638 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



December 



Prof. R. R. Thompson, who is in 

 charge of the school, writes that very 

 much in the way of experimentation 

 must be done, so that a forest seed bed 

 and nursery will be instituted at once. 

 The state experimental station is lo- 

 cated in Cass county, near the Minne- 

 sota line and much farther south, so 

 that the results of investigations there 

 can not be safely applied to the more 

 rigorous climate farther west on the 

 Canadian line. 



KT Mr. F. H. Sanford has 



New Foresty , , 



Instructor been appointed instruc- 



tor in forestry at the 

 Michigan Agricultural College. He 

 graduated from the forestry course at 

 the same institution with the class of 

 1904, since which time he has been 

 conducting a forest nursery in con- 

 nection with other business. 



A correspondent of the 

 ^Forestry S Paper Mill tells of an in- 

 teresting experiment in 

 reforestation being made at the Stur- 

 geon River farm of S. W. Bridges, in 

 Houghton county, Michigan, which 

 gives promise of excellent results. The 

 pride of the farm, which comprises 

 1,280 acres, is a grove of about 600 

 second growth pine, which Mr. Bridges 

 has trimmed up and the underbrush 

 removed from among them. The trees 

 have grown nearly two inches in di- 

 ameter and thirty inches in height dur- 

 ing the past year. It is Mr. Bridges's 

 intention to trim up 1,000 more young 

 pines this year. He is so well satisfied 

 with present results that he thinks 

 there will be money made in cultivat- 

 ing second growth pine. 



... , . According to the annual 



Michigan ^. 



Forest Fires report of State Fire 

 Warden H. H. Ryerse, 

 of Allenville, Mackinac county, forest 

 fires in Michigan during the past sea- 

 son destroyed timber and other prop- 

 erty of estimated value of $460,482. 

 There were 368 separate and distinct 

 fires of which report was made to him, 

 and of these 48 occurred in Marquette 

 county, the greatest number in any 

 county in the state. Mackinac had 32 ; 



Emmet, 31; Menominee, 26; Ontona- 

 gon, 24; Schoolcraft, 22, and Cheboy- 

 gan, iq. There was expended by the 

 department in fighting fires the sum of 

 $2,330, and in addition $687 was ex- 

 pended in posting notices. The great- 

 est havoc was done in Luce county, 

 where there were nine forest fires 

 which caused a total loss of $101,380. 

 The value of the property destroyed in 

 Presque Isle county, where twelve 

 fires occurred, was $75,575 ; in Menom- 

 inee, $69,700; in Delta, with fifteen 

 fires, $59,640 ; in Dickinson, with four 

 fires, $50,000 ; in Marquette, $42,075 ; 

 in Mackinac, $19,265; Emmet, $12,- 

 275, and in Ontonagon, $10,995. The 

 remainder of the loss $19,477 was 

 sustained in Antrim, Alger, Alcona, 

 Alpena, Baraga, Benzie, Charlevoix, 

 Cheboygan, Chippewa, Gogebic, Iosco, 

 Iron, Kalkaska, Keweenaw, Leelanaw, 

 Manistee, Missaukee, Montmorency, 

 Oscoda, Ogemaw, Roscommon, Otse- 

 go, and Wexford counties. According 

 to the Paper Mill, a scrutiny of the es- 

 timated losses leads to the conclusion 

 that the returns made to the State 

 Warden have been very conservative. 

 The value of the property wiped out in 

 Chippewa county is given at $2,805, 

 when in the Troup Lake district alone 

 forest fires raged for several weeks, 

 and on more than one occasion threat- 

 ened small towns and settlements. No 

 losses are recorded for Houghton 

 county, which had a number of bad 

 fires during the summer, and the dam- 

 age in Iron county, given at $1,525, 

 appears much too low. The same may 

 be said of the destruction in Alger, 

 recorded at only $330, when a consid- 

 erably greater loss is said to have been 

 occasioned by one fire alone, this in the 

 vicinity of Grand Marais. The esti- 

 mate for Gogebic $300 likewise ap- 

 pears very conservative, and the loss 

 of but $1,410 in Schoolcraft is certain- 

 ly not too high. 



A discussion of stream 

 Pollution pollution by acid-iron 



wastes, based on investi- 

 gations made at Shelby, Ohio, has re- 

 cently been published by the United 



