St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-10-04
FOREST FIRES TALK.
President Cleveland to Be
Msmorializsd on the
Subject.
GOV. NELSON TO BE ASKED
70 Urge ths Coming Legisla-
ture to Pass Suitable
Forestry Laws.
MANY SHORT ADDRESSES.
Commercial Club Movement
Will Turn Out to Be
Profitable.
many SHORT ADDRESSES.

The forest fire prevention conference
held at the rooms of the st. Paul Com
mcrcial club yesterday proved au I'M
portant and interesting gathering.
President Footner formally opened
the conference, reading the resolutions
of the club calling tor such all assem-
blage.
The letter from d. F. Fernow, chief
of the forestry division of the depart
ment of agriculture. the material por-
tons of Which have already been given
GLOBE readers, was read by Secretary
McG,nnis, and need hot be further re-
ferred TO here.
State Auditor Biermann, in a letter,
expressed his regrets at not being aOle
TO be in Attendance. He thoIght that
there would be no lack OF cooperation
on the part of the railroads and the
numbering corporations in the end
sought for-the prevention of forest
fires. Other letters of regret, including
Que from Prof. Winchell. the state
geologiSt, were also sent in.
There were ten commercial bodies
represented at the meeting. Profs. Nc
MILAN, Green and Hays, of the state
university: L. ". Peet, of the local fire
relief commissioners; Secretary Barrett
of the State Forestry association; Prof.
Green, of the state experiment station;
Col. j. ii. Stevens, of minneapolis, aud
Messrs Dobyn and Brand, of the State
Horticultural ASSOCIATION; Col. Z. Ii.
Graves. of Duluth: Secretary Hart and
Kenneth Clark, of the state fire relief
commission. were present. The Duluth,
Minneapolis and ST. Cloud relief com :
misSlonerS showed up in the afternoon.
a forestry expert from Chisago county,
L. .. Tombler: j. f. Stone. of Pine
county; John Cooper, of st. Cloud; &.
G. Brown, of Duluth; Messrs, FL. b.
Hudson, }. T. Hemphill. G. s. Gains
ana William Powell. of the Minneapolis
board OF trade, and b. +. Nelson, of the
Minneapolis Commercial club, We're
the brainy representatives of the Sister
City.
Many Papers Read.
Gen. C. c. Andrew of st. Paul. read
Rpaper on "rhe Duty of ths State"
Secretary Barrett,o the state forestry
ASSOCIATION. presented thoroughly
practical paper. 1t was extremely in
teresting, and worthy of thoughtful
consideration.
Maj. Jones. of the United States
engineers, i'll charge OF rivers and
harbors In the Northwest, was the first
speaker. after the above papers were
read, in the series of five minute talks.
He gave out the interesting fact that
the great Mississippi reservoirs in
Minnesota, all through the recent
drouth. emptied 1900 cubic feet of
water into the Mississippi river every
second. He thought these reservoirs
were an important factor in the state
forests. and earnestly advocated their
extension to the Minnesota and Red
river of the north.
The state botanist, Prof. McMilla n,
presented an array of valuable statistics.
His census reports for 1880 showed that
1O,274,0o9 acres of forests had been
burned. entailIng loss of S25. 462. $50.
Tennessee, Wyoming, Pennsylvania
and Minnesota were shown to be the
states that have suffered most severely
from forest fires. The first having had
9S5.43O acres burned over at a loss of
S5,2254 $50, and the last having $50. sos
acres burned. with loss of 81, 344, Ito.
Prof. Mcmillan gave in addition some
valuable population statistics, compar-
ing the number of residents in Northern
Minnesota with those in the Black
Forest of Germany, and also that
of Finland. The prevention of
forest hres is of more difficulty in new
than in an old and we'll settled country,
he commended. These fires cannot lie
wholly prevented. but may be con-
trnled. German plans would not be
practical here. He thought that some
plan could be devised that would reduce
them TO Il minimum.
John Cooper. of st. Cloud, followed
III his opinion, if the people in forest
districts would cooperate forest fires
could be prevented.
Would Name a Committee.
F. :. Chit, nden advocated, through a