66 



RECREATION. 



would be a beautiful feature. The many 

 advantages of such a sanctuary are so 

 self-evident they hardly need pointing out. 

 Nevertheless, I will mention 2 or 3. 



As a means of discouraging the wanton 

 cruelty of children and developing a sym- 

 pathetic love for the lower animals and in- 

 terest in their life and habits, it could not 

 be excelled. 



To an animal artist or photographer, it 

 would be paradise. 



As a place of refuge and refresh- 

 ment for brains overwrought and souls 

 saddened by the conflict, artificiality and 

 shams of modern life, it would be worth 

 inestimably more than its cost. There is 

 no sanitarium like pure nature. 



HOW TREES GROW. 



i enclose clipping from a recent issue 

 of the New York Journal, and appeal to 

 all the brethren of the woods to say if this 

 be true. 



In Washington, Me., is a tract of 1,000 acres 

 from which the spruce and pine timber has all 

 been cut in the past 35 years. The tract was for- 

 merly owned by the father of the late Judge 

 Richard D. Rice, of Augusta. At the time of the 

 death of the elder Rice no timber had been cut 

 from the land except what had been stolen by 

 timber thieves, who then infested the State. 



So extensive had this thievery become at one 

 time that Rice determined to put a stop to it, and 

 to that end he employed a blacksmith to make a 

 great number of iron spikes. He had 2 of these 

 spikes inserted, one on either side, in each of the 

 most valuable trees on the tract, and on each 

 spike were stamped his initials, "W. R." 



After that the mill men, who generally knew 

 where their logs came from, would not take any 

 that they suspected of being from the Rice lands 

 for fear the teeth of their saws would be knocked 

 off against the "W. R." spikes. Not being able 

 to sell the logs, the thieves quit stealing from 

 Rice's land. 



Some years later, when the land was cleared 

 of timber by its new owners, the story of the 

 spikes was recalled. It was concluded that Rice's 

 blacksmith could not reach higher than 7 feet 

 from the ground and so the operators sawed off 

 the trees at that height, expecting to steer clear 

 of the spikes. But they forgot to allow for the 

 growth of the trees and many a saw was ruined 

 by the "W. R." spikes, which were found 25 to 

 30 feet up in the trunks. 



This assumes that trees grow from be- 

 low, like the Irishman's house which was 

 built by putting one brick under another 

 till the building was completed. 



Trees increase their height by new 

 growths from the extremities of the 

 branches, new twigs each season. A spike 

 driven into a tree 7 feet from the ground 

 in 1901 will be 7 feet from the ground in 

 2001, if the tree should live so long. Am 

 I not right? 



W. H. Nelson, Washington, D. C. 



You have correctly stated the facts. 

 Trees grow in length at their extremities ; 

 hence a spike driven in a tree at any 

 hfc'ght remains at that height. — Editor. 



DESTRUCTION OF WESTERN FORESTS. 



Much of the pleasure of my trip to 

 'Frisco was spoiled by smoke from forest 

 fires. All along the Northern and South- 

 ern Pacific railroads there was hardly a 

 moment that one could not look out of the 

 car window and see one or 2 forest fires 

 raging in the hills. Thousands of acres 

 of timber have been destroyed. It was so 

 smoky I was unable to see Mount Tacoma 

 at any time, going to or returning from 

 Tacoma. The train conductor told me he 

 had not seen Rainier for a month, on ac- 

 count of the smoke. 



Mount Hood, the beautiful snow peak, 

 and the pride of Portland, was also invisi- 

 ble, as was St. Helens, although the rail- 

 road passes within 10 miles of the latter. 



Surely something could be done to pre- 

 vent these terrible fires. They destroy in a 

 few weeks what it takes centuries to pro- 

 duce. Many of the fires, no doubt, are 

 caused by the carelessness of camping par- 

 ties, prospectors and others ; but I believe 

 most of them are caused by sparks from 

 the locomotives, in the dry season. If the 

 Legislatures of these Western States would 

 enact laws inflicting severe penalties on 

 persons causing forest fires, and requiring 

 the railroad companies to clear up all dead 

 and down timber within 200 feet of their 

 tracks, the danger of fires would be greatly 

 reduced, and the forests,, what are left of 

 them, saved. A. S. A. Himmelwright, 



Darby, Mont. 



STATE SHOULD CONTROL ITS FORESTS. 



Dr. Judson F. Clark, the newly ap- 

 pointed Assistant Professor of Forestry at 

 Cornell University, who is traveling in 

 Germany to study forestry methods, writes 

 interestingly from the Black Forest : "The 

 forest area under State control is be- 

 ing rapidly enlarged by purchase of old 

 meadows and of private forest property. 

 Most of these newly acquired areas pres- 

 ent phases of the interesting and very 

 varied problem of transforming a 'selec- 

 tion' forest into something better. These 

 small private forests, managed under the 

 so-called selection ^ystcm, are usually not 

 managed at all, and by the time the owners 

 are ready to sell to the State the condi- 

 tion of the property is often little better 

 that a cut-over Adirondack woods." 



Just as with us ; the State gets the prop- 

 erty when it has lost its value to the 

 private pocket, when it is already mis- 

 managed and time must elapse for it to 

 become productive again. This observa- 

 tion also gives proof of our contention, that 

 forestry, real forestry, is not profitable to 

 the small owner ; it takes large capital, 

 long-continued existence ; otherwise the at- 

 tempt at forest management is soon 

 abandoned. 



