ld be carefully considered, but as a general rule the
utility of the forest should not be sacrificed for beauty.

"_Disadvantages of Burning_

"The disadvantages of burning brush are many and, with the one
exception of protection from fire, far outweigh the advantages.
If protection can be had in some other way, as with more efficient
patrol service or more stringent laws, the practice should in many
cases be abandoned. In many places, especially in the yellow pine
type, the best, and often the only, reproduction comes up under a
fallen treetop or other brush. Where there is little of the old
stand left, the straggling open top protects the seedlings from the
direct heat of the sun. Yet brush not only protects the seedlings
from the sun but, what is more important, the leaves and broken
twigs form a cover which retards evaporation of moisture from the
soil. Over the greater part of the West the soil dries out very
rapidly during the dry season, and this serious retards or even
prevents the growth of seedlings. Even in the moister regions,
such as that of the Engelmann spruce type, it is very necessary
to conserve the moisture in the soil after logging to prevent the
remaining trees from being killed through lack of soil moisture.
A third reason why seedlings so often come up only under the down
treetops is that they are protected from stock. Next to drought,
sheep are perhaps the most serious menace to reproduction, and
though it would be best to keep all stock off the area for several
years after logging, in many cases this is not practicable, and
on many areas the leaving of the tops on the ground is the only
way to protect reproduction from injury.

"In many places after the timber has been cut off gullies and washes
start in the old wheel ruts, log slides, etc., and these and other
forms of erosion can best be prevented by leaving the brush on the
ground, either laid in the incipient washes or scattered over the
soil that is likely to wash. Brush burning destroys the valuable
soil cover, and on the spots where the piles are burned the soil
is loosened, which renders it even more liable to erosion.

"It is well known that where the forest is burned each year the soil
becomes poorer and poorer, because nitrogen, the chief fertilizing
ingredient of the soil, is given off in the smoke, and only the
mineral elements go back to the soil in the ashes. And, what is
more injurious, the humus--i. e., the decomposed veget