16 Fourth Annual Eeport of the 



to permit of experiment, and that the preservation of the forests 

 was of far greater moment than economy in railroad operation. 

 The application was therefore denied. 



Preventable Fires 



Statistics for the year 1913 are pertinent as indicating the dam- 

 age done by preventable fires: 



Fires caused by 



Smokers 



Fishermen 



Campers 



Hunters 



The figures vary from year to year, but the proportion remains 

 relatively the same. No statute, no order or regTilation by a com- 

 mission, can guard the forests against wanton carelessness; no 

 vigilance of forest ranger or mountain observer can undo the 

 mischief, once done. 



Of all men, the camper, the hunter, or the fisherman, should 

 be the last to put the great " popular playground " in jeopardy 

 through preventable fires. 



Conservation in Holt Writ 



Among the judgments which the Lord commanded Moses to 

 set before the chosen people, in the wilderness, was the following 

 (Exodus xxii, 6) : 



" If fire breah: out, and catch in thorns, so that the stacks 

 of com, or the standing com, or the field, be consumed there- 

 with, he that kindled the fire shall surely make restitution." 



New York's Forest Domain 



Of the 1,820,000 acres of land owned by the State, and located 

 chiefly in the Adirondack and Catskill Parks, about 769,139 

 acres were acquired by purchase, and the remainder chiefly by 

 tax sales or by the direct appropriation thereof. Of the State's 

 land holdings, about 70,000 acres are virgin forest; about 1,430,- 

 000 acres are cutover lands with commercially valuable tree 



