CONSERVATION 



the larger areas. It might be wiser to begin 

 the work by degrees, testing its success 

 gradually. But three things are certain 

 the state of New Hampshire has the power 

 to do this service for the next century; it 

 will return the forests to all but the moun- 

 tain tops ; the desolated lands will become 

 an asset, while now they are unproductive. 

 Pueblo (Colo.) Chieftain. 



America's Awful Fire Losses 



Fire is one of the wasteful extravagances 

 of the American people. 



We have been extravagantly wasteful in 

 the past in building without much regard to 

 the destruction by fire, and in this respect 

 we have nearly bankrupted insurance compa- 

 nies and expended in rebuilding nearly as 

 much as originally invested. Indeed, in some 

 years we burn up more than we actually 

 build. This was notoriously the case in the 

 year of the great San Francisco fire and in 

 the first half of the panic year of 1908. In a 

 normal year, such as 1907, we lost through 

 fire buildings valued at $215,000,000. Some 

 years we run as high as half a billion dollars 

 in fire losses, and again we get along with a 

 loss of only $300,000,000. 



We have grown so used to fire losses in 

 this country that little attention is paid to 

 one that causes a loss of half a million dol- 

 lars. ^uch a fire gets no more than a few 

 lines in the national press unless there are 

 harrowing accounts of lives jeopardized. 

 Even the newspapers are not roused from 

 their apathy regarding fires unless there is 

 something spectacular about them, and it 

 takes a Catastrophe that wipes out half a 

 city to induce them to give big scarehead 

 lines. In New York City we suffer an annual 

 fire loss of between $6,000,000 and $8,000,000, 

 but only a few of these attract any special 

 attention. It is estimated that it costs the 

 city over $50,000,000 a year to protect itself 

 from fires, including the private and public 

 protection and equipment and maintenance of 

 the fire department. George Ethelbert 

 Walsh in Moody's Magazine. 



The Death of Colonel Fox 



All friends of forestry will learn with sin- 

 cere regret of the unexpected death of Col. 

 William Freeman Fox, of New York State. 

 In its Field Program for July, the United 

 States Forest Service publishes the following: 



"With profound regret, announcement is 

 made of the death, on June 16, of Col. 

 William Freeman Fox, a collaborator of the 



Forest Service, and, until June I, 1909, super- 

 intendent of state forests, New York Forest, 

 Fish and Game Commission. Colonel Fox 

 was born on January n, 1840, at Ballston 

 Spa, N. Y., and served with great credit 

 through the civil war. Later he traveled 

 extensively in Europe, studying forest condi- 

 tions and the different systems of forest 

 management, and in 1886 entered the service 

 of the state of New York. To Colonel Fox's 

 aggressiveness and foresight is due in large 

 measure the present forest policy of the state. 

 As a collaborator of the Forest Service, he 

 rendered important aid to the Government. 

 Colonel Fox was an associate member of the 

 Society of American Foresters and the author 

 of a number of books on the forests of New 

 York." 



The Society of American Foresters, Wash- 

 ington, D. C., has passed resolutions express- 

 ing its appreciation of the work of Colonel 

 Fox, of his genial disposition, and of the 

 assistance which he has always been glad to 

 extend to young foresters. 



Austin Gary Succeeds Colonel Fox 



Austin Cary, assistant professor of for- 

 estry in Harvard University, succeeds Colonel 

 Fox as superintendent of state forests, New 

 York Forest, Fish rind Game Commission. 

 Professor Carey was for six years forester for 

 the Berlin Mills. He is author of "Six Years 

 of Practical Forestry in a Spruce Tract in 

 Maine," published as a Forest Service bulle- 

 tin, and also of "A Manual for Northern 

 Woodsmen," published by Harvard Univer- 

 sity, 1909. 



The National Irrigation Congress 



Continent-wide interest has been aroused 

 in the seventeenth session of the National 

 Irrigation Congress, which will meet in 

 Spokane, August 9 to 14. Speakers of na- 

 tional reputation will discuss problems of rec- 

 lamation of arid and swamp lands, deep 

 waterways, forestry, conservation of the 

 Nation's resources, good roads, and home- 

 building. Railroad presidents, financiers, sci- 

 entists, statesmen, Government officials, en- 

 gineers, and practical men in other lines of 

 industrial activity have accepted places on 

 the program, and, with from 4,500 to 5,000 

 delegates, including farmers, orchardists, and 

 truck gardeners ; representatives of all parts 

 of the country, and visitors from the East, 

 West, North., and South, there is every indi- 

 cation that the gathering will be the best 

 attended and most important in the history 

 of the organization. 



BACK NUMBERS WANTED 



The office of CONSERVATION desires a few copies of the issue for November, 

 1908, for which it will pay twenty cents each. 



Any having available copies will oblige 1 by advising this office. 



