426 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



October, 



every part of Wyoming were visited by 

 severe fires. An enormous quantity of 

 valuable timber was destroyed, to sa)^ 

 nothing of the far more valuable young 

 growth, the timber of the future, and 

 the most effective part of the protection 

 against erosion and waste of water. 

 Much the same condition was noted in 

 Montana, where the sun was darkened 

 for days by the smoke from forest fires 

 on the public lands outside the reserve, 

 while the reserves remained practically 

 unscathed. The striking difference be- 

 tween protected and unprotected public 

 forests was seen in Washington State. 



The difference between having a well- 

 organized service, always on the look- 

 out to prevent and capable to fight for- 

 est fires, and having no protection for 

 these important mountain woods has 

 never been felt so keenly before. In dis- 

 tricts where a few years ago the very 

 suggestion of a forest reserve aroused 

 general opposition, the people today are 

 petitioning to sucure for their woods 

 the protection which an organized body 

 alone can suppl3\ 



That the present force of rangers on 

 the forest reserv^es have been able to re- 



strict the damage from fire is significant 

 in so far that it disproves clearly the 

 statement, repeatedl}^ made in public, 

 especially in opposing appropriations 

 for this purpose, that such a small force 

 of men could never hope to patrol suc- 

 cessfully such an enormous area as is 

 included in the reserves. How mislead- 

 ing this claim is may readily be inferred 

 from the followingshowingmade in the 

 fiscal year ending June, 1901: During 

 that year about 1,600 fires were discov- 

 ered and put out or fought by the re- 

 serve forces. Of these 1,600, about 

 1,300 were small fires, readily put out 

 by the rangers, and yet most of these 

 1,300 fires were ready to grow into 

 large fires and do immense damage. Of 

 the large damage done by the other 300 

 fires, more than half was done on three 

 of the reserves, so that the other 35 re- 

 serves remained practically uninjured. 

 When it is considered that in a reserve 

 like the San Francisco Mountains For- 

 est Reserve in Arizona, where coal- 

 burning engines at every heavy grade 

 scatter masses of sparks over the tinder- 

 like ground cover, the above is certainly 

 an excellent showing. 



THE WESTERN HEMLOCK. 



DISCUSSION OF A TREE LIKELY TO BECOME PROMINENT IN 



THE WESTERN EUMBER TRADE. 



IN these days of a rapidly diminish- 

 ing timber supply and the search 

 for new woods to take the place of the 

 well-known varieties now nearly ex- 

 hausted, many timber trees heretofore 

 considered of little value for lumber are 

 being exploited. In this connection, a 

 recent publication-'^ on the Western 

 Hemlock is timely. 



Western Hemlock has suffered so se- 

 verely through the reputation of its 

 eastern relative, among lumber manu- 

 facturers and consumers that it has at 

 present scarcely any market standing. 



*The Western Hemlock. By Edward T. 

 Allen, Field Assistant, Bureau of Forestry. 

 Bulletin 31. Pp. 55, plates XII. Washington, 

 D. C. 



To remove this prejudice and to intro- 

 duce the Western Hemlock to the mar- 

 ket by pointing out its uses, its economic 

 value, and the conditions under which 

 it may profitably be grown, lumbered, 

 and manufactured, was one of the pur- 

 poses of a two seasons' study on the 

 ground, the results of which are em- 

 bodied in this report. The other pur- 

 pose was to ascertain the qualities and 

 possibilities for forestry of a tree that 

 must inevitably take on great impor- 

 tance in conservative lumbering in the 

 northwest. 



The stimulus apparent in the lumber 

 industry of the northwest within the 

 last few years, with the recent immense 

 investments in standing timber in that 



