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AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



217 



Forest Fires in Three States. 



Cheyenne, Wyoming, Aug. 27. For- 

 est fires are raging about Laramie Peak, 

 in the northern portion of Laramie 

 County. They have been burning for 

 the past ten days, and have destroyed a 

 large quantity of valuable timber. 



Dead wood. S. D.. Aug. 27. A fire 

 has been raging in the timber east of 

 this city in the Two Bit District for the 

 past twenty-four hours. The country is 

 very dry, and fears are entertained that 

 the fire will get beyond control. Sixty 

 range riders are fighting the flames. 



Denver, Colo., Aug. 27. Forest fires, 

 which it is thought were started by camp 

 fires, are raging in the foothills near the 

 entrance to Platte Canon, about twenty 

 miles south of here. The fires started 

 five miles up the canon, and burned 

 over the mountains on both sides of the 

 canon and are now devastating the tim- 

 ber section along the foothills. Millions 

 of feet of lumber have been consumed, 



and there are reports of loss of life. 







The Power of Public Sentiment. 



The Connecticut legislature has passed 

 a law protecting the trailing arbutus. 

 This is said to be the first law ever 

 passed in any State of the Union for the 

 protection of a wild flower. A newspa- 

 paper article calling attention to the 

 need of such a law is credited with hav- 

 ing aroused sufficient public sentiment to 

 secure the passage of the law. 



- . . 



Aboriginal Simplicity. 



A novel tramway is in operation in 

 British Columbia. It is formed of trees 

 from which the bark has been peeled off, 

 being firmly bolted together and used for 

 rails. Upon these runs a car with 

 grooved wheels ten inches thick. The 

 tramway is two miles long. 



Seattle, Wash., has secured large timber 

 concessions, consisting of hard Cedar of 

 an exceptionally fine quality, on the west 

 coast of Alaska Sunny Point, on Prince 

 of Wales Island, has been selected as 

 the industrial center of the business, with 

 stores on Cholmondelay Sound. 



A Relic of Old Manila. 



Rosewood and Mahogany attract the 

 attention of visitors to the Hotel Orient 

 in Manila. The interior is described as 

 being beautifully finished in hand-sawed 

 wood, the staircases of the first three 

 floors being of Rosewood. Solid Mahog- 

 any forms the floors, the boards being 

 twenty-two feet long and two and a half 

 feet wide. Though in use twenty years, 

 these boards are still in perfect condition. 



An Alaskan Enterprise. 



The Alaskan trade is becoming the 

 center of important lumber develop- 

 ments. A newly-organized company at 



A Friendly Suggestion. 



Now that some attention is being paid 

 by the most practical of lumbermen to 

 forest subjects, the forest primer recently 

 issued by the Division of Forestry of the 

 Department of Agriculture at Washing- 

 ton will be assured of a wider circulation 

 and more general study than would for- 

 merly have been the case. Timber own- 

 ers are coming to realize that there are 

 many comparatively inexpensive meth- 

 ods by which their interests can be con- 

 served and their properties, to some ex- 

 tent, preserved from the dangers which 

 threaten them by fire and insect pests. 

 These are treated of quite elaborately in 

 this so-called primer, which is such 

 mainly because of its style and the direct 

 and simple way in which the questions 

 with which it deals are presented. The 

 time is at hand, moreover, when more at- 

 tention will be paid than in the past to 

 conservative methods of lumbering, and 

 it is not too much to hope that some of 

 the simpler and less expensive methods 

 of forest culture will be put into prac- 

 tice. At any rate, there are many lum- 

 bermen and timber owners who will read 

 with interest this book, and perhaps find 

 in it some suggestions of value to them in 

 the conduct of their business. Editorial, 

 American Lumberman. 



