IS 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



January 



Morris Bill, in spite of the opposition of 

 certain lumbermen interested in main- 

 taining the old conditions of. loose ad- 

 ministration on the one hand and ex- 

 cessive profits on the other. 



The Association welcomes and ap- 

 plauds the efforts of the women of Cali- 

 fornia to secure the preservation of the 

 Calaveras Grove of Big Trees, and its 

 members are urged to give the move- 

 ment countenance and support. 



Our Canadian friends continue to 

 show an unflagging interest in the cause 

 of forestry, both in their own domain, 

 where their forestry association is do- 

 ing active work, and also by numerous 

 additions to our numbers. One of their 

 official representatives was present at 

 the summer meeting of the Association 

 in Minneapolis and voiced the interest 

 of Canada in all that we do in forestry 

 lilies. 



Fire, the great enemy 

 Forest Fires. of our forests, has done 

 its usual work of de- 

 struction during the last year. In the 

 Adirondack region its ravages were un- 

 precedented. Over 600,000 acres were 

 burned over, causing a loss of not less 

 than $3,000,000. While perhaps only 

 30 per cent of this area was valuable as 

 timber, for the purposes of the Adiron- 

 dack Park all was valuable. The ex- 

 cuse given for these great fires in the 

 Adirondacks was the prolonged and un- 

 usual drouth ; but with the forest force 

 there and the interest of large land- 

 owners and campers this should only 

 have been an incentive to increased ac- 

 tivity. The railroads were particularly 

 to blame by their want of care and pre- 

 caution in spreading these fires, some 

 of which, it is true, were set for revenge 

 or to obtain work in extinguishing fires. 

 In Maine during the months of May and 

 June, 1903, 271,000 acres of timbered 

 lands were destroyed, or about 2 per 

 cent of their area in that state, involv- 

 ing a loss of $1,410,210. We can not 

 here recite all of the fires in forests 

 throughout the country, but the two 

 cases above are typical, and show the 

 importance of a thorough administra- 

 tion of the fire laws. In many cases 

 these laws themselves are good, but in 

 the absence of an effective administra- 



tion are quite worthless. Our members 

 could do no more effective work in the 

 cause of forestry in their respective 

 states than to give earnest attention to 

 obtaining proper means for the admin- 

 istration of their fire laws. 



The development of for- 

 Education in estry education is a mat- 

 Forestry, ter of supreme interest 

 to all the friends of for- 

 estry, and so we must record one great 

 regret that the first school in this coun- 

 try devoted solely to forestry has been 

 discontinued. The New York State 

 College of Forestry was organized in 

 connection with Cornell University in 

 1898 and enjoyed an immediate and in- 

 creasing success. Its graduates were 

 proving themselves men of great use- 

 fulness in widely diversified forest w r ork 

 throughout this country and in the 

 Philippines. With a promised mem- 

 bership of one hundred for this year, its 

 success seemed assured. Suddenly we 

 learned that the Cornell authorities had 

 decided to discontinue it, because the 

 governor of New r York had vetoed the 

 bill granting the customary state aid to 

 the school. It is not proper for us to 

 criticise this action or the complications 

 by which this veto was brought about. 

 We can only deplore the unfortunate 

 outcome as a distinct loss to the cause 

 of sound forestry in the Middle States. 



As an offset to this loss, Harvard 

 University has inaugurated this fall a 

 department of forestry, which promises 

 well for the future, and at the Univer- 

 sity of Michigan the forestry depart- 

 ment contemplated a year ago has be- 

 come a fact. The University of Nebraska 

 has also established a department of for- 

 estry. 



The Yale Forest School has nearly 

 double the number of students that at- 

 tended last year, compelling an increase 

 in the teaching force, and the affairs of 

 the school are most piosperous. At 

 Biltmore there is also an increased num- 

 ber of students, and Berea College of 

 Kentucky is turning out a large number 

 of students with a knowledge of for- 

 estry that will be of great service when 

 the Appalachian reserve is created. The 

 Michigan Agricultural College also con- 

 tinues its forest work with success. 



