180 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OP AGRICULTURE. 



be the most effective protector, and where, as in the case of forest 

 property, the State has an economic interest in its preservation be- 

 yond the mere protection of private rights, co-operation of the State 

 authorities with the private interests is necessary. The adoption of 

 what may be called the Canada plan is therefore recommended for 

 such States as have large lumbering interests to protect. 



The substance of this plan is given in the following paragraph, 

 taken from the recent rej)ort of the Commissioner of Crown Lands: 



" It is proposed that during the dangerous period, say from the 1st day of May to 

 the 1st day of October in each year, there shall be placed on such limits as are ex- 

 posed to danger a man or men who will be empowered and instructed to use every 

 endeavor to prevent and suppress fires in every way possible, and the ranger who is 

 placed in charge of a limit will be authorized to engage whatever help may be nec- 

 essary to cope with a dangerous fire when prompt action is necessary. These men 

 will be supplied with copies of the "Fire act" and instructed to post them up in 

 public and conspicuous places, to visit each person resident on the limit and give 

 them, if thought advisable, a copy of the act, explaining to them its provisions, 

 penalty for its infraction, &c., and to endeavor to enlist their assistance and sym- 

 pathy to make the act effective. 



" The Department will leave the limit-holder to suggest the number of men who 

 shall be placed on his limit, and, as it is of all things necessary that practical bush- 

 men of good judgment and well acquainted with the limit should be selected, he, 

 the limit-holder, vsdll nominate the man to be placed in charge of the hmit and his 

 subordinates, if any, the Department reserving the right to limit the number of men 

 to be employed on any limit and also to reject or remove any man whom it finds 

 unfitted to discharge the duties of the position." 



As to the expense incident to the working of the plan, the Govern- 

 ment proposed to assume one half, the other half to be borne by the 

 limit-holders. 



So far as timber-limit holders agreed to bear their share of the 

 expenses connected with the experiment a trial was made in 1885. 

 Thirty-seven men were placed in the field and kept on duty from June 

 to October. The effect of their presence was excellent. Fires were 

 suppressed which otherwise might have become vast conflagrations, 

 causing incalculable losses. Persons wantonly violating the provis- 

 ions of the fire act were promptly brought to justice and fined, and a 

 general and strong interest in the direction of preventing the start and 

 spread of bush fires was created and ke^Dt alive. 



At the close of the season the timber owners expressed their great 

 satisfaction with the experiment and urged its continuance and ex- 

 tension. 



Passing over the early measures for the encouragement of tree plant- 

 ing of the New York and Massachusetts societies for the promotion of 

 agriculture, which date back to the beginning of this and the end of 

 the last century, we find bounties of from $3 to $10 per acre for planted 

 forest provided since 1868 by the State legislatures of Massachusetts, 

 Kansas, (repealed), Wisconsin, Missouri, Minnesota, Illinois, and Ne- 

 vada. Exemption from taxation to an amount reaching from $100 to 

 $200 for every acre planted to forest is granted in Iowa, Nebraska, 

 Maine, Connecticut, Dakota, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wyom- 

 ing. 



TIMBER-CULTURE ACT, 



To encourage forest planting on the treeless i:)rairies, the General 

 Government made tree planting, under certain regulations, the con- 

 sideration for the acquisition of public lands. One quarter-section, 

 or an equivalent fraction, was to be planted and kept in growing con- 

 dition for eight or more years, and to show 075 living trees per acre at 



