54 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



to the owner's land who starts the fire. This law does not apply to the 

 Government lands in the National Forests, but affects all privately- 

 owned lands. The broadcast burning of slash is carried on to a consider- 

 able extent under this law, in the Douglas fir type on the Pacific slope, 

 while piling or wind-rowing the brush is necessary in the yellow pine 

 type in the eastern portion of the State. 



It is reported by the State Forester that broadcast burning can, 

 under the most favotu-able conditions, be done for as little as 25 cents 

 per acre. It is doubtful, however, whether this can include the 

 cost of constructing fire lines. 



Conditions in Washington and Northern Idaho are closely similar 

 to those in Oregon so far as brush disposal is concerned, except that there 

 is no State law on the subject. However, much is being accomplished 

 through the voluntary action of the lumbermen's organizations, which 

 in part comprise the Western Forestry and Conservation Association. 

 From 7S,ooo to 100,000 acres of timber are annually cut in Washing- 

 ton. 



■^ Brush Disposal Legislation in Minnesota 



As in the Adirondacks and elsewhere generally, a catastrophe was 

 necessary to arouse the pubUc of Minnesota to the importance of 

 eliminating the slash menace and to stimulate them to action. The 

 great Hinckley fire of 1894, in which over 400 lives were lost, con- 

 stituted the first great stimulus, though efficient action was slow in 

 coming. The forestry law of 1895 provided for the appointment of a 

 Forestry Commissioner, but no provision was then made for the enforced 

 disposal of slash. However, the Forestry Commissioner, Gen. C. C. 

 Andrews, at once recognized the desirabiHty of such action and, through 

 his influence, a bill was introduced in the legislature providing that the 

 State should bum the slashings if the operators did not, the cost to be 

 charged against the owner of the land. The measure was, however, 

 too advanced for the times, and it failed because of strong opposition 

 on the part of the lumbering interests. 



In 1902, an object-lesson was provided by the passage by Congress 

 of the Morris Act, drawn by Gifiord Pinchot, regulating logging on the 

 Chippewa Indian Lands in Minnesota, including the Minnesota Nation- 

 al Forest. This act required purchasers who cut pine timber "to bum 

 or remove a sufficient amount of the tops and refuse to prevent danger 

 from fire to the timber left standing." The regulations prescribed 

 imder the law have worked satisfactorily and have demonstrated con- 

 clusively that brush disposal is entirely practicable. As a rule, the 

 brush has been burned as the operation proceeds. 



