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Show PIffCHOT DECLARE YET. The nation may well pause In mournful contemplation of her ravaged rav-aged forests forests which have beon blackened, ami scarred and mined In large sections by to llros which have raged within them. This year's forest flro record eclipses that of any other year of which we hnvo record, both In extent ex-tent of territory burned over nnd value of timber destroyed. In speaking speak-ing of tho mnttor Mr. Olfford PInchot. chief of tho United States forest service, serv-ice, declares that In many wnys this year's forest llros hnvo been tho worst ho has over known. Tho wholo north-orn north-orn half of tho country has beon attacked, at-tacked, ho says, and tho losses which have beon caused represent a serious drain on our timber supply. Besides destroying valuable timber tim-ber nnd other property, tho llrcs which have boon rnglug during tho last few weeks In tho east have caused an almost Incalculable loss to watersheds water-sheds ot Important streams supplying power for countless Industries. In tho Adlrondacks the destruction has resulted re-sulted In marring ono of tho nation's most useful playgrounds. One of tho earliest of tho groat forest for-est fires which have attained historic Importance was the great Mlrnmlchl Are ot 1825. It began Its greatest destruction about one o'clock In tho afternoon of October 7 of that year, at a place about GO miles nbovo the town of Newcastlo, on tho Mlrnmlchl river, In Now Drunswtck. Ilefore ton o'clock nt night it was 20 tulles below Now-castlo. Now-castlo. In nlno hours It had destroyed a belt of forost 80 miles long and 25 mllos wide. Over more than two and one-half million acres almost every living thing was killed. Kvon the fish Were afterward found dead In heaps on the river banks. Five hundred and ninety buildings wero burned, and a number of towns, Including Newcastle, Chatham and Douglastowu, wero destroyed. de-stroyed. Ono hundred nnd sixty persons per-sons perished, and nearly a thousand head of stock. Tho loss from tho .Mlrnmlchl .Mlrn-mlchl flro is estimated at $:!00,000, not Including the value of tho timber. In tho majority of such forost tires as this tho destruction of tho timber Is a more serious loss, by fnr, than that of the cattle nnd buildings, for It car-rlos car-rlos with It tho Impoverishment of a wholo region for tens or oven hundreds hun-dreds of years afterward. Tho loss of tho stiimpngo value of tho timber at tho tlmo of the lire Is but a small part ot tho damage to tho neighborhood. Tho wngos that would have beon earned In lumbering, added to tho value of the proditco that would have been purchased to supply tne lumber camps, and the taxes that would have beon dovotod to roads and other public pub-lic Improvements, furnish n much truor measure of how much, soonor or later, It costs a region when Its for-osts for-osts aro dostroyed by flro. Tho Poshtlgo fire of October, 1871, was still more sovero than tho Mlrnmlchl. Mlrnml-chl. It covered nn area of more than 2,000 square mllos In Wisconsin, and Involved a loss In timber and other property, of many millions of dollars. Dotweon 1,200 nnd 1,600 persons per-Ishod, per-Ishod, Including nearly half tho population pop-ulation of Poshtlgo, nt that tlmo a town of 2,000 Inhabitants. Other fires of about tho samo time wero most destructive de-structive in Michigan. A strip about 40 miles wldo and 180 miles long, extending ex-tending ncross tho contrnl part of tho Btate, from I. alio Michigan to I.ako Huron, was devastated. Tho estimated estimat-ed loss In timber was about 4,000,000,-000 4,000,000,-000 foot board measure, nnd In money ovor $10,000,00. Several hundred persons per-sons perished. In tho early part f Soptombor. 1881, great tiros covered nioro than 1,800 squaro miles In various parts of Michigan Mich-igan The estimated loss, In property, proper-ty, In addition to many hundred thousand thou-sand ncroB of valuable timber, was more than $2,o00.000. Ovor MOD persons per-sons wore made destitute, and tho number of lives lost Is variously estimated esti-mated nt from U0 to COO. Tho most destructive flro of more recent yonrs was that which started noar Hinckley, Minnesota, Soptombor 1, 1894. While tho area burned ovor was less than In some other groat fires, tho loss of life and property was very heavy. Hlnckluy and six other towns wero destroyed, about 500 lives wore lost, more thiin 2,000 persons were left destitute, and tho estimated loss In properly of various kinds was J25.000.000. Kxcopt for tho heroic conduct con-duct of locomotive engineers and other railroad men tho loss of life would hnvo been much greater. This flro wns all the more deplorable deplor-able because It wns wholly unnecessary. unneces-sary. For many days before the high wind came nnd drove It Into uncontrollable uncon-trollable fury, It was burning slowly close to tho town of Hinckley, and could have bleu put out. In reviewing tho losses of this year, Mr. Plnchott says: "Thcro Is little or no difference between tho fires of 1908 and those of other years, so far as causes aro concerned. Unfortunately, Unfortu-nately, there is also little difference In the way people have met them. In most states (Ires have been allowed to run until they threatened valuablo property, and then efforts wore made to check them. This eleventh-hour activity succeeded hero and there, but even a cursory summary of tho flro loss for the year shows that Biich methods result in almost Inevitable disaster. "This forest flro question resolves It-solf It-solf Into ono of tho most Important problems before tho nation In the caro of Its natural resources. Success or failure in Its solution by thoso having hav-ing private holdings of tlmbcrland, means tho continued use of tho Innd or tho perpetual burden of caring for vnst barren wastes. Tho devastation following a flro Is not realized by many peoplo, and I sometimes think that tho groateBt thing thnt can bo done In furtherance of the movement for the conservation of the forest resources would bo to give as tunny peoplo as possible a chance to visit n section ot tho country that has been thoroughly Impoverished by a forest lire. "Tho lire wnrden system has been fnlrly successful In places, but Its fundamental fun-damental weakness is that It Is not u provontlvo system. To begin work nftor a flro has gained headway means that from tho start tho chances nro against checking It before It hns done serious damage. No llro-flghtlng Bys torn hns shown Itself effectlvo that did not provide for ranger patrol. In tho national forests we nro meeting the proposition with a satisfactory system, sys-tem, although tho number of men In the field Is Insignificant and the rangers' districts are so largo that tho flro risk Is raised above tho point ol safety. Tho ono secret of lighting fires Is to discover your Are as soon as possible, light it as hard as you can, nnd refuse to leave it until tho last ember Ib certainly dead. The reason rea-son for tho widespread destruction by largo fires this year was tho Indlffor-onco Indlffor-onco of tho people to tho smaller ones.' |