Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-05-14
NUMBERING AND FIRES
HOW THEY CAUSE THE DESTRUC-
TON OF OUR FORESTS.
We Are Showing Very Little Regard
for the Future-Wasteful
Methods.

There are few people so unintelligent that
they do not appreciate, in some measure.
the value of forests, but perhaps there are
fewer still who fully appreciate the gigan-
| tic Importance of the part trees play in the
progress and maintenance of civilization.
The fact is, that without trees our present
civilization could not have been developed
for ages, and perhaps it could never have
been developed at all. In many parts of
our own country, for example, farming
operations would be impossible but for the
trees, such is their influence upon the
streams. They regulate the water supply
and tend to prevent both floods and
drought. They supply fuel, one of the
greatest necessities of life, and they sup
ply the lumber for the building of cities
bridges railroads and ships Yet most of
us never stop to think that the number of
our trees is limited, that we are using them
up far faster than they are being replaced
either by man or nature, and that, unless
some means can be found either to prevent
the wholesale destruction of lumber which
is now going on, or to offset 1t by replant-
ing large areas with young trees, timber
famine must result at no very distant day.
We of this generation may never feel it ex-
cept in the increased price of lumber and
fuel but those who come after will
curse our neglect and want of foresight.
On a Large Scale.
OF course, it has become necessary that
vast forests of fine trees be cut every year;
gigantic industries, in which millions of
dollars and the employment of hundreds of
thousands of men are involved, make 1t
impossible to stay the hand of the lumber
man. But in the very interest of these
great industries destructive numbering
should be everywhere guarded against. AS
often as not, the owners of the forests are
not to blame for the destructive numbering
which goes on by their orders; they are
driven by excessive taxation on their for
est lands to cut and sell their timber as
fast as possible, that they may realize on
their property once for ALL and without the
slightest regard for the future. AS soon a s
the trees are gone the owners refuse to pay
the taxes any longer, and the almost val
ueless land goes back to the state With
reasonable taxation, these owners would
have been able to cut the trees carefully,
and in such way as to insure the preser-
walton of the forest, with a view to OBJ
tanning valuable crops of timber in the fu-
ture. Thousands and thousands of square
miles of land which should now be covered
with thriving young forest trees are SIM
ply so much wilderness, and many and
many county which with reasonable tax
alton might have been prosperous today is
poor because its natural wealth of timber
has been squandered
Big Forest Fires
An enemy almost if not quite as destruct-
I've as bad numbering is the forest fire,
which destroys not only the timber lands,
but very often dwellings and human lives
besides. When conditions are favorable to
such a fire, 1t sometimes reaches appar-
ing proportions. Such was the case with
the Miramichi fire of 1925, which, in the
short space of nine hours DESTROYED a belt
Of forest eighty miles long by twenty-five
miles wide. killed almost every living thing,
{,,oI linz GcIi ~ of,a
area of more than two and half millions
of acres. swept away number of towns.
burned a thousand head of stock and kill
ed one hundred and sixty people. The
Peshtigo fire of 1871 was still more disas-
trous, covering, as it did, two thousand
square miles in Wisconsin, and involving
the loss of many millions of dollars and
the death of nearly fifteen hundred per-
sons. This fire burned slowly for several
days at first, and might have been put out
easily enough before the high wind came
and dashed it to fury beyond all con-
troll.
How They May Be Checked.
When forest fires first begin they may
often be beaten out with green branches.
Those which have made Roadway, but
which are burning along the ground only
may often be checked by the digging of
trench, and this method is particularly
recommended where the floor of the forest
Is Qfy ana ueep ana peaty, IN winch case
the fire Is apt to smolder far beneath the
surface and break out again long after 1t
seems to have been extinguished. But the
worst forest fires are those which run
along the ground and through the tops of
the trees at the same time. First becom-
ing intensely hot on the ground, the fire
runs up the dry trunks of the trees, and
then it becomes one of the most destruct-
i've forces known. Travelling often faster
than man can run, 1t sweeps everything
In its path. buildings fences and animals
being consumed like tissue paper in a fur
mace. With the wind In it's favor there is
but one thing which can stop big fire of
this character, and that one thing is a
wide space on which there is nothing to
burn. Sometimes a natural barrier like
river or sandy stretch may bar the path
of the flames, but If not, an unburnable
space should be made by starting what
are called ''back fires at some distsAce
ahead of the main fire. These smaller fires
should be kept under control and allowed
to burn against the wind only. They will
thus consume all the burnable material
over wide strip in the pathway of the
main fire. so that when they meet, the lat
ter will go out for lack of fuel.