FOKESTRY. 389 



A MOVEMENT TO PREVENT FOREST FIRES. 



Report of a meeting held at the Commercial Club rooms, in St. Paul, Oct. 3, ISW. 

 PREPARED BY J. O. BARRETT. 



What the Horticultural Society and Forestry Association for mau}- 

 years have ag-itated and plead for, is realized sooner than an3' of us 

 anticipated. The late terrible calaniitj' at and around Hinckley, 

 wherebj' hundreds of men, women and children and njillions of dol- 

 lars' worth of valuable property were burned up, have touched the 

 hearts of our people, not for the relief of the bereft sufferers alone, 

 but for a determined efifort to avert such destruction for the future. 



The Commercial Club of St. Paul initiated a call for a mass fores- 

 try meeting- in that city on the third of October, 1894, to consider 

 measures for the prevention of forest fires and the preservation of 

 the forest resources of the state. So far as possible, it is of historic 

 importance that the names of the men who came as representatives 

 of business and reform institutions should be put on record. There 

 were present President \V. J. Footner, Capt. H. A. Castle, C. H. Chit- 

 tenden, B. Sommers and Secretary XcGinnis of the St. Paul Com- 

 mercial club; E. \V. Peet, C. C. Andrews, J. D. Ludden, R. C. Jefiferson 

 and E. J. Hodgson, of the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce; Col. C. H. 

 Graves of Duluth and H. H. Hart of St Paul, both members of the 

 state fire relief commission; President John H. Stevens, Secretary J. 

 O. Barrett, O. F. Brand of Faribault, N. F. Brand of the State Uni- 

 versitj', William R. Dobbyn of Minneapolis and Prof. S. B. Green of 

 the State Universitj-, members of the State Forestry Association; A. 

 W. Latham, secretar3' of the State Horticultural Societj"; Prof. Con- 

 waj' McMillan and Prof. Hays, of the State University; William 

 Powell, C. S. Cairns, B. F. Nelson, H. B. Hodson and J. T. Hemphill, 

 representing the Minneapolis Board of Trade; C. H. Pratt of Minne- 

 apolis, L. O. Tomblar of Wyoming, Minn.; John Cooper of St. Cloud; 

 H. B. Aj-res of Carlton, Minn., who is a representative of the Forestry 

 Division of the United States Department of Agriculture; Maj. W. A. 

 Jones, United States engineer in charge of the rivers and harbors of 

 the Northwest; Maj. Jo^-ce of Iowa, who has lumber interests at Shell 

 Lake, Wis.; A. M. Hannaford, Claremont, N. H.; A. H. Lee of Minne- 

 apolis, Prof. Phelps of St. Paul and Charles C. Brown of Duluth. 



Earnest and co-operative letters were read by Secretary McGinnis, 

 among them one from Hon. W. W. Barrett, superintendent of irriga- 

 tion, forestry, fish and game of North Dakota, who urged a country- 

 wide action along the lines embodied in the call; from Hon. A. Bier- 

 man, state auditor.who said he believed "the railroad and lumber com- 

 panies would willingly co-operate in preserving the state forests;'' 

 from Prof. J. H. Winchell, state geologist, expressing "the hope that 

 the meeting might result in something effective." He estimates that 

 three-fourths of the northern part of the state has been devastated 

 by these fires, and urged that some measures be taken, not only to 

 prevent the destruction of the natural forests, but to cultivate the 

 areas on which young trees are now growing, and sa3-s he will be 

 glad to co-operate in any plan that ma^- be adopted looking to these 

 ends. Prof. E. B. Fernow, Chief of the Forestry Division at 

 Washington, D. C, outlined a practical method by which to re- 



