476 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



State School Fund, would have continued to operate against the 

 increase of that fund. The Department of Forestry has always felt 

 that the State School Fund might well receive the entire proceeds 

 derived from State Forests, and in a few years these proceeds must, 

 in the nature of things, become large, thus accelerating this mast 

 valuable fund to a larger and better degree. By an amendment 

 passed to appropriate sections of the school code, all proceeds from 

 the State Forests are paid immediately into that fund. The revenues 

 of the Department from its inception to date are in the neighborhood 

 of $125,000. By an act of appropriation, |80,000 of this amount was 

 specifically appropriated and applied to the State School Fund. With 

 further forest development and the marketing of forest products, 

 the proceeds will increase from month to month. Those paid into 

 the Treasury during the month of December last past and immedi- 

 ately credited to the State School Fund, amounted to $2,090.03. 



By all odds the most valuable piece of legislation procured at the 

 last session was the forest protection code, which completely revises 

 the system of forest fire wardens, establishes a bureau in the depart- 

 ment to take care of forest protection exclusively, places at the head 

 of the bureau a person competent to do this work, who devotes his 

 time exclusively to protection, and who has since been actively en- 

 gaged in the revision of the whole system. 



Forest fires are still prevalent in Pennsylvania. The average size 

 and average damage wrought by fire is gradually being decreased. 

 With a better fire fighting system and with a greater awakening to 

 the necessity of preventing and extinguishing fire, Pennsylvania will 

 surely soon be able to take her position among other forested states 

 who have larger appropriations for fire protection and are reducing 

 the fire problem to a very small matter. The density of Pennsyl- 

 vania's population, the diversity of her industries, and the unparal- 

 leled opportunity for permitting fires to burn, coupled with a certain 

 viciousness of disposition which is still found in individuals as well 

 as in groups of men, along with the difficulty in the majority of cases 

 and at times tlie utter impossibility of procuring evidence sufficient 

 to secure a conviction of offenders, when considered in connection 

 with the aggregate areas burned and the resulting loss from fires, 

 is a source of satisfaction at least, although the Department will 

 never rest satisfied witli its efi'orts until it is in a position to main- 

 tain complete and efficient control. The Department of Forestry is 

 dependent entirely upon legislative appropriation for means to do 

 this work, and we can only say, as has been said on numberless 

 previous occasions, that this problem is one resting wholly upon the 

 Legislature. Without means the Department can do nothing. With 

 adequate means it can equal, and we believe exceed, many of the other 

 states. A forest fire appropriation of .f4.5.000 allowed for two years 

 in 1915, is utterly inadequate to meet our needs and conditions. The 

 records of the Department show that during 1915 there were 1,104 

 forest fires reported upon by the forest fire wardens. 



The record of accomplishment for the Department of Forestry 

 to date stands as follows: 



It has purchased and paid for out of legislative appropriations, 

 1,008,140 acres of land, costing an average price of about |2.28 per 

 acre. 



