446 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



where he was fined, and he was as 

 promptly discharged from the Forest 

 Service as being unfit to hold a position 

 therein. Wagner's connection lasted 

 exactly seven days he being discharged 

 at the end of that time "for the good of 

 the Service." A trivial attair to have 

 been spread all over the West ; and it 

 has certainly grown pretty thin in the 

 spreading process. 



^ ^ )^ 



Uniforms of Forest Officers 



A S TO the uniforms to which the 

 Senator takes such violent excep- 

 tions. The Senator's statement to the 

 contrary notwithstanding, forest offi- 

 cers are not required to wear uniforms. 

 They may do so if they choose, and in 

 such case very flexible regulations are 

 provided. The uniforms, if worn, are 

 to be of army khaki, olive brown, with 

 numerous and capacious pockets, any 

 style of footwear fancied by the wear- 

 er, and the hat — that terrible cocked 

 and cockaded chapeau so forcefully de- 

 scribed by the western Senator — is sim- 

 ply the regulation western Stetson — no 

 more and no less. There is no compul- 

 sion whatever in this matter of uni- 

 forms ; forest officers may wear them 

 or not, just as they see fit. No man is 

 disciplined in any way if he chooses to 

 go without a uniform, but it is sug- 

 gested by the Forest Service, that, for 

 the protection of the general public, 

 some sort of distinguishing uniform is 

 desirable, so that individuals may know 

 with whom they are dealing in matters 

 concerning National Forests. The ob- 

 ject is identical with that sought to be 

 served by uniforming mail carriers, po- 

 licemen, firemen, and other public serv- 

 ants, and the Senator's argument would 

 apply equally well to any of these. If 

 uniforms are so distasteful to the Sena- 

 tor, he should introduce a bill requiring 

 all mail carriers, etc., to discard the 

 odious badge of servitude ; there would 

 be exactly as much common sense in 

 such a proceeding as in the demand for 



the elimination of a fixed arid rigidly 

 required foresters' uniform — besides 

 \\hich, the latter doesn't exist. 



i^ i^ «^ 

 G)stly Steam Yachts 



SEVERAL of the National Forests 

 are located on large bodies of water 

 : — lakes, rivers, bays or sounds — around 

 which travel is extremely dif^cult on 

 account of natural obstructions. Sev- 

 eral such forests have been supplied 

 with small launches — none of them 

 even approaching in size a yacht — for 

 use in tours of inspection, trips from 

 point to point, and in case of desperate 

 emergency requiring the presence of 

 several forest officers at a certain point 

 with the least possible waste of time. 

 Now, it certainly does seem to be 

 "stretching the blanket" to the point of 

 uttermost tension to designate a 

 twenty-five foot or thirty- foot launch a 

 "costly steam yacht." Perhaps, how- 

 ever, this may be accounted for by rea- 

 son of the Senator's unfamiliarity with 

 vachts. Life in the altitudinous fast- 

 nesses of some of the western states is 

 not calculated to familiarize one with 

 shipping, to any marked degree ; and 

 his reading may have given the Senator 

 the impression that any small boat 

 from a canoe up, is a yacht. "A prim- 

 rose on the river's brim, a simple 

 primrose was to him." as it were. But 

 these are some of the things the forest 

 officers do with those "costly steam 

 yachts :" They make in a couple of days 

 trips around lakes that, were the trips 

 made by land, would require two 

 weeks ; they make hurried dashes and 

 cut off the retreat of poachers, outlaws, 

 and the like, saving local law officers 

 days or weeks of hard riding and com- 

 fortless camps ; and they make it possi- 

 ble to check forest fires that, allowed to 

 gain the headway they would gain were 

 it not for the little vessels, would de- 

 stroy thousands of dollars worth of 

 valuable timber. Indeed, one such in- 

 stance occurred only last summer ; the 

 fire, just starting, was extinguished be- 



