1891.] Editorial. 473 
do not deserve the name. Without game reservations like the 
national parks, the large game of this continent will soon 
become extinct. . 
What we need further is an efficient forestry organization which 
shall prevent or suppress the forest fires which annually desolate 
our country. As our state organizations have shown themselves 
incompetent to deal with the question, the national government 
should take hold of it. It is to be hoped that the Forestry 
Commission of the Agricultural Department will be empowered 
to do so. Not only should the forest fires be suppressed, but 
their authors should be punished, whether the former are, as in 
some instances, at least, of incendiary origin or not. Railroad 
companies should be compelled to place spark catchers or ex- 
tinguishers on their engines, under heavy penalties for non-com- 
pliance. Some action must be taken in the matter immediately, 
especially as we are now receiving the scum of Europe, whose 
carelessness of all matters of public economy is well known. We 
cannot afford to have our mountain regions converted into bare 
rocks, as most of the regions inhabited by the earlier civilizations 
of Europe now are. First the forests disappear, and then the soil 
. from the mountain sides. Fire is a great friend of man, but in the 
hands of an unwatched European peasantry it is an evil great 
enough to render the punishment inflicted on Prometheus a whole- 
some warning to all who misuse this one of the greatest of 
nature’s benefits. 
