yearly value of the "forest cut" including private 

 ownership as well as the State of Minnesota amounts to 

 over forty million dollars. In view of these facts the 

 question naturaly arises What is the loss through 

 forest fires to the State and citizens of Minnesota, and 

 can this loss be prevented? 



FOREST FIRES. 



Briefly reviewing the loss of life, it is probably well 

 within the facts to state that during the last <twenty- 

 five years over 2,000 lives have been needlessly sacri- 

 ficed. The loss of property during the past twenty-five 

 years has been stupendous and can never be accurately 

 determined, but some idea can be obtained of what the 

 loss of property is, when we take into consideration the 

 loss of property during the year 1918 which is esti- 

 mated at $50,000,000, and the loss of property during 

 the year 1908, which very conservatively, has been esti- 

 mated at $2,003,633.00, this being the year in which 

 the Chisholm fire occurred. It is probably safe to say 

 that there was at least as great a yearly loss during the 

 years, 1893, 1894 and 1910 as in the year 1908, making 

 a total loss in the past twenty-five years upwards of 

 $58,000,000 of property. This loss does not take into* 

 consideration the loss of growing trees on the cut over 

 lands, nor does it take into consideration the loss of 

 soil which is burned up during the forest fires; nor 

 does it take into account the fact that during the heavy 

 rain storms after the timber has been cut the run-off is 

 so much greater that a portion of the best soil is washed 

 into the rivers to obstruct navigation and turn the land 

 into a barren waste. 



