(j'2 Condition of Forests on tlie Public Lands. [246 



square mile. These lands contain little mineral 

 wealth, but are in some cases valuable for agri- 

 culture. 



One of the most serious obstacles to be overcome 

 in the arid region is fire. It has been stated that 

 more timber is annually burned in the Rocky Moun- 

 tain region, where every tree is precious, than is used 

 in five years. I have been told, over and over, by 

 men familiar with the region, that it is useless to try 

 to prevent forest fires there. With this I do not 

 agree. To be sure, the population through those 

 regions is sparse, and cannot be collected so readily 

 to extinguish a forest fire as in more settled localities, 

 but this also is an element of protection, in that there 

 are fewer people to fire the forests. In many places 

 the Rocky Mountains are cleft by steep rocky gorges, 

 which in themselves would form fire-breaks, and a 

 series of safety-lanes could be cut through the moun- 

 tains, separating the timber into comparatively small 

 bodies, so that the fire in one body could not reach 

 that in any adjacent one. The timber thus cut out 

 to form the safety-lanes might not unreasonably be 

 expected to pay all the costs of carrying out this plan. 

 The lumbermen, of course, in stealing timber, take 

 only the best, and leave large quantities of brush and 

 the poorer portions of the tree to furnish food for the 

 first fire which comes along. The Indians still prac- 

 tice their ancient custom of firing the forests to drive 

 out the game on their hunting expeditions. Before 

 the days of the mill-men, these annual or frequent 

 burnings apparently did not produce serious confla- 

 grations in the forest area; but now, by this combi- 

 nation of wasteful millman and hunting Indian, fires 

 rage every year through large tracts of timber in the 



