s of a once beautiful forest.]

Few people have perished from fires in the West, for there the forest
regions are generally thinly inhabited, but in some of the Eastern and
Northern states there have been terrible fires that have destroyed whole
villages together with their inhabitants.

In many mountain regions of our country there are large areas now
covered with useless brush where there were once valuable forests. In
regions where the lumbermen have not utterly destroyed the forests, but
have left some seed trees, the forests will come back again, but in
these large burned areas conditions are not favorable. The destruction
of the humus as well as the trees has been so complete that the seeding
of a new forest is slow work. It may be hundreds of years before the
trees will spread over and again take possession of the waste land.

A single fire often destroys more timber than would be destroyed by a
whole camp of loggers working for years. In the Northwest there are many
sad and desolate pictures of the destruction caused by forest fires. We
may travel for miles through forests of tall, dead stubs, the remains of
once noble trees. Where they have fallen the trunks lie piled many feet
high and trails had to be cut through an almost solid mass of timber.

Here is wood enough to supply thousands of people with pleasant winter
fires. But there are, alas, no people living near these vast woodpiles
and often no road to them. The logs must lie there and rot.

Now let us see if we can state the chief reasons why we should be
exceedingly careful about setting fires in the woods:

1. Fires destroy an enormous amount of valuable timber every year.

2. Between fires and lumbermen our forests are disappearing faster than
they are growing.

3. Fires destroy the young trees, and if they happen often enough will
keep them from growing up to replace the mature trees.

4. Fires do not permanently help the cattle ranges, but injure them by
burning the humus and grass seeds.

5. Fires leave the ground bare, so that it will dry out quickly.

6. Fires leave the soil unprotected, so that it will wash away quickly.

7. Fires destroy property and endanger lives.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

EVILS THAT FOLLOW THE DESTRUCTION OF THE FORESTS

We have already learned something about the poverty of the people in
those lands where the forests have been destroyed. This poverty is due
not so much to lack of wood for fuel and other purp