Fire in an Arkansas Forest 



numerable tale- <>f hard-fought battle- 

 \vith the flames; battle- fought again-t 

 apparent!}- overwhelming odds and in 

 the face of difficulties that would make 

 the members of a metropolitan fire de 

 partment quail. In these titanic strug- 

 gles many a life has been sacrificed, 

 and not a few of the Government's 

 field workers have at last retired from 

 fights of this kind, maimed, scarred, 

 and crippled f < >r life. 



A few month- ago a well-known 

 writer --Mr. Knierson Hough -in 

 l:i'cr\bod\'s Magazine, told the story 

 of the work of the Forest Service in 

 the field. Hi- -ti>ry opened with the 

 words. "My friend, last night some- 

 body burned your house!' The words 

 were startling, but they were absolutely 

 true. Last month somebody burned 

 your house, reader ; somebody burned 

 your neighbor's house : somebody 

 burned, during July and August, 

 -nough houses to make a good-sized 

 city. Five million dollars' worth of 

 standing timber means a vast amount 

 of sawed lumber: it means lumber 

 enough for several thousand houses. 

 That many homes burned when the 

 flames ravaged the Canadian forests in 

 the Northwest. Flames, at the time of 

 this writing, were raging in the pine 

 and spruce forests of Washington and 

 500 



Oregon; the\ were threatening the de- 

 struction of tin- redwood forests of the 

 Yo-rinite. in California; and from a 

 do/on other points came the story of 

 raging fires and doomed forests. The 

 ]-ou-es that have been burned, in this 

 wholesale destruction of timber dur- 

 ing the past two months, \\oiild make a 

 city of 50.000 inhabitants. But --till 

 there are those who -ay "There arc 

 plenty of forests; there can never be a 

 timber famine in America: there is HO 

 need for even the National Forests we 

 already have." \nd they oppose the 

 \ppalachian Forest plan: they oppo-r 

 the White Mountain National Forest; 

 they continue, in the West, their oppo- 

 sion to the whole forest program of tin- 

 Government. When will their eves In- 

 opened ? 



The Next Annual Meeting 



PLANS are now forming for the 

 next annual meeting of The 

 American Forestry .Association, the 

 date of which has been fixed by the Fx- 

 ecutive Committee. The meeting will 

 be held in Washington on January 13. 

 14. and 15, 1909, and members of tin- 

 association are urged to begin now 

 their preparations to be present and to 



