518 



Canadian Forcslr\) Journal, December, 1919 



THERE MUST BE MORE CARE WITH FIRE AND 

 GREATER EXPENDITURE OF PUBLIC FUNDS. 



Private, state and federal forces in our own 

 territory should be put behind a western pro- 

 gramme, deahng systematically with Weeks Law 

 and other Congressional needs; with state leg- 

 islation; with law enforcement, and with the 

 part which should be played by the lumber in- 

 dustry and the public. 



FOREST PROTECTION NOT A WESTERN PROBLEM 

 ONLY. 



Interest in fire prevention and reforestation 

 is showing signs of awakening everywhere. 

 Never before has there been such a discussion 

 of an American Forestry Policy. We should 

 co-operate with all agencies to keep this agita- 

 tion alive and before the public; emphasizing 

 always that fire prevention comes first. 



FOREST FIRES COST PUBLIC MILLIONS. 



Forest (ires are costing the west five or six 

 million dollars every bad year. It is absurd 

 to think all this fire is necessary. Much is pre- 

 ventable. I would almost guarantee for one 

 per cent of five million dollars, I could make 

 such a noise on the subject that we would prac- 

 tically reduce fire to lightning and incendiaries; 

 jail most of the latter, and get enough federal 

 and state money to eat up the fires that occur 

 in spite of all. We cannot raise this one per 

 cent ourselves, but I believe we can afford to 

 do enough to make others join us. 



PUBLIC HELP NECESSARY. 



In short, just as we originally led the field 

 in protection publicity, and as we now lead it 

 in protection methods, let us realize that we are 

 again where public help and money is neces- 

 sary, and let us lead the field in going after this 

 help. 



THE STORY OF PAPER 



By Job Taylor. 





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A inodei-ii i>aiJi:'r iiiakius iiiacliiiie. 



Backward as we are accustomed to consider 

 the Chinese race, the art of making paper from 

 fibrous material is known to have existed in 

 China away back 200 years B.C. This be- 

 came available to the western world in the 

 eighth century A.D. over a thousand years 

 ago. At Samarkand, a city between the pro- 

 vince of Bokhara and Turkestan in Asia, a 

 battle took place between the Arabs and the 

 Chinese. This place was dominated by the 

 Arabs and the Chinese made the attack in 75 1 

 A.D. The Arabs nursued them and took a 



number of prisoners who taught their new 

 masters the art of making paper from vegetable 

 fibres. At this time the crescent had cast its 

 shadow over the best of Europe. One boom 

 tipped the straits of Gibraltar, from there it 

 swung over the northern shores of Africa and 

 dipped again at Constantinople. So the Arabs 

 governing most of the western world introduced 

 rapidly this Chinese art of making paper. The 

 oldest recorded European document on paper 

 is the deed of King Roger of Sicily in the year 

 1 102. The Arabs made their paper largely out 



