2l6 



THE FORESTER. 



September, 



They have an abnormal fever for tree de- 

 struction, and they see actual objections to 

 promoting tree growth. If the citizens of 

 these towns could look into the future 

 they would see the stable, substantial ad- 

 vantages to the whole community of hav- 

 ing many tracts of forests. The villages 

 of Germany value their forest interests 

 highly. 



\Ve ought to give more attention to the 

 acquisition of forest lands and the inaugu- 

 ration of system in their management. 

 Forestry experts and promoters should 

 avail themselves of every opportunity to 

 develop any forest reserve schemes which 

 seem practicable. Possibly some of the 

 land agents who are so well versed in 

 titles, eliminating taxes, financing corpora- 

 tions for speculating in lands, and in col- 

 onization could be induced to direct a part 

 of their energies into promoting forest re- 

 serves. The forestry board plan of Min- 

 nesota promises much good. The people, 

 the legislators, and the farmers, in par- 

 ticular, should lend encouragement to such 

 organizations and enterprises as will give 



us forest tracts managed under a forestry 

 system better organized than that of any 

 other country. Beginning later than older 

 nations we should profit by their mistakes 

 as well as by their successes. While the 

 farmers in the vicinity of forest lands have 

 a local interest in present investments to 

 develop forests for future forest harvest 

 work, the farmers and other citizens of 

 communities without forest lands have also 

 a very large interest at stake. They must 

 have a perpetual supply of cheap lumber. 

 The farmers of Iowa, for example, can 

 riot afford to withhold their moral and ma- 

 terial support from plans which are de- 

 signed to give this to their children. Care 

 for our children's interests, and patriotism, 

 call upon us to keep up the fertility of our 

 farms, build good roads and permanent 

 buildings, and plant groves about our 

 farmsteads that our children may have 

 better facilities than we have had, that they 

 may at once meet the closer competition 

 of the future and also reach the greater in- 

 dividual development made possible with 

 the yearly march of progress. 



A RECENT FIRE IN THE SIERRA MADRES. 



At about noon on July 22d, a fire was 

 started in the Big Santa Anita Canyon in 

 the Sierra Madras just above Pasadena, 

 and within the boundaries of the San Ga- 

 briel Reserve. Although the cause of the 

 fire does not seem to have been determined 

 with certainty, most reports agree that a 

 spark from a pumping engine was the be- 

 ginning. There is no doubt that the fire 

 started quite near such an engine, where 

 three or four workmen first discovered it 

 and tried to put it out. It soon got be- 

 yond their control however, and then, for 

 nearly a fortnight, was reported daily in 

 tlu- papers as sweeping over the Santa 

 Anita Canyons and over the region on 

 each side of and to the north of them. 



The lire at first spread up both sides of 

 the Hi- Santa Anita and then, as it reached 

 the canyon's head, worked over in a north- 

 easterly direction toward Monrovia Peak, 



and on the other side northwest into the can- 

 yon of the Little Santa Anita. For a week 

 these two branches of the fire were fought 

 by large bodies of men who were called 

 up from Pasadena and Los Angeles, and 

 by August isf, the fire which had spread 

 from the Little Santa Anita toward Mount 

 Harvard was thought to be under control. 

 It got away again however (there seems 

 to be some suspicion of incendiarism at 

 this point) and for four days more burned 

 fiercely on Mount Harvard and across in 

 the direction of Mt. Wilson. Meanwhile 

 the part of the fire which had passed east- 

 ward onto Monrovia Mountain succeeded 

 in burning its way over the divide into the 

 watershed of the West Fork of the San 

 Gabriel. There the fire luckily had to 

 burn down hill and could be met by a 

 large force of men ; for if it had burned on 

 unchecked for a few days the whole valley 



