The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-10-10


have more than 500 billion board
feet of merchautabie timber Al this
!! estimate they contain about one-tenth
of the woods which covered the Unit
ed States at the time il began 10 be
settled; and going back TO our homely
com parison. contain enough lumber TO
make board walk a foot wide from
here to the sun
The value OF these government
, woodlands cannot be over estimated
Mr.. Clifford Pinchot once said they
were worth more than two thousand
| millions OF dollars. and tha. the
standing timber upon them is Worth
! close to a billion. He said that the
forests ought to eventually bring IN an
income Of about six million dollars a
year by cutting only the ripe and
dead and down timber. and at hs
same time yield some additional reve-
nue. from the lands used for grazing
These forests will grow Ia valGe ard
in the amount of wood which they
contain, SO thai when our private for
ests are cut away they will give us ths
! lumber of the future. In addition.
/ they control the sources of our rivers
and are the basis of the water supply
Of those regions. II is also estimated
! that the waterfalls in the woods are
equal 10 fifteen million horse power
! They will some time be harnessed. on
| leases made by the government, and
viii thereby add TO the revenue.
The New Forest Patrol.
| The forestry men tell me that the
work Of patrolling Uncle Sans woods
is being rapidly etended. and espe-
| cially since the terrible fires Of last
year. so far about hye thousand
miles Of roads and sixteen thousand
miles Of trails have been cut. Fire
! lines are being built; and a syst I'm of
! telephone lines has been pat up con-
/ meeting the ranger headquarters With
| the lookout stations
East Of the forests is divided u? into
| districts about six miles square. and
| every district is in charge Of a ranger
/ who goes to his post In May and stays
until the rains begin In October.
| These rangers carry their own sup
plies. comprising tent rifle and
plenty Of ammunition and food At
! present there are about twelve hun
1 dred men who act "a rangers. and
! there are forest guards numbering 80.
There are also hunters and trappers.
making altogether corps Of about
/ twenty-five hundred men in active
! charge of the national forests In ad-
dition there are something like 600
scientists and clerks. who are EN- plOy-
/ ed here in Washington and at the dis
trict headquarters
The number Of men in charge cf the
! forests should be increased As IL is
now there is only one man for every
hundred thousand acres. wnereas
Prussia keeps a man for every seven
/ teen hundred acres. and Baden ono
! for every seven hundred and ffty
acres.
Twenty five Million Dollars in smoke
The lack Of men was evident in the
/ fires of last year They occurred At
/ the end of the drought. beginning in
June and reaching their climax in Au-
gust Congress had appropriated
| $500 for protecting the woods. but
/ this was not enough. and although the
/ War Department aided by sending
troops. and the railroad compa MES.
| lumber companies and private indi-
] yiduals also co-operated, the fires
spread over an area Of more than
three million acres and killed some
! thing like seven billion feet OF mer-
chantable timber. The damages
said to have been over twenty-five
million dollars and the costs Of fight
! ing the fires We're a little more than
! a million.
Altogether there were 5000 differ
ent fires in the national forests last
year and most NJ them were extin-
guished BY the forest rangers Thu.
greatest fire occurred in northern
Idaho where within tEenty-fpur
hours after starting. there we're prac-
tical!y continuous flames for over 100
miles In these fires seventy y-six Of the
Officia Is of the forestry service were
killed and a large number injured
Some of the fires came from lightning
others from campfires and some from
the locomotives Of the trains which
" ent through the woods
Uncle sam. Iumbernraa.
Uncle sam is now cutting consider
able lumber in the national forests
The amount cut last year was more
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