NOTES 



Forest Fires and the I. W. W. 



j\Iany editorial writers in the daily press and trade journals persist- 

 ently asserted that the forest fires which burned last summer and fall 

 in western ^Montana, northern Idaho, and eastern Washington were 

 due to I. W. W. plotting. It is of interest, therefore, to state that as 

 far as the fires on the National Forests were concerned, they were 

 brought under control partly because a considerable number of volun- 

 teers for fire-fighting were found within the ranks of the striking 

 I. W. W. lumberjacks. In Missoula, Montana, the local secretary of 

 the I. W. W. organization even bore the honorable title of Government 

 Labor Agent ; he had sent more than a thousand strikers to the fires, 

 even taking his pickets out of the St. Regis district to do it. The office 

 of the district forester at Missoula recognized the efiforts of the local 

 secretary by a statement that "the leaders of the organization have 

 urged their men to go out and help the Government fight the fire, and 

 stay on this job until the flames are controlled." 



Stup.-burning Experiment 



While working on the problem of utilization of old-growth hard- 

 woods in the Adirondacks during the past winter, Prof. B. A. Chandler, 

 of Cornell University, tried burning with gasoline the old stubs which 

 it is not possible to utilize, even under the best of markets, but which 

 are both a disease and fire menace. This method was tried at the sug- 

 gestion of E. E. Brigham, Superintendent of Lands and Logging. Oval 

 Wood Dish Comj)any, Tupper Lake, N. Y. Mr. Brigham had used it 

 successfully as a means of removing the stubs left after cord-wood jobs 

 in the Lake States, where such stubs are a big fire menace. 



Professor Chandler found that beech, birch, and maple stubs would 

 all burn, provided ])unk of a certain character could be foinid, wet with 

 a small (|uantity of gasoline and lighted. This punk reprcsciUs a very 

 advanced stage of decay, which dries out very quickly, and therefore 

 does not freeze up when cold weather sets in. Since this punk is ofltn 

 on the inside of a hollow stub, a locomotive oil-can is the best thing in 

 which to carry tlu' gasoline. 



47!» 



