ARBORICULTURE 



89 



out including the inestimable loss from 

 chang-es in climatic conditions, and the 

 curtailing of timber sup])ly for the na- 

 tion, which will continue to exist long 

 after the present generation, which is re- 

 sponsible, has passed away. 



The forests can be made self-sustain- 

 ing, and a source of income to the na- 

 tion, if the lands be withdrawn from sale, 

 disposing of the timber by measurement 

 and a thorough protection given from 

 fire loss. 



To do this it is imperative that the 

 forests all remain in the liands and under 

 control of the Department of the In- 

 terior, which should have an ample ap- 

 propriation by C(5ngress to carry out the 

 very best scheme of arboriculture which 

 can be devised. 



Distances are great in the forests and 

 the population sparse. It is extremely 

 difiicult to trace the origin of fires, owing 

 to the absence of witnesses, and those 

 who cause, by design or carelessness, 

 these great conflagrations go unpunished. 



TELEPHONES ESSENTIAL. 



A complete system of telephones, the 

 wires strung on trees, will enable the 

 presence of a fire to be made known and 

 help summoned quickly. 



Officers and employes should be con- 

 stabulary, with power to make arrests 

 and command assistance. 



It must be 'remembered that while a 

 fire is raging and beyond control is no 

 time for planning protection ; it should 

 be done now. 



The Philadelphia Public Ledger gives 

 some startling facts along this line : 



"$30,000,000 GONE IN ONE STATE ALONE. 



"Much of the Fault for These Devas- 

 tating Conflagrations Is Mere Careless- 

 ness or Inattention — Public Sense 

 Needs Cultivation. 



"Investigation has shown that, in an 

 average year, sixty human lives are lost 

 in forest fires, $25,000,000 worth of real 

 property is destroyed, 10,274,089 acres of 

 timber land are burned over, and young 

 forest growth, worth, at the lowest esti- 

 mate, $75,000,000, is killed. A special 

 canvass of the country by the Department 



of Agriculture in 1891 discovered 12,- 

 000.000 acres of timber land destroyed. 



"The figures are mere estimates, which 

 fall far short of showing in full the dam- 

 age done. No account at all is taken of 

 the loss to the country due to the im- 

 poverishment of the soil by fire, to the 

 ruin of water courses, a;id the drying up 

 of springs. Even the amount of timber 

 burned is very imperfectly calculated, 

 and the actual quantity destroyed is far 

 m excess of that accounted for. Forest 

 fires in this country have grown so com- 

 mon that only those are reported that are 

 of such magnitude as to threaten large 

 conmiunities. The lumbering industry 

 in remote sections of the country may be 

 ruined and peoplp forced to flee for their 

 lives without a mention of the disaster 

 l>eyon'd the places near where it occurred. 



"The fires that burnt this year in 

 Washington and Oregon were uncom- 

 mon only in the number of lives lost. 

 The burning of logging and mining 

 camps and farm buildings, the loss to the 

 country in the destruction of timber and 

 young tree growth, is of yearly occur- 

 rence. Every fall, not only in Washing- 

 ton, Oregon, Colorado and Wyoming, 

 but up and down the Pacific coast and all 

 over the Rocky Mountain country, fires 

 burn great hodes in the forests and de- 

 stroy the national wealth. The air of the 

 mountains over hundreds of miles is pun- 

 gent with the smoke of conflagration, and 

 navigation on Puget Sound has often 

 been impeded by smoke. 



"The most disastrous forest fire in 

 the history of this country occurred in 

 October, 187 1, simultaneously with the 

 burning of Chicago. It extended all 

 across Northern Michigan and Wisconsin 

 into Minnesota. At least 1,000 persons 

 were burned to death and 15.000 were 

 made homeless. The property loss has. 

 never been calculated. The Hinckley 

 fire of 1894. which destroyed Hinckley 

 and five other Minnesota villages, btirned 

 to death 418 persons, destroyed $750,000 

 worth of farm and town property and 

 about 400 square miles of forest. A fire 

 in Southeast Michigan in 1881 burned 

 the forest on forty-eight townships, de- 

 stroyed $2,000,000 worth of other prop- 

 erty, burned to death 125 persons and 

 made homeless 5,000. Another Michi- 



