The Forester. 



Vol. V. 



MARCH, 1899 



News Items. 



No. 3. 



The Minnesota Forestry Association 

 is the oldest organization of its kind in 

 the United States, having been organ- 

 ized and chartered in 1876. 



The penalty for cutting timber on State 

 lands in South Dakota has been hereto- 

 fore a fine of at least $i,ooo, but a bill 

 has lately been introduced to reduce the 

 fine to $250 to $500 or imprisonment of 

 not less than six months. 



Mr. Charles A. Keffer, for the past 

 five years Assistant Chief of the Division 

 of Forestry, has resigned to accept a posi- 

 tion as the head of the department of 

 horticulture and agriculture in the New 

 Mexico Agricultural College, at Mesilla 

 Park, N. M. 



President McKinley formally dis- 

 approved of the act of the Choctaw 

 Indian Council, in the Indian Territory, 

 which prohibited the sale of timber on 

 the Indian lands after January 1, 1899, 

 and required saw-mills to cease opera- 

 tions on that date. 



Mr. Geo. W. Strand, secretary of the 

 Minnesota Forestry Association, is fur- 

 nishing a series of press articles on 

 forestry topics. They are sent out 

 twice a month to the papers of Minne- 

 sota, and as nearly a hundred journals 

 are publishing them regularly a large 

 circulation is assured for the interesting 

 and valuable matter contained. 



Mr. John D. Benedict has resigned the 

 superintendency of the New Mexico- 

 Arizona Forest Reservation District to 

 accept a position as Superintendent of 

 Indian Schools in the Indian Territory. 

 Mr. Benedict, who was appointed from 

 Illinois, made a very creditable record 

 as a faithful and diligent official during 



the six months that . he was a forest 

 superintendent and it is to be regretted 

 that a more tempting offer should take 

 him to another field. 



A bill was introduced into the Minne- 

 sota Legislature, by Representative 

 Brusletten, of Goodhue County, to repeal 

 the forest law of that State and abolish 

 the fire warden system. The measure 

 was defeated as it deserved to be. Since 

 the enactment of the new forest laws in 

 1895 Minnesota has been free from the 

 ravages of serious forest fires, though 

 during that time the pine regions of 

 neighboring States, where no provision 

 for fire prevention has been made, have 

 suffered severelv. 



Henry Weber, of Eau Pleine, Mara- 

 thon County, Wis., stated lately that he 

 had within a short time cut what he be- 

 lieved to be the biggest pine tree ever 

 cut in that county. The tree was cut 

 into eleven logs, most of which were 

 twelve feet in length, which scaled a 

 total of 6,780 feet. The butt log at 

 the large end measured five feet five 

 inches in diameter. There was no mill 

 in the neighborhood that could saw the 

 butt log, and Mr. Weber intended to 

 split it with dynamite. 



Great Britain is preparing to expend 

 $800,000 per year for a period of thirty 

 years in the development of the agri- 

 cultural region of upper Egypt by tin 

 construction of a series of gigantic irriga- 

 tion works. The arable area of the Nil* 

 valley at present is about 10,500 square 

 miles and it is proposed to augment this 

 amount by the reclamation of at least 

 2,500 square miles of arid lands within 

 six or eight years. Active work on the 

 construction of the first great dam across 

 the river has begun. 



