Canadian Forestry Journal, October, iqi6 



779 



"ions the rate of growth of the coast 

 trees is fairly rapid. The following 

 examples are typical : 



A western red-cedar stump in good 

 soil on the south slope of a gorge above 

 Ketchikan showed 235 rings. The di- 

 ameter of this stump outside the bark 

 was 38 inches. A 40-inch Sitka spruce 

 stump in the same locality had 230 

 rings. This tree had been 125 feet 

 high. Near A\'rangell three Sitka 

 spruce logs averaged 32 inches in di- 

 ameter at the butt inside the bark, 

 with 262 annual rings. 



Local Wood Prices. 



Wood is sold by the dealers in Fair- 

 banks at from $9 to $10 a cord, with an 

 added charge of $2.50 for cutting to 

 stove lengths . Slab wood can be pur- 

 chased for $2 a cord at the sawmills, 

 but for heating in the winter it is not as 

 satisfactory as round wood. The riv- 

 er steamers pay $6 and $8 per cord for 

 4-foot wood, ricked up on the bank. 

 Wood choppers are paid $3.50 to $4 per 

 cord. Both spruce and birch are vised, 

 though birch is preferred. Poplar and 

 aspen are generally left uncut. Aside 

 from this the wood choppers make 

 clean cuttings and utilize the timber 

 closely, often taking the limbs and 

 tops down to 3 inches in diameter, cut- 

 ting the stumps close to the ground, 

 and piling the brush well to get it out 

 of the way of the haulers. 



Forest Fires. 



Unlike the coast forests of Alaska, 

 the interior forests have suffered much 

 from fire. Except on limited areas 

 the cutting which has so far taken place 

 in the interior is not serious, but the 

 fire damage has been great. It prob- 

 ably would not be far from the truth 

 to say that in the Fairbanks district 

 ten times as much timber has been 

 killed l3y fire as has been cut for either 

 fuel or lumber. Fire follows the 

 prospector and the settler, and every- 

 where that a mining camp develops 

 under present conditions it is to be ex- 

 pected that fire will kill much of the 

 timber. There are several causes for 

 this. Miners and hunters are care- 

 less. Camp fires are neither properly 

 guarded nor extinguished. A fire gets 

 out and no one pays any attention to it 



unless it threatens his camp. Fires, 

 too, may be set to clear off the ground 

 so that prospecting is easier. Fires 

 have been purposely set to secure dry 

 timber, and the slashings along the 

 telegraph lines have been another 

 source of danger. Smudges are built 

 to keep away the mosquitoes ; in fact 

 it is commonly said by the residents 

 that mosquitoes cause more fires than 

 any other one thing. The rainfall is 

 light during the summer, and it does 

 not take a long period of drought to 

 make the forest burn rapidly. In the 

 Klondike region, and on the upper Yu- 

 kon, in Canada, fires have done even 

 much more damage than in Alaska. 

 During the entire trip of 460 miles 

 down the river from Whitehorse to 

 Dawson, one is almost constantly in 

 sight of fire-killed forests. Much 'fire- 

 killed timber is also seen along the Yu- 

 kon in Alaska from Eagle to the mouth 

 of the Tanana, but from that point to 

 the beginning of the tundra the forest, 

 though small, is, for the most part, as 

 yet undamaged by fire. 



The danger season is short, with ex- 

 treme limits approximately from Mav 

 15 to September 15. During 1909 

 there was a bad fire near Fairbanks 

 early in the season, but none during 

 July or August. On the other hand, 

 there were fires along the Yukon in 

 both the latter months. No measure 

 but the posting of notices are taken 

 to prevent forest fires in the interior of 

 Alaska, and little is done to control 

 them, except as they immediately 

 threatened some one's propertv. 



Coming Demand for Timber. 

 Alaska has a permanent future. For 

 the southern and south-eastern coast 

 its chief potentialities lie in fishing and 

 in lode mining of gold and copper; for 

 the interior there is the minino- of g-old 

 copper and coal, and in certain locali- 

 ties there are opportunities for agricul- 

 ture. Fairbanks and Nome have 

 passed their palmiest days as placer 

 camps. With crude equipment and 

 high-priced labor, the placer miner can 

 work only the richest ground. His 

 time is soon over. The low-grade 

 ground, which is always the most ex- 

 tensive, can be worked profitably only 

 by large capital and the most economi- 



