890 AMERICAN FORESTRY 



play politics to that extent at the expense of a vital question affecting their 

 own woodlands the situation is rather discouraging. One is led to wonder 

 if the enthusiasm for forestry exhibited in past years was really genuine, 

 and if these legislators actually reflect the wishes of their constituents. 



There is no state in the country where forestry has a better opportunity 

 to succeed commercially from the very start than it has in Massachusetts. 

 Here are vast tracts, in all parts of the state, perfectly adapted to the pro- 

 duction of the best timber, and valuable for nothing else. Most of this area 

 is today producing only inferior mixed growths, which, at present stumpage 

 values for good timber, it does not pay anyone to grow. To hold one's wood- 

 land property in such growth is like investing money in two per cent securities 

 when equally sound investments can be found which pay four per cent. 

 Moreover, Massachusetts has an active home market for this timber. But 

 real and widespread interest in commercial forestry in this state will never 

 be aroused until Massachusetts does two fundamentally important things. 

 First of all the lire hazard must be reduced to a minimum, and second the 

 present system of taxing forest property on the basis of a house and lot 

 must be put aside with such other antiquities a^ bull's-eye watches, flintlock 

 guns, and overshot water wheel saw-mills. 



To stop the fire loss is a comparatively simple matter. Massachusetts has 

 law enough on the subject in the main at present. What is lacking is a 

 whole-hearted public sentiment which will demand the enforcement of those 

 laws. When a man knows that his neighbors will regard him as more 

 lawless than a horse-thief if he starts a fire out of doors under dangerous 

 conditions, thereby jeopardizing the property of the entire community, he will 

 think twice before he strikes the match, and the chances are that he will 

 decide not to strike it. Now and then a fire will get started from some cause 

 or other, of course. Even in Germany they have fires in the forest occasionally. 

 But these fires need not run over ten or fifteen square miles, wiping out 

 houses and barns as they go, and thousands and thousands of dollars' worth 

 of forest. The state must see to it that this loss of taxable property is 

 prevented. It must require the towns to install adequate and up to date 

 equipment for combatting such fires as do get started, and it must see that 

 an efficient organization is maintained to use that apparatus. Patrols must 

 be required during dangerous times, and lookout stations should be provided 

 on the heights. By manning a few of the many observatories already in . 

 existence in various parts of the state a lookout system could be inaugurated 

 at trifling expense, for it must be understood that it is only during the dryest 

 times that this watch service would be required. To set up an efficient 

 organization in every town, and to see that these organizations know how 

 to use their weapons and to meet their enemy, a state wai'den in chief is 

 essential, a man who knows his business, one who has had his lesson scorched 

 into him on the fire line, and who can teach and command. His authority 

 should be defined by legislative enactment, and his powers should be broad. 

 Such a man could easily be found, and his pay should be sufficient to attract 

 the best man in the country, and to hold him on the job. 



Massachusetts has already recognized the need of providing the towns 

 with modern tools for fire fighting by making available the sum of five 

 thousand dollars a year of state money with which to assist the less well-to-do 

 towns in thus equipping themselves. But what is the use of putting machine 

 guns into the hands of men ignorant of their mechanism and use? It requires 

 a systematic organization and training to use effectively a battery of chemical 

 extinguishers in a forest fire. Moreover the state should have the right to 

 inspect from time to time at least such equipment as it helps to pay for, to 



