lash burning just as in the case
of fir. The remarks apply particularly if it is considered necessary
to log as clean as possible.

With a good, healthy start toward a new forest, however, it will
usually be best to keep fire out, for the material saved will warrant
greater expense in protection during the growing period. Representative
tracts, both on the coast and in the Cascades, have been studied
which showed that, with care in lumbering, enough good young hemlock
too small for logs or skids could be saved after present-day logging
of a heavy mixed fir and hemlock stand to produce in fifty years
11,000 or 12,000 feet of timber over 14 inches in diameter. This
would not be wholly additional to the second crop of seedlings
which might be produced if these trees were not preserved, for
the ground and light they use would be denied to the seedlings,
but undoubtedly the yield would be greater than could be secured
if they were destroyed.

This means that under similar conditions we may go still further
and actually apply the selection system, especially if the original
stand is nearly pure hemlock. So far we have discussed areas left
by present-day logging methods. Suppose, however, the owner of a
good tract of hemlock, having decided that conditions do not warrant
trying to get fir, is willing to modify his methods for the sake of
better hemlock returns at some future cutting. He would probably
do best to take out only the mature trees, leaving everything which
is still growing with fair rapidity. Greater light will stimulate
these immensely as well as encourage further seeding of the ground.
The few merchantable trees he spares, together with those now
unmerchantable, will, in perhaps twenty years, make another excellent
crop. By leaving a fairly dense stand he prevents the windfall
danger which threatens the survivors of too vigorous cutting, and
also prevents them from assuming the branchy form of trees which
receive too much side light. The fire danger is much reduced by
resultant shading of the ground and slightly by the lesser cover of
debris. In short, he makes the most economical use of the ground,
and the capital represented by the trees he spares is well invested.

To sum up, hemlock lends itself to almost every form of management.
Determination as to which is most advisable is governed by its
extremely variable manner of occurrence and by the local promise
offered by associate species. The foregoing discu