NOTES AND COMMENTS 517 



similar to that used unofficially for several years in the Service, and 

 consists of a dark-blue pennant, about 10 by 14^ inches in size, on the 

 middle of which is set a tree in a shield, surrounded by thirteen stars. 

 The shields and stars are in white. 



Forest Service reports give the information that approximately 

 T,000 head of cattle on the National Forests were lost during 1916 

 from eating poisonous plants. Of this number at least 90 per cent were 

 poisoned from eating tall larkspur; this 90 per cent were valued at 

 $300,000. The principal losses occurred in the higher ranges of the 

 States lying between Washington and New Mexico. 



It is understood that the forest supervisors of District One, at their 

 meeting in Missoula, Montana, in February, sent a wire to Washington 

 expressing their support and readiness to accept any service they might 

 be called upon to give their country in case of war. The Forest Service 

 is completing a detailed census of its officers, classifying them accord- 

 ing to special fitness or training, to be used in case of actual hostilities. 



The 1917 fire season in the Southwestern District has already 

 opened up, a considerable number of fires having been reported from 

 the Alamo Forest, in New Mexico, and several on other forests in 

 that district. The 1916 season in the Southwest was said to have been 

 the worst since 1908. 



The National Forest Reservation Commission, organized under the 

 Weeks law for the protection of navigable streams, spent $1,458,6-19.24 

 during 1916 for the purchase of areas already examined and approved 

 for purchase. Sixty-five tracts, aggregating 54,898 acres, were ap- 

 proved by the commission for purchase, at an average price of $5.76 

 per acre during 1916. 



Prairie dogs have been practically destroyed on 767,000 acres of 

 National Forest range in New Mexico and Arizona during the past 

 five years by the United States Biological Survey. During that period 

 a total of about 2,500,000 acres of Government land in the West have 

 been relieved of range-destroying rodents. 



The Southern Pacific Railroad Company is planning to erect on 

 the shores of Roosevelt Lake, on the Tonto Forest, a large tourist 



