1902. 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



485 



they represent. These measures will 

 not be allowed to rest, however, until 

 the battle is won or lost for the home- 

 seekers. 



The first section of the bill proposes to 

 repeal the timber and stone law. Under 

 this law over half a million acres of tim- 

 ber were disposed of by the government 

 last year for $2.50 an acre, and in a 

 majority of cases one tree on each acre 

 of this land would yield sufficient lum- 

 ber to pay the cost of the entire acre of 

 trees. The law provides that a citizen 

 of the United States shall only be al- 

 lowed to make one claim, and that one 

 for his own personal benefit. This law 

 has been evaded, and big lumber com- 

 panies have hired people to exercise 

 their citizenship rights, and they trans- 

 fer these timber lands to the company 

 employing them. 



The second section of the bill proposes 

 to repeal the desert-land law, a law 

 which is correct in theory, but, as the 

 President says, in its practical workings 

 is now a detriment to the settlement of 

 the western states. Vast areas of desert 

 land have been taken up in Montana, 

 Wyoming, Arizona, and many other 

 places without any corresponding in- 

 crease in population, showing that the 

 concerns already in business are simply 

 extending their holdings, and that these 

 lands are not being purchased by bona 

 fide incoming settlers. 



J- 



Forest Fires. 



A number of forest fires 

 have been reported dur- 

 ing the past two months, most of them 

 occurring in the middle west and par- 

 ticularly in the region of the Great 

 Lakes. 



Michigfan. Fires in this state and in 

 Wisconsin were the most severe re- 

 ported. In one case the same fire de- 

 stroyed property on both sides of the 

 Menominee River, which forms the 

 boundary between the two states. The 

 greater part of the damage was from 

 Iron Mountain south. It is reported 

 that the flames started from the clearing 

 of lands by farmers, and the entire esti- 

 mated loss, according to newspaper ac- 

 counts, amounts to about $80,000 in 

 forest products and buildings. No esti- 



mates have been received as to the 

 damage to standing timber. Several 

 bridges were burned, many farm build- 

 ings, and large quantities of cord- wood, 

 including g,ooo cords belonging to the 

 Niagara Paper Mill, At Middle Inlet 

 the entire summer cut of cedar posts 

 and poles was destroyed. The town of 

 Kells was destroyed, and Fisher, Michi- 

 gan, after sending to Marinette and 

 Menominee for fire-engines, was spared 

 by chance by the fire coming to the edge 

 of town, burning a lumber yard, and 

 then leaping clear of the village to burn 

 on the other side. Opportune changes 

 in the wind saved several other places. 

 Later heavy rains fell throughout the 

 region, effectually checking the flames. 



Wisconsin. In general, what has been 

 stated of the Michigan fires is also true 

 of those which extended into Wisconsin. 

 At Mountain the loss in bark and logs 

 was $10,000. In all cases the fires were 

 noted burning in an incipient stage, but 

 little heed was paid to them so long as 

 they did not threaten valuable property. 

 In one case a party of campers noticed 

 a smouldering fire of small proportions, 

 but paid no attention to it until it eventu- 

 ally hemmed them in, and it was only 

 after great hardship and almost super- 

 human efforts that they escaped. 



Pennsylvania. Late in October a 

 fierce fire raged in the foothills of Chest- 

 nut Ridge, near Millwood, in Westmore- 

 land county, started, it is supposed, by 

 burning wads from hunters' guns. A 

 general alarm was made, and the farmers 

 of the neighborhood turned out in force 

 to fight it by back-firing. The flames 

 extended over several miles of territory, 

 but were controlled after burning a few 

 days. The greatest damage was to 

 standing timber. 



California. Fires north of San Fran- 

 cisco Bay, in the neighborhoods of Santa 

 Rosa and San Rafael, devastated over 

 five hundred acres and destroyed sev- 

 eral homes. Sparks from a night train 

 are supposed to have started the fires, 

 wdiich were found burning fiercely, 

 fanned by high winds, soon after the 

 train had passed. Near Eureka, on the 

 northern coast, several fires occurred, 

 which did but little damage beyond de- 

 .stroying a few ranch buildings. 



