FOREST FIRES CONTROLLED 



227 



than any other agency, followed closely 

 by railroads, campers and incendiaries, 

 in the order given. In 1913, however, 

 the fires caused by lightning outnum- 

 bered the next nearest cause by more 

 than three to one, but the order — rail- 

 roads, campers and incendiaries — re- 

 mained the same as in 1912. A con- 

 siderable decrease in the proportion 

 set by railroads and campers indicates, 

 according to forest officers, a growing 

 carefulness on the part of the general 

 public. 



Last year, as in 1912, California led 

 all others in number of fires, this lead 

 being natural because California has 

 such a long dry season. It was followed 

 by Arkansas, Arizona and Oregon, in 

 the order named. Kansas, which had 

 only one fire in 1912, escaped without 

 any in 1913. North Dakota repeated 

 its record of 1912 and had no fires on its 

 one small forest. Not a single severe 

 fire occurred during the year in District 

 4, which includes Utah, Nevada, and 

 southern Idaho, and in which a large 

 proportion of the forests reported no 

 fires at all. 



LOSSES ON PRIVATE LANDS. 



There was proportionately greater 

 loss on private lands within the forest 

 boimdaries than on the public lands. 

 It is pointed out by the forest officers 

 that these lands cover approximately 1 1 

 per cent of the total area included 

 within the forest botmdaries, yet the 

 area burned over on these private lands 

 was more than 25 per cent of all. The 

 Forest Service expended more than 

 $30,000 in protecting the private lands 

 within the forests and lands adjacent 



to and outside of the forests. In addi- 

 tion to this cost, services and supplies 

 to the value of more than $17,000 were 

 contributed by cooperators for fire- 

 fighting on these areas. 



In the middle of the fire season, that 

 is in Jtily, the Service had high hopes of 

 small fire damage during 1913, and this 

 hope kept up imtil the middle of 

 September, when the fire season on the 

 national forests ordinarily is about at 

 an end. At that time there was less 

 damage than had ever been recorded, 

 and only 2,260 fires as against 2,470 

 in 1912, with about 60,000 acres burned 

 as compared with 230,000 in 1912 and 

 780,000 in 1911. At the end of the 

 month, however, the electric storms in 

 California and one or two outbreaks of 

 incendiarism changed the whole situa- 

 tion. 



But even in the face of these diffi- 

 ctilties, the firefighting force, with its 

 plans and experience from preceding 

 years, was able to cope with the situa- 

 tion. In California, in particiilar, it 

 was as if a military leader, represented 

 by the District Forester at San Francisco, 

 was holding, with a comparatively small 

 number of men or a mere skirmish 

 force, a line of defense extending 750 

 miles in a north and south direction. 

 This force received, as if from an attack 

 by the heavy artillery of an opposing 

 army, the electric storms, generally 

 unaccompanied by rain, which played 

 havoc all along the Sierras and the 

 Coast Range. That the California 

 force was able to cope with the situation 

 was, according to Mr. Graves, an evi- 

 dence of the efficiency of the men and 

 the organization. 



The paper used by the government printing office each year requires approximately 125 million 

 pounds of rag pulp and 490 million pounds of wood pulp. 



F. A . Elliott, state forester of Oregon, says that cooperative fire patrol associations among lumber- 

 men for prevention of forest fires have proved their worth. 



Of 606 fires last year on tJie national forests of Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, more than 

 one-half were caused by lightning. Campers set about one-tenth, and railroads one-twentieth. 



Incense cedar is proving valuable for piling on the Pacific coast where marine borers are 

 particularly troublesome. 



