REVIEWS 569 



special recruiting officer for forest engineer regiments and approxi- 

 mately securing a thousand men, the forester also acting as special ad- 

 viser to the Regional Committee on War Industries. 



The most striking recommendation has reference to an attempt to 

 make the Forest Service independent of appropriations by successive 

 legislatures, since a "permanent policy is involved demanding a con- 

 stant and dependable source of revenue." To this end a special State 

 tax of one-sixth of a mill is proposed to be levied for the support of 

 the Forest Service. A bill to provide such a tax has been introduced 

 in the legislature. Such a tax, we learn from the North Woods, for 

 February, will provide approximately $37,000. Other legislation to 

 prevent careless setting of fires and reorganizing the forest protective 

 service are also introduced. To all appearances, the Minnesota forest 

 policy seems in a fair way of rational advance. 



From an article in the same issue of the mentioned journal, we re- 

 produce a few statistical data regarding forestry matters in the State. 

 The timbered area of the State includes approximately 27,000,000 acres, 

 the value of timber products alone thereon amounting to $500,000,000. 

 From this area, up to July 31, 1918. the State revenue from timber cut 

 was $10,197,894. the money going largely to the university and school 

 fund. The total yearly value of the "forest cut," including private 

 ownership as well as the State, amounts to over $40,000,000. It is 

 probably well within the facts to say that during the last 25 years over 

 ^f)oo lives have been needlessly sacrificed to forest fires, and that the 

 total io:s of property during ihis perioH from the same cause amounts 

 to $58,000,000- also, forest fires are responsible for the loss uf ^cot 

 areas of young growing trees on cut-over lands, which can be estimated 

 at $1,000,000 per year (to say noihing of the loss of soil through im- 

 poverishment and denudation), making a total property loss of $83.- 

 000,000. 



The first of a series of recent great forest fires in the State occurred 

 in Virginia in 1893, when the town was practically destroyed. X'ext 

 came the Hinckley fire, in 1894. when 418 people lost their lives. On 

 September 4, 1908, there occurred a fire in which the village of Chis- 

 holm was destroyed, with no direct loss of life, though from the ex- 

 posure several women and infants died. The towns of Beaudette and 

 Spooner were destroyed and the country around devastated by the fire 

 of October 7, 1910. entailing the sacrifice of 32 lives. The most recent 

 fire, that of October 11 and 12, 1918, burned over an area of 350,000 

 acres, the towns of Cloquet and Moose Lake being wiped out. the prop- 

 ertv loss being over $50,000,000 and the lives sacrificed over soo. 



B. E. F. 



