that suppressed misshapen hemlock is not apt to make a healthy
growth, that windfall is a peril, and that if the previous shade has
been heavy, sudden opening to sunlight may be fatal. It should also
be remembered that even slightly injured young hemlock is worthless,
for it is almost certain to be attacked by borers. Anything which
deadens a small portion of the bark like axe blazes, fire scorch,
or scars from strap leads, is dangerous. Hemlock is more liable than
fir to general defects like black streak, borers, fungous disease
and mistletoe, therefore investment in reforestation needs the
maximum safeguard against them. In many instances better results may
be obtained from a new healthy seedling stand following a purifying
fire, even at some loss of time, than from well started young growth
which is unhealthy and likely not only to fail itself but also to
infect any seedlings which may come in among it. Consequently if
the slashing is not large, and reproduction from the sides may be
counted on, the above considerations, coupled with the reduction
of future fire risk, may suggest slash 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