Forest and Stream 
T .™.».Ye„ iocu., c opr., NEW YORK, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 1908. 
Six Months, $1.50. I 7 7 77 
(l __.__._ 
VOL. LXXL—No. 24. 
No. 127 Franklin St., New York* 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 
Copyright, 1908, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
George Bird Grinnell, President, 
Charles B. Reynolds, Secretary. 
Louis Dean Speir, Treasurer. 
■ 127 Franklin Street, New York. 
THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL 
will be to studiously promote a healthful interest 
in outdoor recreation, and to cultivate a refined 
taste for natural objects. 
—Forest and Stream, Aug. 14, 1S73. 
OUT OF THE RUT. 
We repeat what George L. Brown says in 
another column: We must get out of the rut, 
in forest conservation as in other lines of effort. 
As a nation we cannot afford to be content to 
set aside forest reserves, then leave them to 
chance. We cannot afford to contemplate forest 
fires of the future as acts of Providence and 
therefore beyond the control of human effort, 
when a little planning and some well-directed 
work will prevent important fire losses. 
In setting aside new forest reserves of what¬ 
ever area, it is customary to look to the older 
States of Europe for advice and example in 
arranging for replanting and the care of stand¬ 
ing trees, but when the question of safeguards 
against fire is brought up, an entirely different 
. set of rules is needed. There is dead and fallen 
timber to be reckoned with, leaves and moss 
and other material that becomes highly inflam¬ 
mable in time of drouth. At first it is hopeless 
1 to attempt to imitate European foresters in re¬ 
moving dead and fallen timber, particularly in 
hilly and mountainous regions where hauling is 
expensive if at all possible, and where timber 
is regarded as not worth cutting for other pur¬ 
poses than lumber and pulp stock. 
In the course of time such forests as those 
of the Adirondacks may be cleared of dead and 
fallen timber, and when that is accomplished the 
fire risks will be greatly lessened; but for the 
present an effective means of at least checking 
forest fires is imperative, and its simplicity is 
a recommendation in favor of the plan outlined 
by Mr. Brown. This can well be followed in 
any forest or bit of woodland, and requires no 
I great outlay of cash or labor, while the work 
can be prosecuted in the winter season, when 
, low temperatures and snow prevent other work. 
The experiences of the past autumn prove that 
apathy is costly when forest fires are burning. 
In many cases fires could have been confined 
to small areas had there been fire breaks and 
ditches, and once isolated, the danger and loss 
reduced to a minimum. In some regions ditch¬ 
ing is not necessary. Much depends on the char¬ 
acter of the ground and its leaf-covering; but 
* the forming of fire breaks of known merit has 
become a necessity, and should by all means be 
carried out during the present winter by all 
forest owners and preserve clubs. A third sea¬ 
son of drouth may follow those of 1907 and 
1908, and it is safe to predict that every dollar 
expended in prevention now will save a score 
of fine trees at some time in the future. 
From statistics compiled by the New York 
Forest, Fish and Game Commission, the forest 
fire losses are now obtainable. The total loss 
to all interests was $643,986.75. It cost the State 
$138,000 to fight these forest fires. Of the total, 
700, nearly one-half, or 300, were small fires 
started by railway engines. Hunters, anglers 
and campers are credited with having started 
140 fires. The most disastrous fires, however, 
originated along railways. About 177,000 acres 
of land were burned over, 147,000 acres of it 
having been burned over before, while 30,400 
acres represent new burnings. 
FOREST RESERVES, WEST AND EAST. 
For about twenty-five years the Government 
has been working faithfully to preserve the for¬ 
ests of the West; to save their timber and to 
protect the flow of streams rising in the moun¬ 
tains. Further down the slopes, and out on the 
dry plains at the base of the ranges, this water 
is used for irrigating the farmers’ crops and in 
a thousand places has made life possible and 
profitable, where, without water, no settlements 
could exist. 
Beginning with President Cleveland, and con¬ 
tinuing under Mr. Harrison, Mr. McKinley and 
Mr. Roosevelt, more and more of the public 
domain has been set aside until now the area 
of the public forest reservations amounts to 
somewhere near 170,000,000 acres. For the ex¬ 
ploiting of these forests, and for the kindred 
work of reclamation of arid lands, Congress has 
appropriated vast sums of money, and, while 
the work has only just begun, there is every 
prospect that the money so appropriated will be 
many times returned in the increased prosperity 
and well-being of the people. 
All this has been done for the West; well 
done, and properly done. But the forest re¬ 
serves have been set aside from the public do¬ 
main. In many places adjacent to these forest 
reserves, and to be benefited by their care, popu¬ 
lation as yet is sparse, but through their estab¬ 
lishment and protection it will greatly increase. 
In an unoccupied section of Florida a public 
forest reserve has just been created—the first 
east of the Mississippi River. 
In the thickly settled East there is no public 
domain. All the land belongs to someone, and 
it is not practicable for the Government to es¬ 
tablish public forest reserves made up of the 
land of private individuals. For some years now 
Congress has been asked to appropriate money 
to purchase two great tracts of forest land, one 
in the White Mountains, in New England, and 
one in the Appalachian range of the South to 
form two great forest reserves which shall be¬ 
long to the Government and be administered hy 
it. The timber on these two tracts of land is 
rapidly being destroyed. With the destruction 
of the timber comes the alarming dwindling of 
the streams. On the preservation of the water 
supply of these streams depends on the one hand 
their navigability, and on the other the con¬ 
tinued operation of thousands of factories situ¬ 
ated on their banks, both operations involving 
money interests which represent vast sums. 
.For years the House of Representatives has 
refused to pass this appropriation bill, which 
ought to come before it again at this session. 
The House should act favorably on the bill 
which has already passed the Senate. If it does 
not act on it, the people of the Atlantic Sea¬ 
board, North and South, will have just cause to 
complain of their representatives. Citizens of 
New England, Virginia, West Virginia, North 
and South Carolina and Georgia, should advise 
their representatives by letter that they expect 
them to do all in their power to forward this 
bill. 
Harrisburg may be the center of a lively 
discussion this winter when a couple of propo¬ 
sitions are submitted to the Legislature of 
Pennsylvania by the friends of the Game Com¬ 
mission. These are to be brought up in bills 
relating to hunting. In one it is proposed to 
limit all hunting to six weeks’ time, commenc¬ 
ing with Nov. 1, on the theory that forest fire 
dangers may be minimized. In the other it is 
planned to prohibit foreigners from owning 
guns or rifles, the theory being to simplify mat¬ 
ters by permitting no one except a citizen of 
the United States to carry firearms into the 
woods and fields. Safety for wardens and im¬ 
munity for song and game birds are among the 
reasons put forth in support of this proposed 
plan. 
A live male deer was brought to New York 
city one day last week by the crew of a tugboat. 
It was found swimming across Haverstraw Bay, 
in the Hudson River, and the captain of the tug¬ 
boat left his tow of brick barges to drift while 
he pursued the buck. After a merry chase it 
was roped and lifted aboard the tug. No doqbt 
the crew were ignorant of the law which pro¬ 
hibits taking deer while in the water. 
The outcome of the hearings of smelter men 
will be awaited with interest. Representatives 
of one of the smelters in Montana have been 
called to Washington to show cause why the 
Government should not proceed in the courts 
to enjoin them from operating their smelters, 
which are alleged to be destroying trees in the 
forest reserves and crops of farmers. 
