1906 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



93 



By the National Wholesale Lumber 

 Dealers' Association. 



Washington, D. C. 



The report of the committee on for- 

 estry, which was adopted, contained 

 the following: 



"There is at present legislation pro- 

 jected, and in some cases far advanced, 

 asking for state and federal aid in the 

 establishment of forest reserves, which 

 should receive the aid and support of 

 the members of this association. 

 Among these are the projected Appa- 

 lachian reserve and the National 

 White Mountain forest reserve ; for 

 the latter Senate Bill No. 2327 is now 

 pending in Congress, and your com- 

 mittee asks that this association shall 

 say that 



"It is the sense of this annual meet- 

 ing that the members shall in every 



way possible lend their support, aid 

 and influence to the passage of this bill 

 and all legislation of like kind." 



Resolutions have been passed also 

 by the following associations : Boston 

 Lumber Trade Club, Boston Mer- 

 chants' Association, Connecticut State 

 Lumber Dealers' Association, Rhode 

 Island State Lumber Dealers' Associa- 

 tion, New Hampshire State Lumber- 

 men's Association, Appalachian Moun- 

 tain Club, and National Forestry Asso- 

 ciation. 



The society has asked men and wo- 

 men of New Hampshire birth and an- 

 cestry who are living in other states 

 to write to their respective congress- 

 men requesting favorable action. 



The outlook for the bill in Congress 

 is favorable. 



SUGGESTIONS FOR STATE FOREST 



FIRE LAWS 



BY 

 E. J. CHEYNEY 



Minnesota Experiment Station. 



HT HE forest laws of most of our 

 * states are far more impressive 

 in the reading than they are effective 

 in the application. There are at least 

 three glaring weaknesses almost uni- 

 versal in their occurrence the correc- 

 tion of which would make all the other 

 shortcomings of the laws seem trivial 

 indeed. 



In the first place, the legislatures 

 led by what is probably a false idea 

 of economy would all seem to have 

 the bee by the wrong end. The laws 

 are nearly all directed toward the 

 fighting of fires which have already 

 started in the woods, providing dire 

 punishments to be visited on the heads 

 of those who are supposed to have set 

 such fires, and giving promise of hor- 

 rible things which will be done to any 

 district attorneys who do not properly 



prosecute such offenders. To this end 

 a grudging and usually inefficient ap- 

 propriation is made for fighting fires. 

 Many of the laws simply appoint fire 

 wardens, without pay, empowering 

 ( ?) them to fight fires and hire help 

 for that purpose, without making any 

 appropriation whatsoever. 



These laws are a good thing. Not 

 only does it show that people are wak- 

 ing up to the necessity of such things, 

 but they are of practical value in pro- 

 viding men where they are very badly 

 needed. It would, however, be much 

 better to look to the prevention of fires 

 so that there would be no necessity 

 of fighting them. The old adage that 

 an ounce of prevention is worth a 

 pound of cure applies nowhere better 

 than to forest fires. And would it not 

 be possible to bring this about with 



