MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



9 



the services were rendered. And it provided 

 further that the warden should not be paid for 

 than fifteen days' services. The law is 

 now so that the wardens may be paid for \vhat- 

 ally. The forests in Minnesota, of all kinds, 

 are worth $100.000.000 today. The state of 

 Minnesota appropriates not quite as liberally 

 me other states, perhaps not quite as 

 much as Maine and New York. There is a 

 standing appropriation < ! $.">.000 to pay for 

 fighting tires, in addition to $1,000 for prosecu- 

 tions; then there are $5.000 appropriated to 

 carry un this s>>tem. which makes $11.000 that 

 the state of Minnesota appropriates for this 

 lire warden system. It is also the duty of the 

 department to distribute information. It was 

 also made the duty of the fire warden to in- 

 the causes of tires and present the 

 report of the said investigations, and give in- 

 f'lrmation on the subject. Xow, that is our 

 ,m. 



Room for Improvement. 



Mr. Roth: Can you suggest any improve- 

 ments to t,hat system? 



Mr. Andrew:-: Well. I think it would be an 

 improvement if we had to pay the wardens 

 more and if they could be sure of holding 

 their positions permanently. You must pay a 

 warden enough to induce him to give his at- 

 tention to it. In Pennsylvania they have con- 

 stables sufficiently capable of giving it the at- 

 tention it should have. You must have a fire 

 warden <>i some standing and responsibility. 

 He must be respected, and he ought to be paid 

 :i reasonable amount for his services. In Wis- 

 consin they have a little different system: it 

 lifhcult to find a man who would accept, 

 and they would appoint temporary fire war- 



\Ye have great reason to be encouraged in 

 the progress of forestry. Years ago it seems 

 to me thatthe appropriation of congrc- 



ry wasn't much more than $25.000. Is 

 that so. Dr. Fernow? 



Dr. Fernow: Yes, about so. About a dozen 

 years ago. 



Mr. Andrews: And now the United States 

 has 147,000.000 acres of forest reserves and the 

 appropriation of congress for forestry at the 

 last session was $2,400.000. (Applause.) 



WISCONSIN'S METHOD. 



Assistant Forester F. B. Moody Tells of 

 Conditions in That State. 



Wisconsin's method was then discussed by 

 F. B. Moody, assistant forester of Wisconsin. 

 He said: In order that you may have a better 

 understanding of the conditions in Wisconsin, 

 I will say that in 1854 the government gave the 

 >tate. through the swamp land grant, certain 

 land that was supposed to be more or less 

 ipy. And those lands lay all in the 

 northern part of the state, in some nineteen 

 counties. In 1903 the state set aside some 

 4.000 acres of this land for the state forest re- 

 serve. In 1903 the state set aside all of the 

 land all of the state land north of Township 

 33 as forest reserve land. So you will see that 

 our land is very scattered, ranging in area from 

 40 acres to perhaps 2.000 in extent. It is quite 



problem sometimes for us to give proper 



protection to that land. The policy of the 



: out the scattered land and con- 



idate all on the head waters of the Wis- 



-in river. 



The fire wardens are appointed by the state 



icer upon the recommendation of some reli- 

 able, honest persons from the town in which 

 the appointment is made. One or more is ap- 

 mted for each town. So far the system has 



rked out very well. We have had very few 

 cases where a fire warden has had to be dis- 

 missed. Of course, like everything else, there 

 are some of those fellows that want to get in 

 it from the financial end, and not do any work. 



The system of payment, I think, is different 



from any other state: the wardens are paid out 



the town fund of the town in which they are 



appointed; they are jiot partly paid by the 



state or county, it all comes out of the town 

 fund. They are allowed not to exceed 25 cents 

 per hour for fighting fire for the actual time 

 they put in. The duties of the fire warden are 

 to call out every able-bodied man whenever it 

 is necessary; and he also has police power to 

 arrest without a warrant; and in case of a 

 dangerously dry season existing the warden 

 has authority to post warning notices stating 

 that no fires whatever shall be set during this 

 dry period without a permit from the warden. 

 Now. I know that this is a very good section 

 of our forestry law. I have happened to be in 

 some of the towns in Northern Wisconsin 

 when some of the farmers were very much 

 dissatisfied, they wanted to set their woods 

 afire and burn the brush. We don't want the 

 fires started in a dangerously dry season. I 

 happened to be in the northern part of the 

 state this summer. There were some fires 

 there. I said. ''What do you do to stop these 

 fires?" and they said. "We don't do anything; 

 it doesn't do any hurt, just burning up a few 

 i;.ck pines and makes the blue berries more 

 plentiful." I find that through a certain section 

 there is that feeling among a few of the 

 settlers. That feeling can be eradicated by a 

 little more education along forestry lines, and 

 the preservation of the young growing timber. 

 It is the value of those trees that we want the 

 common people of our state to appreciate, and 

 realize the dangers that exist from forest fires. 

 The appropriation for the state organization 

 amounts to $9,800 per year. 



Forestry Reserve Fund. 



Another good point in our forest law is that 

 we have a forestry reserve fund: with that we 

 purchase land for additions to our reserve. 

 Last year we collected something like $6,000 

 f"r trespasses: I think this year will beat that: 

 I hope so. anyway. 



We have undertaken to co-operate with the 

 Indiana department in carrying out some 

 points, such as marking seed trees. 



On the Menominee reservation, which I 

 think is the best batch of timber in Wisconsin 

 today, the jobber piles the brush as the log- 

 ging proceeds, and then it is burned by a com- 

 mittee. On the Menominee the timber is hard- 

 wood mainly: about two years ago it was 

 worth about $24,000.000. 



Going back to the fire warden system again. 

 We have some 320 fire wardens scattered 

 throughout Northern Wisconsin. "Some of the 

 towns object to their paying all the expenses 

 of fighting fires, and I don't know but that it 

 would be better to have the state bear' half the 

 expense. Anything that is beneficial to the 

 town certainly is beneficial to the state. In 

 talking with A. M. Brown, of the Brown Lum- 

 ber company. I found that he is very much in 

 favor of something being done to provide that 

 all lumbermen should pile their own slash. 

 And he also wishes to see something done in 

 the way of changing the tax system. 



read at least once each week by the person 

 in charge of timber survey or exploring party. 



Locomotives passing through such district 

 were required to have a screen of wire netting 

 with wires not le>s than 3-64 part of an inch 

 in diameter, and every square inch of screen 

 containing eleven wires each way at right 

 angles, that is, twenty-two wires to the square 

 inch. 



This act has never been amended and still 

 exists, although it is impractical in many wa- 

 it was found that little protection could be 

 had by this means, and in 1895 the fire ranging 

 system was inaugurated on areas under 1; 

 to lumbermen, the state and licensee dividing 

 the cost equally. This first year thirty-seven 

 i men were kept in the field from the first of 

 May till the first of October, at a cost of $7.911. 



In 1896 160 rangers were employed, at a 

 cost of $31,396. In this year the system was 

 i enlarged to cover other crown lands than those 

 under license. In 1906 the total number of 

 rangers on crown lands was 509. Of this 

 number. 345 were employed on lands under 

 timber license, while a number were placed 

 along the lines of railway construction. The 

 total cost to the state this year was $57.611. 



The rapid development of railroad and min- 

 ing enterprises is the most dangerous menace 

 to the forests of northern Ontario at present. 

 During the past year an extremely wet season 

 in this part of Ontario has prevented any seri- 

 ous fires. 



It is felt in Ontario that the only practical 

 protection to be had is where men are paid 

 to patrol dangerous areas. Laws are of little 

 use except as tools in the Irands of those 

 whose business it is to patrol the forest. In 

 all other provinces of Canada where there are 

 forests to protect the fire ranging system has 

 been inaugurated to a certain degree'. 



PRAIRIE FORESTRY. 



ONTARIO'S SYSTEM. 



Prof. E. J. Zavitz Favors the Employment of 

 Fire Rangers. 



"The Canadian Plan" was set forth by Prof. 

 E. J. Zavitz. of the Ontario Agricultural col- 

 lege a Guelph. He said: 



The earliest efforts in Ontario to protect j 

 the forests from lire were along, the lines of j 

 fire laws. We find that the first legislation ; 

 lacterl in 187S. which looked to the pre- i 

 vention of forest fires. The act gave the lieu- 

 tenant-governor power to proclaim a fire dis- 

 trict at any time, and the act applied only to 

 such so-called "fire districts." Fires could not 

 be started except for certain purposes and in , 

 certain periods, the prohibitive season being J 

 from April 1 to November 1. Precautions 

 had to be taken in the case of cooking, hand- 

 ling matches, firearms, etc. For cooking a 

 spot with a radius of ten feet had to be cleared 

 of all vegetable matter, dead wood, branches, 

 brush wood and leaves. The act had to be I 



One-Half of the Great Prairie District Was 

 Once Forests. 



Prof. Green, head of the forestry department 

 of the University of Minnesota, was the next 

 speaker introduced. He spoke as follows: 

 Our great farming population is located in 

 the prairie districts; about one-half of the 

 state was prairie and about one-half was 

 originally in forests, the pine forests of the 

 ind the hardwood timber, which has been 

 thoroughly cleared away and taken for far.ns. 

 That has given rise to a great interest in 

 prairie forestry. We had a forestry commis- 

 sion organized about 1S71 or 1872: soon after 

 that an act was passed by the legislature which 

 L-cial tax appropriated money to the 

 amount of $20,000 a year, and the forestry has 

 been extended, and now $700,000 has been ex- 

 pended in Minnesota for the planting of trees 

 in the prairie sections. Now that law is ao 

 more needed than a fifth wheel to a wagon. 

 We tried a few years ago to repeal that law. 

 We took it up with the different counties, but 

 when the vote came it couldn't be carried in 

 the legislature. Twenty thousand dollars a 

 year is expended for the prairie work, but we 

 are not able to get near as much for the work 

 in the timber section. There is no question 

 that the act is unconstitutional, as the matter 

 came up in the case of beet sugar bounties in 

 the state of Minnesota, and it was held uncon- 

 stitutional. 



The next epoch in our history was the : 

 age of the fire law in 1904. That attracted at- 

 tention to forestry as nothing else could. After 

 we got that law only the veto power of the 

 governor stood in the way of that entire law 

 being repealed. The governor vetoed it. That 

 was really an epoch. 



The distribution or the posting of the no- 

 tices and such matters has been taken up with 

 the fire warden and has had a very beneficial 

 effect. I think. 



In 1897, I think it was. the act was passed 

 which we know as the forestry board law. It 

 provided for the appointment of nine persons 

 on the forestry board. The intention at that 



