The Tragedy of the Forest.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XLI, Issue 2211, 5 September 1910, Page 6

The Tragedy of the Forest.

+, The destruction of timber areas by fire in North America diminishes the available 3upply of timber by mil ions of feet every day. A cablegram published recently stated that great fires are raging in the State of Idaho and that the efforts of the soldiers and the male inhabitants to subdue the flames have been unavailing. The fires in several of the states have been particularly bad this year, and in Canada a vast amount of timber has been destroyed. Last month a fire started in the Rainy River Valley, on the Canadiau Northern Railway, and made a blackened waste of a district tbab had been supplying telegraph poles and railway sleepers, and would have continued to serve the whole of Canada in these respects for a decade. In a score of other districts the fire demon has put its curse upon the valleys and the ranges and incidentally has robbed the Dominion of a part of its natural wealth. The Canadian newspapers have been urging that the authorities should devise some drastic regulations with a view to preventing the fires that are caused by mere stupidity or carelessness. " Another quarter of a century of forest-burning," remarks the Toronto 'Globe,' "will put Canada on the stool of repentance now occupied by ! the United States. It does not take long to burn down the forest, but it will take a century or two of patient labor to restore them." A similar process is proceeding in Australia, and the municipial authorities of Melbourne are just awakening to the fact that the water-supply of the city is threatened through the destruction of the forests in the catchment area. Efforts are being made to preserve the natural growth around the reservoirs, in order that the Victorian capital may not be forced to spend enormous sums of money on extending its water-works, but the stupidity of some cattlemen and holiday-makers seems tc be invincible, it is sad indeed to think that the tragedy of a blazing forest is " being enacted in some part of the world almost every day.