The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-06-04
FIRES OF THE FORESTS
GEN. ANDREWS REPORT FOR 1897
JUST ISSUED
The Total Damage Done During the
Year Was Only $36,
From Which the Different BIazes
Started-SOme Statistics Regard
Ing the Lumber Industry-Thc
Work of the Wardens.

Chief Fire Warden Andrews has Just
issued his third annual report, which
gives some interesting data as to the
forest and prairie fire losses during 1897
The book was received from the print
ers yesterday and will be distributed
throughout the state. 1t appears, &C
cording to the reports of deputy fire
wardens, the damage done by forest
fires in 1897 was $22, 455, and by prairie
fires $14,554. There were periods of pro-
tracted dry weather, both in the spring
and fall Of 1897. Considering that the
appraised value of the standing timber
of Minnesota is over 100000 900, the re-
ported damage by forest fires is regard
ed as very small.
The opinion of the chemist of the
University Of Minnesota is quoted that
an average prairie fire will remove more
nitrogen from the ground than five
ordinary crops of wheat. Three fires
less were reported as being caused by
the railroad companies than last year.
Sixteen forest fires were caused from
clearing land, eleven from burning
brush and meadow and eleven from
camps of hunters and campers; eight
prairie and field fires were caused by
threshing engines, eleven. by railroad
locomotives, eight from burning straw
or stubble and eight from burning fire
breaks
Complaints were received from fire
wardens in a few counties that the
county commissioners refused to allow
their accounts. The pay of fire war
ders in ordinary years is limited to
fifteen days in year at 81 per day:
quite a number of wardenS have, Gen.
Andrews report says, rendered their
services to the state free of charge.
Gen. Andrews says that the 81 per day
is a very reasonable fee for the war;
dens, and it is being accepted in nearly
all the counties where the state has CO.
operated with the local authorities in
fire protection.
Regarding the value of Minnesota S
vast lumber industry, Gen. Andrews
says:
The value of the pine, just as 1t stands,
that is cut in Minnesota in single winter. in
a favorable business year, is S., COZ, 900; whe n
sawed into lumber at the mills, its value will
have increased to $1,000, 900, of which in
crease, so per cent, or 600. represents
labor; when further manufactured and worked
up in various forms its value becomes multi
piled. This partly illustrates the value Of cur
forests as an industrial resource. The friends
Of forestry do not interfere with the cutting
and marketing of timber: On the contrary.
they wish the industry 10 Re c6ntiGu-us and a
great step in making it continuous IS the
prevention of forest fires, thereby promoting
the natural reproduction of forest on cut-over
land. The friends of forestry concede that
the private owners of pine land have right
to, and for their financial success must, cut
and cell their pine. whenever they can find a
COED market fer it. If there are forest areas
which the public needs to have kept as. forest
for example, at the head waters OF rivers,
to help maintain water flow, or near some
beautiful lake, for scenery and health-then
the public must buy it.
The chief fire warden thinks that as the
public comes to understand forestry it will
be easier to enforce the law against forest
fires A leading principle Of forestry, he says,
is that the best agricultural land should not
be devoted to forest. One OF the great eco
nomic advantages of forestry Is that wood
and timber can be profitably grown on soil
that is unfit for farming purposes Another
principle is that the forest must be cont:nu-
GUS that no more timber should be taken out
of it in a yaar, in series Of ten or twenty
years than grows in the entire forest the same
period Another principle is that the cutting
of timber should be in blocks or strips SO as
to facilitate reproduction on the clear areas
by seeds falling from the trees left standing.
Another principle is that the forest when
Young must have in numbers vastly more
trees than when it is mature. The tree grown
in the open nay be handsome and useful for
shade but it is useless for timber. TO make
good timber the forest, when young, must BE
| crowded so to secure height growth. Mixed
wood managed on forestry principles in the
black forest OF Germany has per acre, at the
age of twenty years, 1850 trees; at the age
of 100 years, 262 trees.
Our best white pines have been growing
from 100 to 200 years; and although merchant
able pine, but not of the best quality may be
grown in sixty years, there are but very few
individuals willing to wait SO long for a
crop; and if anything important Is to be done
to renew and perpetuate cur 1ofest "eaith, II
must be done by the state, or through the
inducement it offers through the reduction OF
taxes CT in some other form.