STATE NEWS 



349 



Massachusetts 



In Massachusetts negotations have been 

 carried on for some weeks between State 

 Forester Rane and the State Department of 

 Agriculture and the Government postal 

 authorities in Washington with the result 

 that the mail carriers of that State employed 

 in the rural service will receive instructions 

 as to their duties within a short time. 



The plan suggested by the State Forester 

 of Massachusetts and the one which has been 

 ordered by the United States Government 

 is to be put in operation, is that all rural 

 mail carriers in Massachusetts be required 

 to report any forest fires that they may dis- 

 cover while traveling over their routes to 

 the forest warden or deputy warden re- 

 siding nearest the fire. 



In that State the average length of the 

 rural mail routes is about 20 miles, and 

 there are 300 rural mail carriers in the serv- 

 ice, which through the adoption of this 

 method, creates an auxiliary patrol service 

 over 6,000 miles of country roads. 



State by reason of their being available and 

 salable for script or base for indemnity 

 selections." 



Maine 



A recent item in the Bangor Commercial 

 of Maine states that Land Commissioner 

 Mace has just turned into the treasury of 

 that State $18,252.52, received for the sale 

 of stumpage and rentals from the reserved 

 school lands of the plantations and town- 

 ships. It appears that the State of Maine 

 has wisely retained control of sixty-nine 

 different tracts of a thousand acres each in 

 as many unorganized sections of the State, 

 the timber land to be available for school 

 purposes as soon as the townships are settled. 



Oregon 



Governor West has received copies of a 

 bill which has been introduced in the Senate 

 by Senator Chamberlain providing for the 

 State to create a state forest through ex- 

 change of scattered school sections in 

 Federal forests for a compact body of forest 

 reserve lands. In substance, the bill makes 

 the following provisions : 



"That where any state or territory owns 

 lands lying within the boundaries of a 

 National forest, or where its right of in- 

 demnity selection in respect to school sec- 

 tions within such boundaries has not been 

 fully exercised, said state or territory is 

 hereby authorized, subject to the approval 

 of the Secretary of Agriculture, to exchange 

 such lands for or make indemnity selections 

 of other National forest lands of like quantity 

 and value; the same to be selected in rea- 

 sonably compact bodies, which lands shall 

 thereon be excluded from the National 

 forests for the benefit of said state or terri- 

 tory. 



"Provided, that in fixing the value of state 

 school sections offered in exchange the Sec- 

 retary of Agriculture shall take into con- 

 sideration the value of such lands to the 



California 



Articles of incorporation for the California 

 Forest Protective Association, a non-profit, 

 co-operative corporation, have been filed in 

 the office of Secretary of State Jordan. The 

 purpose of the organization is the co-opera- 

 tion between forest land owners, Govern- 

 ment and State authorities, for the better 

 protection of California's wooded lands. The 

 principal offices of the association are to be 

 at San Francisco, and the fifteen directors, 

 all of San Francisco, are the following: 



Miles Standish, S. D. Johnson, R. W. 

 Landon, C. R. Johnson, H. G. Lawrence, 

 C. C. Smith, E. F. Metlan, M. L. Euphiat 

 R. T. Buzard, C. E. Kimbal, O. C. Haslett, 

 C. A. Strong, L- O. Van Brundt, M. W 

 Mclntosh, W. B. Weston. 



Utah 



District Forester E. A. Sherman reports 

 forest conditions favorable in all sections 

 of the country embraced in his district. The 

 prospects for the season regarding range 

 conditions, timber erpwth and protection, in- 

 cluding the installation of fire-fighting ap- 

 paratus, have never been brighter, and it 

 is expected that better results will be obtained 

 this year than in previous years. 



Meetings of rangers and supervisors have 

 been held in all parts of the district and 

 the men from the field say the department 

 could not well ask for better conditions. The 

 watersheds are being protected better than 

 ever before and the ranges have so improved 

 in the past few years that stockmen are 

 rejoicing over the abundance of grass and 

 good water supply. 



It is stated by the foresters that in dis- 

 tricts where floods were frequent a few 

 years ago, overflows are now almost un- 

 known, the saving of life and property being 

 almost beyond calculation. The preservation 

 of trees and underbrush on the mountain 

 sides and in the canyons has been the means 

 of holding the snow longer in place and the 

 flow of water in the soringtime has not been 

 so rapid as when the mountains were bare. 



North Carolina 



The Appalachian Forestry Reserve Com- 

 mission has purchased 21,000 acres of wood- 

 land in Macon County at a cost of $200,000. 



The land was the property of the Macon 

 County Lumber Company, which had cut 

 a large portion of the lumber from it in 

 the past ten years. 



The immense tract which is now practically 

 depleted of lumber will lie untouched for 

 the most part for a number of years, as a 

 forest reserve, while young trees which are 

 now growing and which will be planted by 



