[from the text] In forest regions where fire commonly results in complete destruction of the standing timber the role played by fire is definitely recognized and serious efforts are made to control this menace. In the California pine region, however, and in other localities where fires run through the forest comparatively lightly and only occasionally assume the dimensions of a crown fire, injury is less obvious and the consequences of fire both in mature and in growing timber often go unrecognized. Physical conditions in the pine forests of California have led to the frequent recurrence of fires for centuries, but the fact that magnificent forests still cover large areas and give the appearance of well-stocked, vigorous stands has blinded the public to the harm that fires have done and are steadily working throughout the whole region. Were it possible for the observer to visualize the entire area upon which pine has grown, and to behold it truly fully stocked, he would then see by comparison that the present California pine forests represent broken, patchy, understocked stands, worn down by the attrition of repeated light fires. The true role fire has played in this region can be appreciated to-day only by careful scrutiny of the less obvious forms of damage. True, the thousands of acres of waste land or unproductive brush fields, the small stands of mature timber so isolated by brush as to be inaccessible for logging, the areas on which the forest type is changing to less valuable species, the failure of cut-over lands to reproduce - all these are apparent enough, and tell an eloquent tale of the ultimate work of fire; but the connecting links between these conditions and the "harmless" forest fire are usually not known or are overlooked, so gradual is the cumulative effect.