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Show 52 COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. under the superintendent, of all timber matters in his district. Per-manent headquarters are being established in these districts, telephone lines constructed connecting the headquarters with the agency, and roads and trails constructed throughout the timbered areas so as to render fire patrol easier. A number of fire lookout stations have been constructed on the reservations to furnish readier means of detecting forest fires. A large amount of construction work is still needed to properly protect the timberlands from fire. The record of forest fires is kept by the calendar year instead of by the fiscal year. For the year ending December 30, 1911, no serious fires occurred. So far as reported, the area burned over on the reser-vations was 3,549 acres, with a total loss of $3,288. The year 1910, however, was a bad fire year, 671,461 acres being burned over on the reservations, with a loss of $675,227. It is important that the office be not lulled into security by the small loss of last year, but that every precaution be taken to protect the reservations in case of the recur-rence of another dry season such as 1910. Technical men have been assigned to a number of the reservations 'and placed in charge of the timber work thereon. Forest assistants have been placed in charge of the timber work on the Fond du Lac, Klamath, Navajo, Yakima, and Coeur d'A1Bne Reservations. Forest rangers have been appointed and placed in charge of the timber work on the Jicerilla, Mescalero, and Fort Apache Reservations, and scale inspectors have been placed in charge of such work on the Bad River and Lac du Flambeau Reservations. These men are held responsible to the superintendent for all timber matters on these reservations. On the Jicarilla Indian Reservation, in New Mexiw, the Indians have been encouraged to take hold of the cutting and manufacturing of railroad ties, with great success. The timber on this reservation is all owned by the tribe, although the land has been allotted. Arrangements were made with the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad Co. whereby they offered to take any ties delivered at certain places by the Indians. The area which the Indians are cutting. is rough and inaccessible as a logging proposition. The price paid by the railroad company for ties averages a rate of $15.18 per M, board feet. The Indians have been paying into the tribal fund as stumpage an average of $4 per M, and the cost of supervision amounts to 2 cents a tie, or 70 cents per M. The Indians, therefore, receive for their labor about $10.40 per M. By this method all money except the 70 cents per M., which covers the cost of supervision, goes to the Indians either as stumpage or labor. The Indians are cutting many cull ties in order to make good utilization of the material, for which they receive only one-half price. Some of the Indians are maldug as high as $3.80 a day. This tie cutting is good, healthy work, and very remunerative to the Indians. During the year they cut approxi- |