1899. 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



213 



Forest Protection. 



Minnesota's Example. 



The annual report of the Chief Fire 

 Warden of Minnesota, Gen. C. C. 

 Andrews, has been recently sent out, 

 and shows a very satisfactory and aggres- 

 sive enforcement of the laws relating to 

 forest fires. 



The object of the fire warden law is 

 to prevent great forest fires from starting, 

 or if, unfortunately, they have ^started, 

 to extinguish them before they T become 

 unmanageable. Prevention is the main 

 feature of the law, as is seen in the im- 

 portance attached to posting and publish- 

 ing warning notices. Thus far the State 

 has expended, under this law, less than 

 $5,000 a year, including the one third 

 of county expenses which it pays ; and 

 the expense of the thirty-odd counties 

 affected by the law has averaged less than 

 $100 a year, yet the State has escaped 

 the heavy losses suffered by nearby 

 States. 



Reports from the fire wardens, made 

 to the Chief Fire Warden, of forest fires 

 in 1898, show that there were fifty-one 

 such fires, which burned over 21,580 

 acres, much of which was light timber 

 or cut over lands. The total damage 

 reported, $9,063, is accounted for in part 

 by some of the damaged timber being 

 cut the succeeding winter. Seventy- 

 eight per cent of the whole number of 

 fires reported were extinguished or con- 

 trolled by fire wardens or their helpers. 

 A man in Todd County was made to pay 

 a fine of $100 and costs for carelessly 

 causing a fire which spread a half mile into 

 a neighbor's field, where it fatally burned 

 a woman and severely injured a boy who 

 tried to protect her. There were sev- 

 eral other vigorous and effective prosecu- 

 tions. The number of acres reported as 

 burned over by prairie fires was 54,360; 

 damage, $13,436. The number of such 

 fires caused by burning grass, straw or 

 stubble was 23 ; by railroad locomotives, 

 14, other causes 5, unknown 25. 



The report contains numerous illustra- 

 tions of the Minnesota forests, describes 



some of the timber country in Beltrami 

 and Cass Counties, also a splendid Pine 

 forest on the south shore of Cass Lake, 

 recently made accessible by railway; and 

 some very fine forest on the north shore 

 of Vermillion Lake, belonging to the 

 State University, which the Chief Fire 

 Warden advocates being set apart as a 

 demonstration forest for the use of the 

 school of forestry connected with the 

 Agricultural College and Experiment 

 Station. If this were done, he thinks 

 the State University of Minnesota Would 

 outrank all other Universities except 

 Cornell in this country in the important 

 science of forestry, which is so rapidly 

 coming to the front. The need of roads 

 and paths in the Itasca State Park is 

 commented upon. 



There is a splendid review of Euro- 

 pean forestry, historically considered. 

 In proportion as the people are informed 

 in regard to forestry will they be dis- 

 posed to use precaution against the rava- 

 ages of forest fires. The importance of 

 setting apart primeval Pine forest lands 

 as a health resort is urged upon the 

 State. 



Forest Fire Laws in Pennsylvania. 



Dr. J. T. Rothrock, State Forestry 

 Commissioner of Pennsylvania, and Vice 

 President of the American Forestry 

 Association for the Keystone State, said, 

 in a recent statement to the Philadel- 

 phia " North American " : 



"The recent destructive forest fires 

 in Centre County bring prominently for- 

 ward the laws which were passed by the 

 Legislature of 1897 for the suppression 

 of forest fires, and the question may be 

 raised, and doubtless will be, are these 

 laws effective? 



"The best answer to this is found in 

 the fact that ten years ago the loss to 

 this State by forest fires was estimated, 

 by those most competent to judge, at 

 $1,000,000 annually. In 1896 the loss 

 was $557,056. In 1897 it was $394,327. 

 With every effort on the part of this 



