788 



CONSERVATION 



Preventing Adirondack Forest Fires 



Lookout has been maintained at fire ob- 

 servation and signal stations located on 

 Whiteface Mountain, Mount Morris, Blue 

 Mountain, and Gore Mountain by the State 

 Forest, Fish and Game Commission of New 

 York during the past season. That the ter- 

 ritory under observation has been free of 

 any dangerous fire throughout the summer, 

 something which has not happened before in 

 years, is probably due to the fact that all 

 forest fires originating this year were dis- 

 covered in their incipiency by the mountain- 

 posted lookouts, and extinguished by fire 

 rangers before they gained enough head- 

 way to be destructive. 



So successful has been the plan of pre- 

 venting forest fires that the forest, fish and 

 game commission has decided to build and 

 equip about twenty more stations on minor 

 peaks in the Adirondacks and Catskills, so 

 as to more thoroughly protect the state and 

 private lands which have heretofore been 

 exposed to the danger of devastation by fires 

 arising from chance sparks from locomotives 

 or matches from careless hunters and camp- 

 ers. At a recent meeting of the four state 

 fire superintendents with Commissioner J. S. 

 Whipple, it was planned to extend the fire- 

 protec'.ion system which has proved so effi- 

 cient this year, so as to cover all the wooded 

 territory of the northern part of the state. 



The stations built and those planned have 

 an equipment which includes a range finder, 

 telescope, topographical map of the country 

 within the watchman's range of vision, and 

 quarters for the lookout to live in. Each 

 observntion station is connected by telephone 

 with the superintendent of the fire district 

 in which it is located, and the superintendent 

 has at his command, by telephone, two fire 

 rangers in each township throughout his 

 district. The plan so far has worked very 

 satisfactorily, enabling fires to be nipped in 

 the bud. 



The construction of the system in the 

 Adirondacks involved the expenditure of a 

 considerable sum of money. Nearly lOO 

 miles of new telephone wires were strung, 

 and the entire northern New York lines of 

 a telephone company subsidized to complete 

 the extensive connections required. New 

 wires were strung into the very heart of the 

 Adirondacks and upon mountain sides which 

 previous to then had been climbed only by 

 the most daring. Trails were blazed through 

 the virgin forest and the century-long soli- 

 tude of craggy mountain peaks was broken 

 by the blast of station builders. 



The commission contemplates an educa- 

 tional campaign looking to an amendment of 

 the constitution which will permit cutting the 

 fire line through state forests that firefighters 

 may be more effectively used. A large part 

 of the acreage burned over by the forest fires 

 of igo8 are to be replanted with pine seed- 



lings next year. A million young trees were- 

 this year planted on burned and waste lands 

 in the Adirondacks by the state and by pri- 

 vate land owners. — Condensed from Boston 

 Transcript. 



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President Hill for Conservation 



In the present instalment of the series, 

 "Highwaj's of Progress," now appearing in 

 the World's Work, President James J. Hill 

 says : 



"Practically speaking, our public lands are 

 about all occupied. Our other natural re- 

 sources have been exploited with a lavish 

 hand. Our iron and coal supplies will show 

 signs of exhaustion before fifty years have 

 passed. The former, at the present rate of 

 increasing population, will be greatly re- 

 duced. Our forests are going rapidly; our 

 supply of mineral oil flows to the ends of the 

 earth. The soil of the country is being im- 

 poverished by careless treatment. In some 

 of the richest portions of the country its pro- 

 ductivity has deteriorated fully fifty per cent. 

 These are facts to which necessity will com- 

 pel our attention before we have reached 

 the middle of this century. To a realization 

 of our position, and especially to a jealous 

 care of our land resources, both as to 

 quantity and quality, to a mode of cultivation 

 that will at once multiply the yield per acre 

 and restore instead of impairing fertility, we 

 must come without delay. There is no issue, 

 in business or in politics, that compares in 

 importance or in power with this." 



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Forestry on Private Estates 



In point of variety and scope, the forest 

 work done on the Biltmore estate in North 

 Carolina is remarkable. The forests, which 

 cover 130,000 acres, are made profitable by 

 the production of various forms of material. 



Four million feet of lumber, 5,000 cords 

 of tannic-acid wood and fuel, a thou- 

 sand cords of tanbark, and several hundred 

 cords of pulp wood are cut every year. At 

 the same time, the forest, through wise man- 

 agement, is bettered and is steadily increas- 

 ing in value. Workmen employed along the 

 boundaries of the forest do duty as fire- 

 guards. Thus fire protection is secured at 

 least throughout all the accessible parts of 

 the tract. 



In connection with all lumbering opera ■ 

 tions permanent logging roads are built. 

 These minimize the present cost of trans- 

 portation and will greatly reduce the cost of 

 marketing future crops. Thus the exten 

 sion of the roads is steadily adding to thf 

 investment value of the forest. — Harper's 

 Weekly, New York. 



