenness occasioned hy prafrie
tires and herds of trampling buffalo
may yet be made fruitful. Once LET
woods be spread over the now arid
rrairies of the west. and there would
De rain In plenty there. A step pre-
llminary should be the establishment
IN that region of aboreta where exper-
lments could be made for the purpose
OF nndlng out what trees were hest
adapted. But nothing effective can be
accomplished SO long as the restless
ak, nre, and marauding animals are
permitted to do mischief unimpeded
In the southern states particularly
the custom prevails of turning domes-
tic animals into the forest to pick up a
precarious livelihood Sheep. cattle
and horses deyour immense numbers
OF seeding trees. which should repre-
sent the future forests of the country.
Hogs root up the young pines to feed
on the succulent roots The thin
shelled seeds of pine, white oaks, chest
nuts and beaches are eaten. Thus
worthless black oaks and other bitter
fruited trees are substituted in the
woods Tor sweet frulted and valuable
species.
The forests c. the mountain regions
are essential to prevent destructive
torrents and TO maintain the flow of the
rivers. Their inaccessibility has pre-
served them to some extent, but they
are being invaded by e and the ak.
This signifies the ruiz of the great riv-
ers for navigation, the destruction OF
cities along their banks, and the spoil
alton of agricultural lands. These
mountain forests once destroyed can
only be renewed slowly and at vast
expense. Other forests may be restored
II the price of lumber warrants the Gull
tlvation of trees as a commercial en-
terprise; but If the forests which con-
troll the flow of the great rivers OF the
country perish the whole community
viii suffer a calamity which no meas
ures taken after the mischief has been
cone can avert.