47 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



November, 



Lezvis Coimty. September 12-14 fire 

 raged along Chehalis River, in western 

 part of Ivewis count}'. Land owned by 

 private parties, N. P. R}'., and the State. 

 Origin of fire unknown. L,oss in tim- 

 ber, $300,000. 



Another fire of same dates, supposed 

 to have originated from spark of loco- 

 motive, burned along track of North- 

 ern Pacific Railway near Centralis. 

 Loss of timber, $100,000. 



In the eastern part of the county, 

 near Cinnabar, a fire burned from Sep- 

 tember 9-1 1. Owners of the timber 

 burned are chiefly timber-claim settlers 

 and Northern Pacific Railway. Loss, 

 $320,000. 



Cowlitz and Wahkiakum Counties. 

 (Loss listed for Wahkiakum county). 

 A fire September i ith and 1 2th killed an 

 immense quantity of valuable Douglas 

 Spruce and some Cedar and Hemlock. 

 The greater part of the land which was 

 burned over is owned by large lumber 

 companies of Portland, and mills were 

 in operation. 



1.0SSES. 



Camps, flume, and skid road $13,000 



Cord wood . . 800 



House, i,5uo 



Damage to timber 300,000 



1315,300 



SUMMARY OF I^OSSES, SOUTHWESTERN WASH- 

 INGTON. 



Chehalis county $1,341,000 



Pacific county 100,000 



Wahkiakum county 495,300 



Lewis county 320,000 



12,256,300 

 Cowlitz, Clarke, and Skamania 



counties 6,600,800 



Total for southwestern Wash- 

 ington 18,857,100 



SUMMARY OF LOSSES IN OREGON AND WASH- 

 INGTON. 



Total loss to property by recent 



fires in northwestern Oregon. . $3,910,000 

 Total loss to property by recent 



forest fires in southwestern 



Washington 8,857, 1 00 



Total for both states $12,767,100 



^^THE TRESPASS PROBLEM, AND HOW TO 



SOLVE IT." 



A CORRECTION. 



BY 



J. s. p., 



DIVISION OF FOREST RESERVES, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR. 



THE October issue of Forestry 

 AND Irrigation contains an 

 article on the subject of depredations 

 upon timber on the public domain, 

 which, in handling the subject, deals 

 with both the cau.se and the cure. 



The subject, when considered in either 

 of these aspects, is a large one. 



The cause, or rather the causes, that 

 operate to induce the spoliation of tim- 

 ber lands throughout the entire public 

 domain are manifold, and any discussion 

 of the point demands a clear discrimina- 

 tion between the act that, on the one 

 hand, seeks to relieve pressing need for 



one of the actual necessities of life, and, 

 on the other, the appropriation of public 

 property in the interest of individual or 

 corporate greed and speculation, the one 

 act to be dealt with by placing needed 

 timber supplies within legitimate reach, 

 and the other by making it by statute 

 a criminal offense. 



This is a discrimination vital to the 

 question, and not to be ignored at the 

 outset. 



The article referred to fails, however, 

 to recognize this distinction in touching, 

 in a general way, upon what has led to 

 the free appropriation of public timber. 



