iS99- 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



259 



The silting of the canals in the Salt 

 River Valley from large bands of sheep, 

 which summer upon these mountains and 

 upon the reserves in Central Arizona, go- 

 ing from the reserves across to the water- 

 sheds of the streams and around in the 

 vicinity of the canals of the Salt River, is 

 something that one, who is acquainted 

 with the effects of sheep -grazing upon the 

 land, would be compelled to notice, on 

 account of their pulverizing the soil in 

 their course. The loose porous soil is 

 then drifted by the high winds or washed 

 by the rains of Winter and Summer into 



the canals, rapidly filling them up. In 

 the San Francisco and Black Mesa reserves 

 the Government has land naturally suit- 

 able for forest growing, and if the proper 

 care be taken there will always be timber 

 growing up as the matured timber is con- 

 sumed by the increasing population, and 

 water flowing from these natural reser- 

 voirs, prepared by infinite wisdom, through 

 all time to beautify and enrich a great and 

 noble State. 



Yours truly, 

 (Signed.) Robert Perrine. 



Williams, Arizona. 



Forest Fires. 



California. 



The picturesque slope of Mount Ta- 

 malpais, opposite San Francisco, was the 

 scene, the middle of October, of a forest 

 fire which destroyed several suburban vil- 

 lages near Mill Valley and burned Live 

 Oak and Redwood forests. The rain 

 finally extinguished the flames which a 

 small army of fire fighters had struggled 

 with ineffectually for several days. 



In the Santa Cruz Mountains forest 

 fires also did much damage, burning over 

 a country dotted with small fruit farms 

 and vineyards. The lack of water after 

 a long dry season prevented successful 

 resistance to the fires, but in one case 

 40,000 gallons of newly-made wine were 

 used as an extinguisher. The wine was 

 pumped from the vats and then forced 

 through pipes upon the flames. 



Another fire in the thriving, artificially- 

 planted forest of the late Adolph Sutro 

 was extinguished by the San Francisco 

 Fire Department after sixty acres of Euca- 

 lyptus, Pine and other trees had been dam- 

 aged. 



Pennsylvania. 



Destructive forest fires raged on the 

 Allegheny Mountains, and many thousand 

 dollars' worth of timber were reported de- 

 stroyed. 



After two days of hard fighting the fire 

 warden of Union Township, assisted by a 



large number of men, succeeded in subdu- 

 ing- the flames on the E. & G. Brooke Iron 

 Company's woodland, on Round Hill. 

 About 500 acres were burned over. 



A press report from Altoona says that 

 during- the last week in October " more 

 actual damage was done in that section 

 than five figures could represent." The 

 loss to owners of standing timber, fences, 

 bridges, telegraph poles, and barns is esti- 

 mated at $100,000 in Blair, Cambria, 

 Clearfield, and Center Counties. In pre- 

 vious years the woods have been kept 

 more or less damp by the Fall rains, but 

 this season the forests are dry as tinder, 

 after six weeks without rain. The resin- 

 ous smoke from the fires causes incon- 

 venience even to the townspeople. 



Texas. 



Forest fires were reported in Hardin 

 County, Texas, in the beginning of Octo- 

 ber, " not a vestige of grass being left 

 here, and no rain to amount to anything 

 since July 2." 



In the same State occurred other exten- 

 sive fires between Wallisville and Turtle 

 bayou, with considerable damage. There 

 is much "Loblolly" Pine in this section. 



Advices from Houston tell of daily 

 damage in the counties of Chambers, Tyler, 

 Hardin, San Jacinto and Polk, a section 

 ordinarily a good grazing country, but now 

 suffering from extreme thought. 



