250 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



In the first place, the only step that has been taken in forestry 

 in this state, and almost in any state in the United States, has been 

 to preserve what is left from fire. It is a fact that in the cutting 

 and slashing of the ordinary way of lumbering that fires destroy a 

 good proportion of the timber. I do not believe it destroys as much 

 as the woodsman cuts down ; in some portions of the country it is 

 true, but as a general thing it is not true. Forest trees that are full 

 length are usually pretty safe from fire, especially if any work is 

 done in that immediate vicinity. But the fire protection of the ex- 

 isting forests is a personal, pressing question, and the state has done 

 as much as it could do to prevent fires. The state law for the pro- 

 tection of forests against fire has been in operation for several years, 

 and the results have been good as far as there have been any results 

 at all. The work has been handicapped for the lack of funds. The 

 appropriation is a small one, but probably as large as it ought to be. 

 The fire protection, therefore, can be considered as a question for 

 the people to waken up to, and it is a question for the lumberman to 

 consider as well as any other citizen. I lived for a great many 

 years in the forests of the north, and the question of fire was what 

 interested me more than anything else, and there were times when 

 I doubted it was my duty to live any longer in that country with my 

 family, which was liable to destruction and my home liable to be 

 burned down by a forest fire. This is the first consideration. There 

 is another thing which I think has been considerably agitated, so it 

 has taken hold on the public mind, and that is interesting the United 

 States to inaugurate upon its lands a system of forest propagation 

 and protection. The first real attempt made in Minnesota is the 

 step now taken to set aside and make a government reservation upon 

 true forestry principles. This is an important step. I think that 

 will fail. 



And now I come to the only thing my brother lumbermen 

 would dift'er from me in, and that is that this work of interesting 

 the United States to make appropriations to place certain of their 

 government lands under forestry protection will never go forward 

 until it is understood and impressed upon our legislators at Wash- 

 ington that there are certain parts of the public domain that should 

 be absolutely withdrawn from the market. That touches lumber- 

 men right at the heart, the withdrawal of timber from the market. 

 I have been somewhat interested since receiving this invitation in 

 the fact that during the present fall, commencing, I think, in Octo- 

 ber, there has been a steady pressure brought to bear upon the au- 

 thorities at Washington to put more and more of the timber lands 

 of the United States on the market, and the result has been indicated 



