684 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



and laid waste a territory that was almost an 

 empire in extent, entailing a property loss 

 of several millions of dollars ; and the recent 

 deplorable fires in the northern counties 

 of the state, which have resulted in the loss 

 of so many lives and property of almost 

 stupendous value and left a multitude of 

 people homeless and penniless, all of which 

 occurred directly at a result of forest fires, 

 not mentioning the numerous small fires 

 which were not sufficiently disastrous to 

 attract public attention, and 



"Whereas, said fires have almost without 

 exception originated upon cut-over lands, 

 from which the timber had been removed 

 six or seven years previously thereto, and 

 such fires destroyed not only the farm build- 

 ings of the thrifty homesteader and the 

 homes of the artisan and toiler, which rep- 

 resented a life-time of honest toil, and also 

 destroyed marketable timber, the value of 

 which was so great that it cannot even be 

 estimated, but in addition thereto they de- 

 stroyed the young growing timber, which in 

 a few years would be of sufficient size to be 

 marketable, and which should have been 

 conserved for future generations as their 

 legitimate heritage, and 



"Whereas, we believe that the recurrence 

 of such fires may be prevented and the danger 

 to life and property therefrom be almost 

 wholly removed, and 



"Whereas, the state of Minnesota in the 

 largest single owner of timber holdings 

 within its borders and has through such 

 fires lost property of such value that the 

 actual cost of an intelligent and effective 

 system for the prevention of such fires ap- 

 pears infinitesimal in comparison therewith, 

 and 



"Whereas, in the Scandinavian peninsula, 

 Germany and numerous other foreign coun- 

 tries, systems are in vogue and working ad- 

 mirably for the prevention of such fires, and 

 we have enough confidence and pride in the 

 people of our own state to believe that what 

 foreign nations have done successfully we 

 can do successfully, in view of the foregoing. 



"Be it resolved, that we urgently request 

 the legislative and executive departments of 

 the state to take such steps at their earliest 

 convenience as will, so far as possible, pre- 

 vent the further needless loss of life and 

 property from that source in the timbered 

 portions of our state, and to that end we 

 numbly suggest that a sufficient and effective 

 patrol system be inaugurated by the state, 

 say of one patrolman to every six square 

 miles of territory, whose duty it shall be 

 to, as far as possible, prevent forest fires 

 and to discover and extinguish them at their 

 outset, without waiting until they have de- 

 veloped into a raging conflagration." 



American Shippers Criticized 



In an editorial entitled "American Meth- 

 ods," the Timber News, of London, England, 



has stirred up something of a hornets' nest 

 among the lumber journals of the United 

 States. The burden of the article is the 

 statement that "British timber agents and 

 importers have on many occasions good cause 

 to declare that they have been swindled out 

 of their money by certain lumber shippers in 

 various American ports, timber often being 

 sent (and for which shippers have drawn 

 the money before it has been received on 

 this side) which on arrival has turned out 

 to be of a very low grade, and far from 

 what the shipper, according to his contract, 

 ought to have supplied." An instance is 

 quoted of a Hamburg firm which has taken 

 civil and criminal proceedings against two 

 New Orleans lumber companies, and already 

 been awarded 5,000 damages in the civil 

 case. It looks as though the Timber News 

 had been a little hasty in taking up arms, but 

 from the result of this particular case, and 

 from the haste and energy with which several 

 of the United States journals have criticized 

 the London journal for its article, it would 

 also appear that the shoe pinches in spots. 

 Whatever the facts may be, the result will 

 be beneficial, as too much publicity cannot 

 be given to the few unscrupulous members of 

 the trade whose methods may have far- 

 reaching evil effects. The fact that the de 

 fendants in the civil suit had to pay $25,000 

 for the liberties they took with their cus- 

 tomers in Hamburg, is a strong indication 

 that the laws and customs of the United 

 States, if rigidly enforced, are quite suffi- 

 cient to protect foreign purchasers. E.r- 

 change. 



Idaho Understands Conservation 



The Potlatch Lumber Company recently 

 applied to the state of Idaho to purchase 

 outright 24,000 acres of state lands, on which 

 tha company already owns the timber under 

 a twenty-year contract. Their application has 

 been approved by the state. 



The attitude of the state of Idaho is to be 

 commended for the position it has taken on 

 this question. From every standpoint, their 

 reasoning is sound. To compel the Pot- 

 latch Lumber Company to strip the timber 

 from the land, irrespective of market con- 

 ditions, would have been simply preposterous 

 and invited criminal waste. The lumber com- 

 pany had prepared itself to denude the land 

 within the time specified in its twenty-year 

 contract with the state, so it was fortified to 

 meet its obligations. Slowly the idea is gain- 

 ing ground that true conservation means the 

 most complete utilization of any product. 

 For every foot of lumber cut a profit should 

 be realized to help develop other industries 

 after the timber is denuded. To merely 

 slaughter the timber, irrespective of the needs 

 of trade, is essentially wrong. Lumbermen 

 everywhere were deeply interested in the out- 

 come of this question, as it means the market 

 will not be glutted and gorged with a tre- 



