194 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



May 



ment in the general administration of 

 the reserves. These roads and trails 

 would be of the greatest service in fight- 

 ing forest fires. 



Mr. Bowers suggested that Congress 

 be asked for only $50,000 for this pur- 

 pose, to be available during the coming 

 fiscal year, the idea being that Congress 

 might not be willing to make such a 

 large appropriation at the present time 

 as the resolution called for. His sug- 

 gestion met with the hearty approval 

 of Secretary Wilson, of the Department 

 of Agriculture, who referred it to the 

 Secretary of the Interior _for action. 

 Secretary Hitchcock approved the mat- 

 ter, and it was forwarded, through the 

 Treasury Department, to the Commit- 

 tee on Appropriations. 



All this was incorporated in Senate 

 Document 273, copies of which were 

 sent to all the vice-presidents of the 

 Association. 



Congress took no action on this mat- 

 ter, nor on any of the others, be) 7 ond 

 postponing further consideration of 

 them until some future time. It picked 

 about the edges a little, but the general 

 air of ' ' do-nothing- at-this-session ' ' that 

 hovered over the capitol w 7 as too much 

 for the efforts of those who interested 

 themselves in trying to push these meas- 

 ures to a successful issue. 



However, the Association has met 

 defeat frequently in the past before 

 finally gaining its point. There should 

 be no let-up between now and the open- 

 ing of the next session. Let your Sena- 

 tors and Representatives know 7 your 

 opinions on these matters. They will 

 be taken up again promptly with the 

 opening of the next Congress. 



Planting a Under the direction of 

 Tie Forest. State Forestry Commis- 

 sioner Rothrock, the 

 work of planting 50,000 additional locust 

 trees for the Pennsylvania Railroad |at 

 Conewago has begun. 



The first 50,000 trees, which were 

 planted last fall, are now being trimmed. 

 A month will be required to finish the 

 work. 



Next fall the railroad company will 

 plant 200,000 trees, and the following 



spring 600,000 trees. Two thousand 

 acres of land will be required, and a tract 

 of land one mile wide and three miles 

 long will be covered. In the course of 

 twenty years the company expects to get 

 5,000,000 cross-ties from this vast forest. 



Forest Fire sin In the annual report of 

 New Jersey. the state geologist there 

 appear some interesting 

 facts about the forest fires w^hich oc- 

 curred in New Jersey during 1903. 

 F. R. Meier, who acted as consulting 

 forester to the survey, made an investi- 

 gation of the subject. Owing to the 

 severe drought which prevailed in April 

 and May, there \vere numerous and ex- 

 tensive fires in various parts of the 

 state. Mr. Meier's examinations show 

 that seventy-nine forest fires occurred in 

 the state. The total of acres burned was 

 85,046. Compared with 1902, there were 

 fourteen more fires, but the burned 

 tracts measured 13,804 acres less. The 

 damage, however, was much greater, 

 aggregating $305,744.50, as against 

 $168,323 in 1902, an increase of about 

 82 per cent. This great increase in the 

 loss is due in part to the fierceness of 

 the fires, and also to the better class of 

 timber burned. 



As to the causes of these fires, the 

 investigation showed that locomotives 

 started twenty-six ; persons burning 

 brush or grass, twenty-one ; smokers, 

 seven ; children, six ; incendiary, three, 

 and the balance originated from a va- 

 riety of causes. The negligence of per- 

 sons in burning brush resulted in the 

 destruction of 49, 197 acres and did dam- 

 age to the extent of $169,494, the loss 

 from one fire alone in Burlington county 

 being $105,000. Those set by locomo- 

 tives caused a loss of $79,658 and cov- 

 ered 19,521 acres. These figures are 

 interesting, inasmuch as, in the popular 

 mind at least, the railroad is supposed 

 to be the chief, if not almost the only, 

 cause of forest fires. While it is true 

 that many fires have been started by 

 sparks from the locomotives, yet during 

 the past season only one-third of the 

 fires in New Jersey originated in this 

 way, and these caused only about one- 

 fourth of the loss. Negligence in burn- 



