1906 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



153 



present is too far removed from a mar- 

 ket, but in a short time much of this 

 belt will be reached by railroads for 

 which surveys are now being made. 



The great length of this reserve, 

 covering as it does, the heart of the 

 most inaccessible part of the territory, 

 the greater part totally uninhabited, 

 makes the management of the reserve 

 very difficult. The Rangers' districts 

 are extremely large amounting to as 

 high as fifteen or sixteen townships. 

 While there is only a small amount of 

 business for them to handle aside from 



fires, it is scattered over such an ex- 

 panse of country that it takes hard 

 work, and a complete camp outfit to 

 successfully see to it. 



The new rules issued by the Forest 

 Service, taking effect July ist, last, 

 have not become generally known 

 among the settlers, but when they are, 

 a much more favorable opinion will be 

 conceived by them of the reserve by 

 reason of the very liberal policy out- 

 lined, in which many of the former 

 technicalities have been eliminated. 



SUCCESSFUL FIRE PROTECTION IN 



CALIFORNIA 



Private Owner Has Built Fire Lines and Inaug- 

 urated Patrol SysTem to Guard Young Growth 



A N item of news of wide importance better conditions, restore the lands to 



** to timberland owners is the an- forest, fire is almost certain to burn 



nouncement that a California lumber over, killing seedlings, scorching larger 



company, which applied a plan of fire growth, and so deferring future crops 



protection to a single township during indefinitely, 



the summer of 1905, is now preparing In the summer of IQ04 the McCloud 



to extend the same protection to the 

 rest of its large holdings of cut-over 

 land. 



Except in the national forests, but 

 little attempt has as yet been made to 



River Lumber Company, of McCloud, 

 Cal., appreciating the seriousness of 

 the fire losses common to lumbering 

 operations in the region, agreed to at- 

 tempt to protect its land according to 



protect from fire the forests or cut- the advice of the Forest Service, pro- 

 over lands of the Pacific coast. In vided the plan of fire protection could 

 California, it is true, the state forester be shown to be practicable and not too 

 has taken up fire protection as one of costly. The area chosen for the plan 

 the most pressing problems of his ad- was cut-over land, a township in ex- 

 ministration. But in Oregon and tent, on which the amount and charac- 

 Washington particularly, and on pri- ter of the young timber was, as is com- 

 vate holdings in California, fires are monly the case, sufficient to warrant 

 so destructive that little hope is cher- expending something to guard it until 

 ished by owners of securing crops on it should establish a renewed forest. 



cut-over land before fires have pre- 

 vented or destroyed them. The severe 

 losses which have come from these 

 fires have, however, made a deep im- 

 pression upon lumbermen. Where 

 timberlands are owned, too often the 

 investor must be contented with the 

 profits of his first lumbering opera- 

 tions, since, despite the excellent nat- 



Last summer the plan was put in op- 

 eration. It called for clearing and 

 burning broad fire lines from 200 to 

 300 feet in width, to serve as base lines 

 from which to fight possible fires ; or- 

 ganizing a patrol ; locating tool houses 

 for the storage of fire-fighting tools ; 

 erecting telephone lines to summon 

 aid ; and other similar measures. In 



ural reproduction which would, under making the rire lines, the old logging 



