150 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE 



By a law passed iu April, 1898, a College of Forestry -was fouuded at the Cornell 

 University. Thirty thousand acres of land in the Adirondack Park are set aside 

 for the use of this college as an experimental area. An annual appropriation sup- 

 plies the college with sufficient funds. 



The Minnesota forestry law is modeled after the laws of New York and Maine. 

 All of these laws entrust tlie enforcement to some responsible officer. The chief 

 features of the Minnesota law follow: 



The law is entitled "An act to provide for the preservation of forests of this 

 State, and for the prevention and suppression of forest and prairie fires." 



Section 1, enacts that the State Auditor sliall be forest commissioner. The super- 

 visors of towns, mayors of cities and presidents of village councils are constituted 

 fire wardens of their respective localities, but the chief fire warden may appoint 

 such other persons as he may deem necessary as fire wardens in unorganized 

 territory. 



The sections following provide that the forest commissioner shall appoint a 

 competent deputy to be known as chief fire warden, who is to receive a salary of 

 twelve hundred dollars per year. He is a trained forester and it is his duty to 

 enforce the provisions of the law. He has general charge of the fire warden force 

 of the State and can mass it at any special point to suppress fires. He can appoint, 

 temporarily, needed fire wardens in cases of large fires and divides into five districts 

 all unorganized territories of the State and appoints competent fire wardens therein. 

 He investigates the extent of the forests, the amount and varieties of timber, the 

 damages dnne to them from time to time by forest fires, the causes of such fires, 

 the methods used to promote the regrowth of timber and any other important facts 

 relating- to forpst interests which may be required by the forest commissioner. He 

 makes an annual report including the information so gathered and his suggestions. 



It is mnde the duty of all fire wardens to post in conspicuous places in their re- 

 spective districts warning placards containing abstracts of the forest law, rules and 

 regulations that accord therewith as promulgated by the forest commissioner who 

 furnishes the placards. 



During the dry season when fires are liable to occur, the chief fire warden is 

 authorized to use such means as he may deem necessary to prevent or suppress 

 such fires at the expense of the State, but his expenditures in one year are not 

 to exceed five thousnnd dollars. 



It is the duty of the fire warden to take precautions to prevent the starting of 

 forest or prairie fires and, when fire threatens, to go to the place of danger, to 

 call to his assistance able-l)odied men. and if any such person refuses to assist, or 

 if the fire warden himself neglects to perform the duties assigned him. such officer 

 or person is deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction is punished by a 

 fine of not more than a hundred dollars or by im])risonment for three months. 



The eliief fire warden and the local fire wardens are given authority to arrest 

 without warrant any person violating the provisions of the act and to take the 

 offender before a magistrate and make complaint against him. It is made the duty 

 of the fire wardens to inquire into the cause of each forest or prairie fire within 

 their district and to report the same to the chief fire warden, with the method 

 used to control such fires, the amount of property destroyed, the number of lives lost 

 and sucli other facts as the chief fire warden may require. 



The fire wardens receive for actual services two dollars per day, two-thirds of 

 which is paid by the county and one-third by the State. The other employees re- 

 ceive one dollar and fifty cents per day. It is provided, however, that no fire 

 warden shall be paid in any one year for more than ten days service in extinguish- 

 ing or preventing forest or prairie fires, nor more than five days' services in posting 

 notices and making reports. No county shall expend more than five hundred dollars 

 of public money iu any one year under this act. 



Any person who wilfully or carelessly causes to be set on fire any woods or 

 prairies by means whereof the property of another is injured, is guilty of a mis- 

 demeanor and upon conviction is punished by a fine not exceeding a hundred dollars 

 or by imprisonment not exceeding three mouths. If the act is malicious, destroying 

 property and endangering life, the maximum flue is $500 and the imprisonment ten 

 years. Any person who shall either kindle a fire dangerously near the forest or 

 prairie lands and leave it unquenched, or who shall use other than incombustible 

 wads for fire arms or who shall carry a naked torch or exposed light in or danger- 

 ously near forest* land, or who shall willfully or heedlessly deface or remove any 

 warning placard posted as required by the act, is liable either to a fine not exceeding 

 a hundred dollars or to three months' imprisonment. 



