124 



THE FORESTER. 



May, 



fire near Parkersbnrg, VV. Va., which de- 

 stroyed 1,000 acres of fine timber, and for 

 a time threatened the city itself, a rain 

 storm finally stopping the fire. Flemings- 

 burg, Ky., the same day was threatened 

 by a forest fire and a number of barns 

 were burned. 



The town of Saratoga, La., on March 

 14th, was threatened with total destruction 

 by a forest fire. A number of dwellings 

 were burned. From Meridian, Miss., 

 comes the news that forest fires have been 

 sweeping over Lauderdale, Jasper and 

 several adjoining counties, causing heavy 

 damage to timber. 



New Jersey had a big forest fire on 

 April 1st, when the town of Winslow had 

 a very narrow escape. Following is a 

 local newspaper account of this fire : " One 

 of the most extensive forest fires that have 

 visited this section of the State is raging 

 in the bier woods north of this citv. The 

 fire reached a point just east of the town 

 of Winslow last night, and for several 

 hours it was feared the town would be 

 wiped out. Men, women and children 

 fought the flames and succeeded by back 

 firing, in turning the flames to the north 

 of the town. While the men threw up 

 trenches to keep the fire away, women and 

 children carried their househeld goods to 

 places of safety in the fields and are guard- 

 ing them, as a change in the wind is 

 feared. Several farm buildings, about 

 5,000 acres of big timber, and thousands 

 of cords of wood have been consumed. 

 Many narrow escapes of the fire fighters 

 have been reported." 



Destructive forest fires during the first 

 week in April raged in the Ramapo 

 mountains, near Nyack, N. Y., causing 

 heavy damage. In the same way many 

 acres of valuable timber was destroyed at 

 Deep River, Conn. In northern Michigan 

 and the Cumberland Mountains of Tennes- 

 see, forest fires have been burning for a 

 number of days. Great loss is feared, as 

 the country in both regions is very dry. 



Mining and 

 Forestry. 



> 



The Scranton (Pa.) Trib- 

 une makes some plain 

 statements on the rela- 

 tion of mining and forestry. We quote 



the following from a recent editorial in 

 that paper : 



" More than twenty-five years ago an 

 official of the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre 

 Coal company, while showing some of the 

 mines and slopes of that company, and 

 the then famous ' open-air coal quarry ' 

 where the great twenty-four-foot vein 

 came out on a mountain side above the 

 Wyoming Valley, had a word to say about 

 forestry. 



"No one in this part of the world was 

 making any stir about forestation or re- 

 forestation, or the cultivation of the forests 

 for commercial, agricultural and sanitary 

 needs. The glorious woodlands that up 

 to fifty, even forty years ago, had been 

 one of the greatest prides of ' Picturesque 

 Pennsylvania,' were being ruthlessly de- 

 stroyed without any attempt to save the 

 young timber or to replant the desolate 

 spaces. It was all greed for the present 

 without any care for the future. 



"The official in question, as he ex- 

 plained the necessity of enormous use of 

 timber in the mines to make them safe, 

 and pointed it out as the party went 

 through one of the mines, said regretfully : 

 ' We have used up all the available pine 

 timber of this section of the State, even 

 that of Wayne County, and are obliged 

 now to bring from beyond Williamsport, 

 in Lycoming and adjacent counties, what 

 we must have.' He indicated that it could, 

 in the nature of things, be but a few years 

 until all the primitive forests of this State 

 should be sacrificed, and he deplored the 

 folly from a commercial point of view of 

 such destruction without adequate meas- 

 ures of reproduction and preservation. 



"There are statements made some- 

 times that a mining a mineral-produc- 

 ing country has no such interests in 

 forestry as has an agricultural region, but 

 this is a mistake. They have begun to 

 learn this lesson in the western ore-pro- 

 ducing states, where many a rich 'find' 

 has been left unworked for lack of timber 

 and, with that, lack of water. ' The 

 Com stock mines are the grave of the 

 Sierras,' said one of the leading scientific 

 explorers of this country years ago ; and 

 to-day California and Nevada are awaking 



