chief fire warden. 43 



Women's Clubs and Forestry. 

 Forestry made great strides in Pennsylvania because 

 the women in that state interested themselves in the sub- 

 ject. Women ought to do the same in Minnesota. It is 

 relatively a greater subject in Minnesota than it is in 

 Pennsylvania, because Minnesota has more extensive 

 natural forest resources. Women's clubs should not be 

 content to study history; they should make history. 

 Forestry in Minnesota is on its hands and knees, and it is 

 a patriotic duty of the women of the state to place it on 

 its feet. 



FORESTRY EXPLAINED. 



But before people can intelligently work for a cause 

 they must take the trouble to inform themselves of its 

 principles. 



While forestry itself is the science of obtaining revenue 

 by raising trees on refuse land, there are a number of 

 things about the forest in which the people as a whole 

 have a sort of ownership and a decided interest. For 

 example, if sandy hills are well wooded, they make the 

 landscape attractive; but if they become denuded and 

 are left a bare waste, as is the practice in the absence of 

 forestry methods, the scenery loses all its beauty. On 

 such land forestry would have a young growth of timber 

 started before removing all the mature trees. So, when 

 fire is allowed to devastate a forest, especially along 

 routes of travel, the public is robbed of beautiful scenery. 

 Where forestry has its rights, fire is prevented from 

 working such evil. The public has an ownership in water- 

 courses, for they not only beautify scenery, but they fer- 

 tilize the soil, furnish water for sanitary purposes, and 

 afford means of water-power and navigation. The forest, 

 holding back, as it does, in its porous soil, much of the 

 rainfall, is a natural reservoir of moisture, feeding num- 

 berless little springs and rivulets and maintaining water 

 supply in rivers. Forestry forbids the total clearing of 



