2 66 



THE FORESTER. 



November, 



regards forestry. The incessant discus- 

 sions by the press, by the allied associa- 

 tions interested in agricultural matters, by 

 commercial clubs, chambers of commerce, 

 boards of trade, the Board of University 

 Regents, college trustees, medical associa- 

 tions, the various women's clubs, the Min- 

 nesota National Park and Forestry Asso- 

 ciation, of which Dr. Cyrus Northrop, 

 President of the State University, is Presi- 

 dent, the dean and professors of the Agri- 

 cultural College, the Legislature, its indi- 

 vidual members, and the great lumbermen 

 have wrought an educational work and 

 change in Minnesota greater, I believe, 

 than that in any other State. All of these 



bodies, boards and associations, and the 

 people generally, have become alive to the 

 necessity of preserving what can be pre- 

 served of our great wealth in our forests, 

 and of keeping forests on the sandy, rough 

 and rocky lands in the interests of our 

 children. 



I believe the people of Minnesota will, 

 from the splendid educational campaign of 

 the past four years, go on and work out 

 the problems of the preservation and re- 

 growth of their forests, which so largely 

 concern their agricultural, manufacturing 

 and commercial interests. The writer has 

 reason to be grateful for the results of his 

 crude suggestions made to the Association. 



CUTTING, BURNING AND FIRE PROTECTION.* 



BY H. B. AYRES, 

 United States Geological Survey. 



It may seem time that agitation about 

 cutting, burning, and fire protection should 

 cease but the waste has not ceased. Per- 

 haps if it were better known there would 

 be less of it. 



Our difficulty in understanding the 

 amount of waste lies is the differences be- 

 tween the different regions. One accus- 

 tomed to the moister climate of northern 

 New England, where Spruce and hard- 

 woods thrive and fires are rather except- 

 ional, finds himself surprised at the general 

 burning of stump lands and the frequent 

 heavy losses by fire in the untouched con- 

 iferous forests of the drier Lake region and 

 the often parched western mountains. 

 < >ne judging of what should be done in 

 the drier regions by what he sees in the 

 Last is apt to make mistakes. We have 

 been too apt to think that a forest, being a 

 Eprest, is simply a forest; but we learn in 

 time that there are variations and compli- 

 cations in forests, and upon the under- 

 lin- of th'jir differences their success- 

 ful management depends. 



Lumbermen in moving from Maine to 



* Read at the meeting of the American For- 

 estry Association in New York, June a6th. 



Michigan, have made their plans in Michi- 

 gan as they had in Maine. " We'll cut 

 this over, take out the best of it, and in a 

 few years have a nice second growth when 

 prices will be better." But the fires sur- 

 prised them, and they learned to cut clean 

 the first time and let the land go. 



It became customary to burn the tops (I 

 mean to set fire freely in the stump land) 

 to protect the remaining timber. " Let 

 her go " has been the word ever since, and 

 she has gone. 



In moving on westward to Minnesota, a 

 climate even more subject to drought and 

 fire was found and a forced rush began in 

 order to get the timber cut before the fire 

 killed it. The amount of timber thus killed 

 no "one 'can know. Professor Winchell in 

 1878 "estimated that annually ten times 

 as much Pine is thus destroyed in the State 

 (Minnesota) as is cut by all the mills." 



Most of such losses have passed without 

 estimate. The fractions that are known 

 amount to a great deal. The U. S. Geo- 

 logical Survey during the past season's 

 work has found fourteen townships in 

 which 836, 000,000 feet of White and Nor- 

 way Pine have been lost by fire. This to- 



