1 903 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



209 



corporations or private individuals may 

 be vested with the duties of patrolmen 

 at large at the discretion of county 

 wardens. 



The fire laws are to be posted through- 

 out the state annually not later than 

 May. A close season is to be deter- 

 mined, during which time no one will be 

 permitted to burn slashings without first 

 obtaining permission in writing from 

 the county board. 



Persons who shall on any land within 

 the state set and leave any fire that 

 spreads and does damage are liable to a 

 fine of not less than $10 or more than 

 $500. Fires set maliciously are pun- 

 ishable by a fine of from $20 to $1,000 

 and imprisonment from one month to 

 one year. 



From June to October all locomotives 

 and logging engines must carry spark- 

 arresters. Failure to do this is punish- 

 able by a fine of from $10 to $50 a day 

 for each engine so operated. 



Oregon, A fire law was brought be- 

 fore the Oregon legislature at its recent 

 session and promptly passed by large 

 majorities in both houses. Much to the 

 surprise of every one interested, the 

 governor vetoed the measure. The rea- 

 son given was that it was too loosely 

 drawn in regard to expenditures. 



In addition to the foregoing list of 

 bills, measures are pending in the legis- 

 latures of several other states, the final 

 outcome of which will be noted in the 

 May number of FORESTRY AND IRRI- 

 GATION. 



RECENT PUBLICATIONS. 



The Birds of North and Middle America. By 

 ROBERT RIDGWAY. Bulletin of the United 

 States National Museum, No. 50, parts I 

 and II. Pp. 715 and 834. Illustrated by 

 outline drawings of type specimens. 

 In all of the recent mass of alleged natural 

 history lately and justly scored by John Bur- 

 roughs, it is actually refreshing to come across 

 a work of value, as this is ; for, although the 

 volumes present only technical detail in the 

 baldest manner, they show that earnest sci- 

 entists are gathering and presenting facts even 

 while literary unnaturalists revel in fictional 

 fancies. The first part was published in 1901, 

 after twenty years of careful preparation of de- 

 tails, with minute measurements of every type 

 specimen available. Some conception of the 

 magnitude of this task ma} 7 be gained from the 

 knowledge that every species and subspecies 

 of bird found on the continent of North Amer- 

 ica have been included, from the Arctic districts 

 to the lower end of the Isthmus of Panama, 

 together with those of the West Indies and 

 other islands of the Caribbean Sea and the 

 Galapagos Archipelago. Every collection of 

 value in North and Middle America has been 

 drawn upon, and introduced and naturalized 

 species have been described as well as acci- 

 dental or casual visitors. It can easily be seen, 

 then, that the work is stupendous in scope, and 

 that the author has spared no pains or labor to 

 make it as complete and satisfactory as such a 

 work can be made. It will always be an au- 

 thority. At least eight volumes will be re- 

 quired to complete the work, and they cannot 

 be finished more rapidly than two each year, 

 and this would be an impossibility if the 

 drudgery had not already been gone through, 

 in long years of labor, leaving only the com- 



pilation and editing to do, and in several of 

 the volumes this part of the work is well ad- 

 vanced. The third volume will go to press 

 some time during the present year. 



Eighth Annual Report of the New York Forest, 

 Fish, and Game Commission. For the year 

 ending September 30, 1902. Pp. 164. Il- 

 lustrated from photographs. 



In this publication the commission calls es- 

 pecial attention to the fact that the state is get- 

 ting value received and interest for every dol- 

 lar spent in the protection of forests, fish, and 

 game. A pardonable pride is taken in the 

 work done in protecting the forests from fire, 

 and the result is shown in the practical immu- 

 nity which the state forests have had in the 

 past year from this scourge. The improve- 

 ment in line and net fishing has been note- 

 worthy, and the increase in the number of deer 

 taken is an evidence of the wisdom of existing 

 protective game laws. 



Suggested legislation proposes to put a stop 

 for a time at least to fishing through the ice, 

 to the spring shooting of all birds for all time, 

 and for five years to the shooting of the black 

 bear in the Adriondacks. 



More than three-fourths of the report is de- 

 voted to forest work, mainly as exemplified in 

 the Adirondacks, with an exhaustive paper on 

 the commercial culture of improved varieties 

 of chestnuts, by Erm-st A. Sterling. The game 

 and fisheries reports, while more brief, present 

 much of interest, the former on the restocking 

 of the Adirondack region with elk and moose, 

 while the latter shows valuable returns on the 

 investments made in establishing fish hatch- 

 eries and the protection afforded the shell-fish 

 industry. 



