18 ANNUAL REPORT OF 



timber looks fresh and thrifty and is free from the scars 

 of fire. It also adds greatly to the value of railroad 

 property where this regulation is carefully adhered to. 



I saw a very handsome and large body of white pine 

 yet remaining in the vicinity of Gooseberry River, and 

 was told that it had lately been sold at $13 per i,ooofeet 

 standing. 



TRIPS INTO PINE COUNTY. 



It was thirteen years the ist of last September since 

 the forest fire in which 418 persons perished in the vicinity 

 of Hinckley. In the latter part of August I visited the 

 country swept over by that fire to examine especially any 

 pine that has grown since the fire. Three miles east of 

 Hinckley I saw a tract of several hundred acres of close 

 standing jack pine, about ten feet high, intermixed with 

 some Norway pine and with poplar, which has grown 

 since 1894. The tract borders the Grindstone River and 

 is a little too rocky for field crops. It is the kind of land 

 that should be kept for forest. I was informed of several 

 other bodies of young pine forest that has grown since the 

 Hinckley fire. 



Most of the land in that region is suitable for agricul- 

 ture, and I saw quite a number of well-cultivated and 

 prosperous-looking farms and with buildings that would 

 be a credit to any fanning community. 



Owing to the quality of the soil, some of the pine which 

 I have mentioned will be large enough to cut in twenty- 

 five years, and it shows how important it is to keep out 

 fires. 



As the removal of the old pine stumps has much to do 

 with the successful opening of farms on cut-over land, I 

 made a particular inquiry about the business of producing 

 turpentine from such stumps. There is a plant for this 

 manufacture, under a Russian invention, a dozen miles or 



