FORESTS; OF SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY 

 (3) A commoner type of pine forest, in bad condition througli f.re 



an open place more than 200 feet away 

 from the woodland, or in the more set- 

 tled sections of the state where there 

 are no wardens. This provision is 

 steadily reducing the proportion of for- 

 est fires due to reckless burning. Third, 

 as a means of controlling or prevent- 

 ing forest fires started from the rail- 

 roads, each railroad in the state is re- 

 quired to construct and maintain fire 

 lines not less than no feet wide, on 

 each side of the track, wherever the 

 road traverses a body of forest. The 

 value of this last ref|airement is yet 

 to be determined, for the first lines, 

 about 180 miles in all, are only Just 

 made and five years are allowed for the 

 construction of the total mileage. The 

 belief is practically unanimous, how- 

 ever, that few fires will escape from 

 them. 



There is nothing new or novel in 

 these protective lines ; they have been 

 employed in other countries for years, 

 and even in this country some similar 

 lines, though always much narrower, 



3 



have been made voluntarily by various 

 railroad companies. A law making such 

 fire lines a feature of the forest policy 

 of an American state is, however, an 

 innovation. These fire lines have two 

 features: (a) At a distance of 100 feet 

 from the nearest rail a strip ten feet 

 wide is completely cleared of all in- 

 flammable matter and the bare earth 

 exposed; (b) between that strip and 

 the track is a zone from which only 

 the undergrowth and the suppressed, or 

 interfering, trees need be removed. All 

 established trees as much as three 

 inches in diameter at the base are al- 

 lowed to stand, except where they are 

 less than six feet apart, but each must 

 be cleared of branches to a height of 

 six feet. Where the line is made in 

 unbroken forest this Too-foot zone is 

 virtually given an improvement thin- 

 ning. The better trees are freed from 

 competition and allowed to grow so 

 that their crowns will intercept and 

 chill sparks thrown from the locomo- 

 tive stack. In other situations, as where 



277 



