696 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



and dollars' worth of valuable timber, 

 and even the more valuable soil itself, 

 was destroyed. Lumbermen, specula- 

 tors, and dishonest men robbed the 

 State of its timber, and through any 

 and many pretenses wantonly took and 

 used much of the State's forests with 

 little or no thought except to get as 

 many dollars out of it for today as they 

 could. They left the unused parts of 

 trees, logs, limbs, and tops where they 

 fell, forming a dangerous fire trap, 

 which thus created additional danger 

 to all the forest growth left uncut. 

 Great fires raged through the cuttings 

 and swept the debris up in mighty 

 conflagration destroying everything in 

 its path, standing trees as well as down 

 timber. The railroads, by careless 

 management of their locomotive en- 

 gines and rights of way, added to the 

 danger and destruction. 



During the administration of the late 

 Governor Higgins, in 1905-6, and con- 

 tinued under Governor Hughes, the 

 matter of the preservation of the For- 

 est Preserve was taken hold of with a 

 firm hand and the mandates of the Con- 

 stitution strictly carried out. Tres- 

 passers and timber thieves were prose- 

 cuted and punished, tree planting has 

 been carried on and encouraged among 

 the people. 



Concededly the greatest agency of 

 destruction to the forest was the coal 

 burning locomotive, which in its ever 

 onward rush through the coimtry, scat- 

 ters destructive coals and sparks along 

 and upon, and even outside, the rail- 

 road right of way. 



Acting on the petition of the Forest, 

 Fish, and Game Commission the pow- 

 erful Public Service Commission this 

 year ordered the installation of oil 

 burning engines on the lines of the 

 New York Central and the Delaware 

 and Hudson, operating through the 

 Forest Preserve, and the order has 

 been obeyed. The success of this move 

 is best attested by the statement that 

 while in other parts of the country, 

 this year has been one of the worst for 

 forest fires, there has not been one fire 

 of any great consequence in New York 

 State. 



This extreme action on the part of 

 New York State followed the great 

 devastation of the season of 1908, when 

 368,072 acres of wooded land in the 

 Forest Preserve were burned over, vil- 

 leges destroyed, and the property loss 

 and suffering of inhabitants of the 

 district affected most serious. 



The lesson of 1903, when 465,000 

 acres were burned over and a loss of 

 $3,500,000 incurred, had not proved a 

 warning and was so soon forgotten 

 that in 1908 the railroads, as well as 

 the State, found themselves practical- 

 ly unprepared for the prevention of 

 fire damage. The 1908 fires in the 

 Adirondacks destroyed lumber and 

 logs to the amount of $126,539, and 

 buildings, the value of which was $44,- 

 395, besides the loss to State lands 

 amounting to $644,000. 



On thousands of acres which were 

 first burned in 1903, the 1908 fires 

 consumed the vegetable matter, or 

 "duff," which forms the floor of 

 the forest, and the destruction of 

 which will prevent reforestation 

 for many years. The Long Lake 

 West fire, conceded to be a rail- 

 road fire, was one of the most disas- 

 trous in the history of this region. In 

 places the soil burned down to the 

 rocks. The hamlet was wiped off the 

 map, and even the railroad station and 

 cars standing on the tracks were 

 burned. 



In addition to the order made by 

 the Public Service Commission safe- 

 guarding from railroad-set fires, a 

 comprehensive system under the For- 

 est, Fish and Game Commission is ob- 

 served over the entire Forest Reserve. A 

 complete fire patrol is maintained. Ob- 

 servation stations have been erected 

 on twelve mountain tops. From each 

 a territory within a radius of twenty 

 miles can be clearly observed through 

 the aid of powerful field glasses. The 

 man in charge is provided with a map 

 of the territory, a range-finder, a tele- 

 phone, and field .glasses. 



Every fire patrolman is within tele- 

 phone communication of each observa- 

 tion station. The observation station 

 attendant sees a smoke curling up ten 



