182 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



coming to be realized. Provision for the 

 state worli has been made in connection 

 with the agricultural experiment station, 

 so that this work has been and is entirely 

 educational and experimental. This is well. 

 It is gradually developing a solid ground- 

 work of popular interest and understanding 

 so that when the time is ripe for the de- 

 velopment of a forest service and a com- 

 plete state forest policy, there will he 

 knowledge and popular support to make it 

 effective and to prevent its being drawn 

 into politics. Present indications are that 

 the work that is being done is bearing good 

 fruit. 



Forest Fire Losses in California 



Figures prepared by State Forester Ho- 

 mans show that during 1910 there were 

 738 brush, grass and forest fires in Cali- 

 fornia, as against 638 for the same period 

 of 1909. The excess for 1910 does not show 

 an actual increase for the year, but greater 

 efficiency in fire-fighting, asserts Deputy 

 State Forester Hodge. In other words, 

 wardens reported a greater percentage of 

 the fires in 1910 than were reported the 

 year previous. 



Fires were of three clases, as follows: 

 Small fires, put out by one man, 172; fires 

 runing about ten acres, 25, and fires which 

 gave considerable trouble, 351. The aver- 

 age fire burned over 654 acres of land and 



326,000 feet of lumber, worth 1814,000, be- 

 sides damage to new growth and the water- 

 sheds. In other words, the average fire 

 burned more than a section of land and 

 took seventy-four men ten hours to ex- 

 tinguish. 



The total number of acres burned over 

 in 1910 was 482,562, against 357,269 in 

 1909; but again, Deputy Forester Hodge 

 says, this is because the wardens reported 

 more accurately last year than they did the 

 year previous. 



August, as in 1909, was the worst month 

 of the 'ear. During August 30 per cent 

 of the fires occurred, and during July, the 

 next worst month, 15 per cent of the fires 

 occurred. It was on August 24th that the 

 disastrous fires in Idaho and Montana were 

 in full flame. 



New York 



Dr. Charles G. Wagner, superintendent 

 of the Binghamton State Hospital, has just 

 filed with the Forest. Fish and Game 

 Commission an application for 3,000 white 

 pine saplings, and trees of other varieties 

 making a total of 5,000, for planting on the 

 hospital farm. 



Two years ago the hospital got about 

 5.000 trees and last year about 3,000 more 

 were added, both shipments being chiefly 

 of white pine. 



THE LUMBER INDUSTRY 



Commissioner Smith's Report on Standing 

 Timber 



The first part of the report of investiga- 

 tions of the lumber industry by Herbert 

 Knox Smith, commissioner of corporations, 

 has been submitted to the President, under 

 date of February 13. This part of the re- 

 port deals witii standing timber. It is 

 quite fully summarized in Mr. Smith's let- 

 ter of submittal to the President. In this 

 letter Mr. Smith says: 



The foremost facis shown are: 



(1) The concentration of a dominating 

 control of our standing timber In a com- 

 paratively few enormous holdings, steadily 

 tending toward a central control of the 

 lumber industry. 



(2) Vast speculative purchase and hold- 

 ing of timber land far in advance of any 

 use thereof. 



(3) An enormous increase in the value 

 of this diminishing natural resource, with 

 great profits to its owners. This value, by 

 the very nature of standing timber, the 

 holder neither created nor substantially 

 enhances. 



These are the underlying facts, of tre- 

 mendous significance to the public welfare. 



They are primarily the results of our 

 public-land policy, long continued. The 

 laws that represent that policy are still 

 largely operative. The past history and 

 present status of our standing timber drive 

 home upon us the imperative necessity of 

 revising our public policy for the future 

 management of all our remaining natural 

 resources. That history is here outlined. 



From government to private owneb- 

 SHip.— Only 40 years ago at least three- 

 fourths of the timber now standing was 

 (it is estimated) publicly owned. Now 

 about four-fifths of it is privately owned. 

 The great bulk of it passed from gov- 

 ernment to private hands through (a) 

 enormous railroad, canal, and wagon-road 

 grants by the Federal Government; (6) 

 direct government sales in unlimited quan- 

 tities at $1.25 an acre; (c) certain public- 

 land laws, great tracts being assembled 

 in spite of the legal requirements for small 

 holdings. Such laws were wholly inap- 

 propriate to forest regions; but, "though 

 vigorously condemned in several public re- 

 ports, they are still largely in force. In 

 theory, they were intended to distribute 

 the public lands in small tracts as homes 



