260 



ARBORICULTURE 



Till-: FoiJKST i'ii;i:s-\vii.\' 



i:i)Yr 



IM-'.M- 



iiprinyjiild, Jlusn., hcpublivun. 



The sun roile the skies all yesterday, 

 the moon stood high in the western 

 lieavens, last evening, red as the forest 

 tires whose dense smoke, brought here on 

 the rushing winds, caused their angry 

 aspect. Small local tires have lor weeks 

 past made the hills blue with haze, and 

 the light scent from low-running fires in 

 the leaves has been frequent enough; but 

 now the air is dense with the heavy bur- 

 den of green forests destroyed over vast 

 tracts. For in our Eastern desert of 

 drought, covering New England, Xew 

 York, j)art.of the Middle States, the Can- 

 adas,and the ^laritime provinces, forest 

 fires are raging in almost every quarter, 

 and the destruction of the resources of 

 this part of the earth is going on in a 

 way that will see our hills as bare as 

 Si)ain's before many generations. In 

 years when there is a pretty equitable 

 distribution of rain and shine over these 

 regions, few fires of importance occur 

 here, but they will occur elsewhere — in 

 Minnesota or Oregon or Ontario — for 

 there is no year without the visitation of 

 drought in some fpiarter of the country. 

 We arc havinsr ])robably the most pro- 

 longed spring drought ever known, and 

 the woods are as dry as tinder. 



How great the damage from these fires 

 will be depends on the power who con- 

 trols the rain clouds, for rain alone can 

 check the fires in the woods of Maine, 

 New York and Canada. During nine dry 

 weeks the virgin forests have been turn- 

 ing from green to brittle brown, and the 

 ground about the tree trunks has become 

 powder dry, so that even the roots of the 

 great trees are smoldering. The winds 

 which have brought the smoke to the 

 south have fanned the fires in the north 

 into an uncontrollal)le fury, ^faine will 

 bf worst despoiled, for a chain of flame is 

 flickering across the State, linking Iloul- 

 ton to the Rangelev Lakes, while Bangor, 

 Augusta and Portland are half blinded 

 with the yellow smoke. The big lumber 

 companies will be the chief losers, as far 

 as money goes, for they own the great 

 north woods, and the settlements are few 



and far between, yet two have been swal- 

 lowed l)y the hurrying flames. 



The (ires nuike sad news for the sports- 

 man, tor many ileer iinii moose will per- 

 ish, and others will l)e driven far from 

 well-known hunting grounds. Already 

 they lune Hocked t«» the larger lakes in 

 great numbers in their frenzied rush for 

 safety. There are many miles of forest 

 which, of course, will riMuain untouched, 

 l)ut some of the best known wot)ds and 

 trails are already burned over. Two big 

 fires are burning on the shores of Moose- 

 bead I^ake, one near Greenville and the 

 other near the rugged sitlcs of Mt. Kineo. 

 It is almost too much to hope that the 

 Allegash will escape in its entirety, and 

 it is yet too early to receive re])orts from 

 there. , All through the Aroostook coun- 

 try the fires are sweeping, and a big sec- 

 tion of railroad track has been burned 

 out. Down on the western border of the 

 State the smoke hides the Rangeley 

 Lakes, and there are big fires in Bemis 

 and Rangeley townships, while another 

 is eating its way into the heart of the 

 forests which hide Big and Little Ken- 

 nebago. Similar stories come from the 

 northern part of Quebec, where the for- 

 ests are on fire, and Roberval is cut off 

 from the rest of the world. The woods 

 near the (Irand Descharge are said to be 

 on fire, and other fires are burning 

 around the shores of Lake St. John. All 

 along the })ath of the little railroad which 

 climbs over the Laurentian hills the 

 woods are burning, and the destruction 

 is said to Ix- great. From the southern 

 end of the Atlirondaeks, as well as from 

 the shores of Lake George, cnme reports 

 of big fires, and it is their smoke which 

 choked us yesterday. 



In Western ^lassachusetts tracts of 

 hundreds of acres have been swept by 

 Hames, but our woods have been cut over 

 :ind biinieil iivep too often to give oppor- 

 tunity for a tremendous forest fire, such 

 as were known in the eastern edge of the 

 Berkshire hills Tu>arly half a century ago. 

 The bits (if woodland are few indeed 

 where there remains the deep mold and 

 the rich dulT which supplied the former 

 forests with nourishment and kept the 

 mountain streams full; that has been 

 burned out, and its results are plain 



