562 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



scattered sparks at an alarming rate. Sparks repeat- 

 edly jumped 600 yards across a deep canon to heavy 

 timber. It was absolutely necessary to extinguish 

 these sparks within a few minutes, since an unman- 

 ageable fire would result from one of them in a short 

 time. About 3 o'clock in the afternoon the situation 

 became so serious, during the burning of a heavy 

 patch of big timber, that we called out the entire night 

 crew and scattered its members through the heavy 

 forest to the east of our line, patrolling for sparks. 

 Several times we had narrow escapes from the fire 

 getting outside our lines. 



The morning of the third day did not develop the 

 danger of the fire jumping our east line that had been 

 present the first two days, and by noon it seemed that 

 the worst hazard on this line had passed. The high 

 wind was now coming more from the north. In the 

 afternoon on a trip around the north and west sides of 

 the fire area I found a heavy patch of 300 acres of 

 Engelmann saw timber located between the fire and 

 the rim of the Middle Blue. The fire had just eaten 

 into the timber, perhaps an hour before I rode up, 

 but was in the crowns and beyond reach by direct 

 attack. Quick action was necessary. I rode through 

 the burned area to camp, quickly got together a crew 

 and returned with them. The thing which astonished 

 and alarmed us was that the fire was traveling north 

 in the face of the wind almost as fast as a horse could 

 walk. The bulk of the timber lay to the north and 

 it was this that we wished to save. A favorable place, 

 where the heavy spruce gave way to a narrow strip 

 of aspen running west, was selected and we began 

 work. Our water bag was emptied in a short time, 

 and as every man was needed on the line, Mrs. Patton, 

 the wife of a sheepman, volunteered to go for water. 



Taking two water bags on her saddle she quickly rode 

 three-quarters of a mile to a creek and returned with 

 them full of water. We had men in camp who were 

 much more afraid of venturing around and through 

 the fire than this woman. We finished our line to the 

 rim by sundown. 



The next morning arrangements were made to 

 move a camp with full equipment to the west side 

 near the work. Ranger Taft returned to this location 

 with us, and at his suggestion we decided to run a 

 permanent control line up the hill through the heavy 

 timber along the edge of the fire to "corral" it. The 

 "corralling" of this part of the fire was perhaps the 

 most spectacular work done on the job. Carpenter 

 had departed at sun-up to get a gang of Swede timber 

 cutters at Enbom's sawmill. They arrived at noon 

 with a good skid team, five men and Mr. Enbom. By 

 night, under Ranger Taft's direction, the line was well 

 up the hill through the heavy timber. The situation 

 on the east side still demanded the attention of most 

 of our men and no attempt was made to continue the 

 west side control line during the night. The work 

 was resumed early the next morning by Taft and the 

 Swedes. The wind rose with the sun and veered com- 

 pletely around to the southeast, and it was necessary 

 to keep a constant watch for spark fires over the line. 

 By great eflfort and remarkable endurance Enbom and 

 his men outran the fire to the bare rim of the Middle 

 Blue by a narrow margin. We had it "corralled," but 

 with the wind from the south it was mighty liable to 

 jump out any time. It did jump in several places, but 

 was promptly caught each time, and after the fire had 

 burned up to our control line and burned down, the 

 Blue Mesa fire was under control. 



FIGHTING THE PINE BLISTER DISEASE 



c 



HE results of scouting this year have shown that 

 the pure blister disease is generally scattered 

 throughout New England. In some localities cur- 

 rant and gooseberry infections are few and far be- 

 tween, but in the vicinity of pine infection centers they 

 are heavily infected. In Maine and New Hampshire re- 

 ports of 90 per cent infection of cui'rants and gooseber- 

 ries were made for several localities as early as the latter 

 part of June. Many new infected areas of native white 

 pines have also been discovered and the disease has re- 

 appeared at practically all of the points where diseased 

 pines were found in 1916. Among the important centers 

 of native pine infection found this year are Intervale 

 and Conway, New Hampshire ; Bath, Maine ; South Roy- 

 alston, Vermont ; Bridgewater and Topsfield, Massachu- 

 setts, and Pomfret, Connecticut. The disease has been 

 found on large and small trees ; no white pines have been 

 found to be immune, regardless of size or age. At 

 Stratham, New Hampshire, more than 600 separate in- 



fections on twigs and branches were found on a tree 

 about 3^2 feet in diameter, 50 or 60 feet high. 



About 400 men are engaged in blister disease work 

 in New England. The work consists mainly of eradica- 

 tion of currants and gooseberries. Scouting in locali- 

 ties where the disease was not abundant last year is also 

 being done to a certain extent and private owners of 

 pine timber, as far as possible, are being educated in the 

 means necessary to make their pine timber safe. Each 

 state has selected one or more areas of varying size from 

 which all currants and gooseberries, wild and cultivated, 

 are being removed. These areas represent different en- 

 vironmental conditions, some having diseased pine, others 

 none; some with an abundance of wild currants and 

 gooseberries, others where these are scarce. All of these 

 areas, however, have good white pine growth and by 

 eradicating all the currants and gooseberries they can 

 be made safe for the growing of pine. 



The eradication crews are trying out different schemes 



