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Show Utah's First Oil Gusher Struck At Moab Tuesday IS CUTTING CHRITSMAS TREES A WASTE ? At this time of the year the annual an-nual question of whether cutting Christmas trees is a waste or not becomes be-comes acute. According to District Forester R. H. Rutledge, the cutting may be either the best kind of forest for-est conservation, or the worst kind of waste, depending on how it is done. In a fully stocked forest there are always many hundreds of young trees per acre, only a few dozen of which reach maturity. The rest drop out in the struggle for existence. ex-istence. Trees cut in such forests as these, where the youngsters are standing too thick, helps the others to make better growth by giving them more light and space, while it serves to put the smaller fellows to a good- use. The choice of the trees that are taken, therefore, makes all the difference dif-ference . In the world. From the point of view of the Christmas tree user, It Is unfortunate that the trees which' are taken from overly dense stands to improve the forest conditions condi-tions are frequently lop-sided and not nearly as pretty as the symetri-cal symetri-cal trees which grow in the open. "The Forest Service is asking nobody no-body to go without a Christmas tree but if you want to place yourself on the side of conservation and not of waste, prove it by buying a lop-sided tree," says Mr. Rutledge. The poor side can always be put in a, corner. The number of trees used for Christmas is far less than the number num-ber cut for toothpicks, according to the Forest Service. The outting of Chrlstmate trees may result in denuding a few square miles of land, but giving joy to thousands of children. Fire caused by " careless human beings annually burns over thousands of square miles of timber and does nobody any good . |