1472 



AiMERICAX FORESTRY 



local entertainments of a literary nature ; children are 

 schooled ; the men and women look well and happy. 



With anticipation of continued use it was practicable 

 to install a model sawmill plant, of larger capacity than 

 is required for present needs, and the men have diversity 

 of work by sawing forenoons and then sweeping up, and 

 sorting, and planing lumber the rest of the day. Logging 

 is done year after year by contract by the local ranchers 

 to splendid advantage as supplemental to their farming. 

 Black Hills conditions, suitable to the natural seeding of 

 a new crop of trees and for the rapid growth of the 

 young trees, also favor the practice of forestry. 



The sawmill is owned, and furnishes the timber re- 

 quired by the Homestake Mining Company, of Lead, 

 South Dakota, in which Mrs. Hearst owns a controlling 

 interest, and in which employees have been encouraged to 

 buy shares. The Homestake conducts its operations on 

 a conservative basis, having ore blocked out for mining 

 for many years, and drawing on the richer ore only to 

 an extent that will maintain a dependable rate of divi- 

 dends indefinitely. 



It might be said that such methods will not meet the 



requirements of present day competition which drives 

 operators, regardless of personal desire, to handle every 

 operation on the closest margin, and as quickly as possi- 

 ble to release the capital invested to be used in other 

 enterprises ; that without the gold mine back of it, such 

 timber operations would lose money. 



Yet the Homestake Mining Company is wise and far- 

 sighted enough to see that it will need timber for a long 

 time ; and that good conditions of employment are better 

 than an ever-changing force and early-aged pensioners 

 from accident and overwork. 



There seems to be a minimum of lost motion and waste. 

 Systematically orders are given in advance for the 

 materials needed, and the timber is so sawed. Thus 

 there is very little stock on hand to deteriorate, be en- 

 dangered by fire, and accumulate interest on cost of 

 manufacture. 



When through a more excellent understanding wood 

 consumers generally can be brought into closer touch 

 with producers, distribution improved, and utilization 

 perfected, will not present demands on lumber producers 

 be lessened and the practice of forestry be made easier? 



Dubois to enter consular service 



FROM California comes the news that Lieut. -Col. 

 Coert duBois, United States Forester in charge of 

 the California District since 191 1 (with the exception of 

 one year spent in France), has received an appointment 

 in the United States Consular Service, and his retirement 

 from the Forest Service has been announced. 



As the leader and organizer of the most comprehen- 

 sive fire-prevention service in existence in the West, and 

 particularly as the principal opponent of the so-called 

 "light burning" theory of forest protection — a theory 

 which has cost California tremendous sums annually 

 through the destruction of timber by fire — duBois has 

 made a remarkable record in this State. 



During the war he served as a major with the Tenth 

 Engineers in France, returning just a year ago this 

 month with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and the task of 

 aiding in organizing new engineer units for overseas duty 

 — a task which was brought to a close by the armistice. 



"I am particularly pleased at the marked change during 

 the past two years in the attitude of the people of Cali- 

 fornia toward forest fire prevention," said duBois. in dis- 

 cussing his retirement. 



"The main job of the United States Forest Service 

 here has been putting across to the public the knowledge 

 that the future supply of timber so essential to the big 

 agricultural and industrial development of the State — a 

 development which is now well under way — depends first 

 and foremost upon the protection of the young growth 

 in our forests from fire. 



"Fire prevention and protection is, and has been, one 

 of California's vital issues. Yet a few years ago this 

 fact was so little realized that forest fires — both those 

 wantonly set and those started by sheer carelessness and 

 indifference — were viewed with amazing unconcern. 



".And the one greatest contributing cause to that un- 

 concern was the pernicious, ill-advised and destructive 

 'light burning' theory — a theory which advocated the 

 deliberate setting of forest fires in the spring and fall 

 with the idea that the undergrowth and down logs might 

 be burned out without damaging mature timber or repro- 

 duction, and thus make the forests immune from fires 

 during the summer months. This theory — which is prac- 

 tically abandoned in California today — was based on the 

 erroneous assumption that our forests have persisted 

 because of the many fires that have been started in cen- 

 turies past by lightning, Indians and the early settlers. As 

 a matter of fact, our forests have persisted /;/ spite of 

 such fires — and their dej)leted stand today is the result. 

 Continue to apply the 'theory,' and fifty years hence 

 would see no forest at all in California." 



Lieutenant-Colonel duBois entered the Forest Service 

 in April, 1900, as a "Student .\ssistant" at a salary of 

 $25.00 per month and found. His first administrative 

 job was earned in 1904, when he was placed in charge 

 of the section of "Boundaries" — a division of the old 

 Bureau of Forestry which determined the location and 

 extent of the various National Forests in the Western 

 states. In 1905 he was made Inspector for the Rocky 

 Mountains and Southwestern Sections, and was appoint- 

 ed Associate District Forester for California when the 

 California District was created in the winter of 1908. 



He assumed the leadership of this district in 191 1, 

 following the resignation of F. E. Olmsted. 



Colonel duBois' appointment in the Consular Service 

 was confirmed by the Senate on September 5 and he has 

 left for Washington. His successor, who will be ap- 

 pointed by Forester H. S. Graves, at Washington, has 

 not vet been announced. 



