pretty certain that the annual loss through injury to living timber will equal the loss to the forest owners through the destruction of timber from this cause. INJURY TO YOUNG GROWTH AND REPRODUCTION. The injury and destruction of standing timber is in most cases not the chief damage done to the forest by fire. Every fire running through the woods, even if only burning the leaves and grass, kills a great part of the seedling growth that should be carefully protected in order to insure a profitable forest growth in the future. All through the woods, especially when lumbering has let in more light and has torn up the ground, quantities of delicate seedlings of the tree species can be found. Yellow poplar and pine, our most valuable trees in the western and eastern parts of the State respectively, are very susceptible to fire when young, and are yearly killed by the million in the seedling size, by so-called harmless surface fires. Even the sprouts and suckers that form such a large proportion of the reproduction in the hardwood regions are easily killed by even light fires. This young growth is so often destroyed while very small, and so comparatively seldom attains its full development, that many people seem to forget its value. For the future owners of the land the young growth, which is to take the place of the old timber when that is removed, or is already taking its place, has a very real and substantial value, and a value that can be estimated in dollars and cents. This may be seen more plainly from the following example, which is here simplified by the omission of complicated interest and other charges. A stand of second-growth pine forty years old was cut and yielded on an average 40 cords of pulpwood to the acre. This netted the owner a profit of $1 per cord, after all expenses of cutting and marketing were paid. The value of this pine as it stood was therefore $1 per cord or $40 per acre. In cutting this stand a large lot of seed was scattered and the next year the area was covered with pine seedlings. As the ground was not wanted for agricultural purposes, the owner decided to raise another crop of pine on it. He would expect in forty years' time a yield as good as that which he cut off, and a price certainly not any lower. At the end of five years, however, fire got into this area and killed all the young pine. Here was a direct loss of $5 per acre; for if the pine was worth $40 per acre at the end of forty years, it was worth $20 at the end of twenty years, or $5 at the end of five years. But this $5 was not the only loss, nor was it in this case the greatest loss. The old trees had all been removed from this area five years before, and after the first lot of reproduction was killed there were no trees to seed up the area again. So that this land, which had been yielding the owner $1 per acre every year in the growth of the pine, was yielding him nothing. Here, then, was a loss of $1 per acre every year as long as he kept that land, or till he could, perhaps at considerable expense, put it to some other use. But suppose that there were seed-bearing pine trees around this area which would gradually seed it up to pine again. It might take ten years to get a stand dense enough to make a 40-cord crop, so that such a crop could not be expected for fifty years after the fire. There is then here not only the loss of $5 per acre from the destruction of the young pines, but the postponement of the next crop ten additional years, or a loss of $10 an acre in addition, or a total loss of $15 per acre in the destruction of the young growth. The foregoing is a very fair instance of the loss forest owners in nearly every county of the State are sustaining every year through the destruction of young trees, which is often entirely overlooked by the man who sees in a forest only its present value in timber which is now merchantable. INJURY BY CHANGE IN COMPOSITION OF THE FOREST. Frequent fires not only affect the temporary stand of reproduction, but also more or less permanently affect the composition of the forest. The young plants of some species are much more susceptible to fire than others, and the tendency is to reduce the proportion of the more easily killed species in the forest. Several of our most valuable trees are the most easily killed when young, and where fires are frequent these are rapidly disappearing from the forest. Yellow poplar is about the most valuable of the hardwood species and reproduces chiefly from seed. The seedlings of this tree are destroyed even by light fires, and unless these can be prevented, yellow poplar will gradually disappear from our forests. Many of the original stands of timber have contained 10 to 15 per cent of this species. Yet in a second-growth forest it is a rare thing to see as much as 1 or 2 per cent. Among hardwoods the poorer and less valuable trees are as a rule the most resistant to fire. The result of burning, then, is to increase the proportion of these less valuable species. Where fire is frequent our second-growth forests consist largely of the black oak, red maple, black gum, and other species that can better withstand fire. These trees, as is well known, only bring a comparatively low price when sold for timber, so that a forest consisting largely of these species would be worth much less than one in which the more valuable trees, such as yellow poplar, chestnut, linn, white or red oak, form an important part. Chestnut is also a tree that is easily injured by fire when young. In spite of its habit of sprouting from the stump, which often enables the young shoots to escape the worst part of the BUNCOMBE COUNTY, N. C. A FOREST FIRE WOULD DESTROY THIS GROWTH. |