1HHII 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



285 



These reports cover the location, dam- 

 age done, probable cause, by whom the 

 fire was discovered, when discovered, 

 when brought to the notice of the for- 

 est officer, when the work of fighting 

 the fire was begun and finished, how 

 many extra men were employed, and 

 cost of fire. At the end of the year 

 the supervisor submits an annual fire 

 report to the Washington office. 



During the calendar year of 1905, 36 

 of the 93 reserves escaped fires alto- 

 gether. On the remaining 57, areas 

 were burned over ranging from 1 to 

 79,083 acres (Northern Division of the 

 Sierra Reserve) and amounting to 

 279,592 acres. The largest amount of 

 timber was destroyed on the Lewis and 

 Clark Reserve (Southern Division) 

 42,893,000 board feet. The total for 

 all reserves was 152,557,000 board 

 feet, with a value of $101,282, but the 

 greatest loss in money value was $27,- 

 320 on the Priest River Reserve. The 

 total cost of extra labor and supplies 

 for fire fighting was $12,573.52. 



General cooperation of all coming in 

 contact with the forests is earnestly to 

 be sought, first, to guard sedulously 

 against the starting of fires, and, sec- 

 ond, to aid in every way in extinguish- 

 ing such as occur. 



In this connection may be mentioned 

 several steps already taken toward co- 

 operation among the Forest Service, 

 the State governments, and local in- 

 terests in fighting fires. 



In California, the Forest Service, 

 the State forester, and the lumber com- 

 panies are cooperating to prevent and 

 nght fires, all forest rangers having 

 been made State fire wardens. In Ore- 

 gon and Washington the Forest Serv- 

 ice is cooperating with the timber com- 

 panies to the same end. The Governor 

 of Idaho is inaugurating a movement 

 to organize the timber companies of 

 that State to cooperate with each other 

 and with the State in fighting fires, and 

 has asked the assistance of the For- 

 ester, who has replied that the Service 

 will aid the movement by furnishing 

 plans and assisting in carrying out any 

 measures agreed upon by the Idaho 

 organization. 



( Probably no product of 



in 1905 tne f rest has been the 



subject of more discus- 

 sion and diversity of opinion than the 

 annual consumption of cross-ties in the 

 United States. 



The following statements are made 

 possible by the almost unanimous co- 

 operation of the steam railroads with 

 the Forest Service in furnishing the 

 necessary data. While these state- 

 ments are nearly complete for the pur- 

 chases of cross-ties by steam transpor- 

 tation companies, they are below the 

 total number of cross-ties used, since 

 no reports from electric lines are in- 

 cluded. The figures given are based 

 upon reports from 750 companies, hav- 

 ing an aggregate trackage of 278,262 

 miles. Since, according to Poor's 

 Manual for 1905, the total trackage of 

 the railroads in the United States is 

 293,937 miles, it follows that the mile- 

 age reported is 95 per cent, of the to- 

 tal. Switch ties have been figured into 

 the equivalent number of cross-ties. 



The total number of ties reported is 

 80,051,000, of which 22,569,000, or 36 

 per cent., were to be used for the con- 

 struction of new track. 



On this basis the total number of 

 ties used by the steam railways would 

 be 84,400,000, representing nearly 

 3,000,000,000 feet of lumber, board 

 measure. 



Preservative treatment was given to 

 7,615,000 ties, representing nearly 10 

 per cent, of the total number reported. 

 Although the species of timber treated 

 have not been separated in most cases, 

 it is safe to say that almost all of the 

 ties treated were softwoods. 



Control of 

 Grazing on 



Now that the Govern- 



Public Lands ment & ^ P*ty * ** 



successful operation on 



the National forest reserves, the ques- 

 tion has arisen whether the same or 

 some similar policy might not be ap- 

 plied to the open public range. 



The policy of the Forest Service is 

 not ot hold the reserves out of use, 

 but to secure their fullest and most 

 permanent use. To this end, grazing 

 under proper restrictions is permitted. 



