166 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



As the professor said, our lumbermen are not with us to- 

 night. These men. many of them, have grown rich off of 

 these lands, and have their millions to spend, if they wish, 

 for philanthropic purposes, yet they are not here to-night 

 to take any part in this movement, or to help to restore 

 to the general public a part, at least, of what has been taken 

 from the general public. The lesson has been learned by 

 experience in other localities, and some of us have learned 

 it here, but the general public still seem to misunderstand 

 these matters. We need to discriminate between the "Na- 

 tional Park" and the "National Forest Reserve." Now, I 

 have looked up this Maine law, and I think it is a good one. 

 One of the best provisions of it is that it provides for the salary 

 of a fire guard, and provides for the punishment of that fire 

 guard if he neglects to do his duty. We have suffered terribly 

 from fire in this state. Millions of our pine trees have been 

 destroyed in a single night. I believe that the destruction of 

 timber from forest fires Id Minnesota every year amounts to 

 more than all the timber cut by the lumbermen, and I believe 

 that a one-hundredth part of the cash value of the timber de- 

 stroyed by fire in Minnesota every year, if properly expended 

 in fire protection, would save that timber. If we can convince 

 a few of the leading lumbermen that there are a few dollars to 

 be saved by doing that, then I think we shall accomplish our 

 purpose. 



Secretary Barrett: I always like to hear Mr. Smith talk, as 

 he talks right to the point and hits the nail upon the head. I 

 fear, however, that the idea might have been conveyed by the 

 general tenor of his remarks that the lumbermen did not care 

 anything particularly about forest fires. I do not suppose Mr. 

 Smith means that. I have had occasion to talk with a large 

 number of lumbermen, and also with cruisers who go out over 

 the country to ascertain the best places for lumbering, and so 

 on, and I have found that to a man they are deeply interested 

 in the suppression and prevention of forest fires, if it is 

 possible to suppress them. They do not see the practicability 

 of the thing, however, and they do not understand how it can 

 be done. Now, the general impression seems to be, that the 

 lumbermen are responsible for the forest fires. This is not the 

 case. There are more fires spread by the hunters and poachers 

 than by any other class in the woods. 



