244 



THP: GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[August, 



laws as may appear necessary for this purpose may 

 be possible. 



Legislation in advance of public sentiment can- 

 not be expected to accomplish any very marked 

 results; and unless we can learn to appreciate the 

 rapidly increasing value of our woods in their com- 

 mercial aspect, the passage of laws, however care- 

 fully prepared, will not avail a great deal. But to 

 return to the immediate question of forest fires in 

 Massachusetts. The census investigation showed 

 that during the year 1880 fifty-two such fires were 

 set by sparks from locomotives; that forty spread 

 from carelessly burned brush heaps; that hunters 

 caused thirty-seven ; that nineteen careless smok- 

 ers dropped their lighted cigars or burning ashes 

 from their pipes and so caused disastrous confla- 

 grations. In three instances the origin of forest 

 fires is ascribed to the burning of charcoal, and in 

 only eight cases to malice. It appears, then, that 

 the railroads are responsible for the greatest num- 

 ber of these fires; and that the remainder may be 

 generally traced to sheer carelessness. The rail- 

 roads are already held responsible for the actual 

 damage they inflict upon property in this way; but, 

 as has been shown, the destruction of trees is 

 only a small part of the real damage caused by 

 forest fires. Still the railroads cannot be held re- 

 sponsible under the law for the prospective dam- 

 age represented by a partial or entire destruction 

 of the plant-producing capacity of soil which they 

 have burned ; nor can they well be made to pay 

 for the loss of confidence in forest property which 

 such fires cause. Such damages can neither be 

 estimated nor collected. Fires set by locomotives 

 can, however, be largely prevented by the general 

 adoption of some effectual spark-arrester. 



It is true that such a contrivance has not yet 

 been perfected to the entire satisfaction of railroad 

 « experts; but if the railroads were compelled to 

 adopt some of the existing patents, American in- 

 genuity and skill can be depended on to perfect 

 them. 



It is a case where supply will quickly follow the 

 demand. As a first step, then, towards checking 

 the spread of forest fires, the Legislature should 

 compel all railroad corporations operating within 

 the State to provide their locomotives with spark- 

 consumers. Such appliances are in general use in 

 Europe, and locomotives should not be longer op- 

 erated without them in this State. 



One of the principal dangers to the forest, and 

 more especially to the coniferous forest, which we 

 in Massachusetts, when we increase our lumbering 

 operations, shall soon learn to dread more gener- 



ally than at present, comes from the custom of 

 leaving scattered about the ground the tops and 

 branches of the tree's cut down during the winter. 

 This debris becomes, bv the middle of the follow- 

 ing summer, as dry as tinder, and furnishes the 

 very best material to feed a fire started in the 

 woods. Any enactment intended to prevent forest 

 fires should contain a provision compelling, under 

 penalty of fine, the collection and careful burning 

 during the winter in which the trees are cut, of all 

 parts of them not actually carried from the ground. 

 The possibility of successfully dealing with persons 

 carelessly setting fire to forests is more difficult and 

 more remote. Such persons rarely confess their 

 carelessness, and still find protection in public in- 

 difference. 



But until public sentiment makes it possible to 

 convict a person setting carelessly or wantonly a 

 forest fire, and to hold him responsible under the 

 law for the damage he inflicts, the solution of these 

 questions will not be very near. The following was 

 passed by the last Legislature: 



An Act for the Protection of Forests Against 



Fires. 



Whoever wantonly and recklessly sets fire to 

 any material which causes the destruction or in- 

 jury of any growing or standing wood of another, 

 shall be punished by fine not exceeding one hun- 

 dred dollars, or by imprj|onment in the county jail 

 not exceeding six months. 



The passage of such a bill, defective as it is, in- 

 dicates at least a feeling that at last the forests of 

 Massachusetts should be protected. The law as it 

 now stands upon the statute book should, however, 

 be amended. It is not comprehensive enough and 

 it is not severe enough. It would not be very dif- 

 ficult to draft a bill to cover the necessities of the 

 case, if the feelings of the community in regard to 

 the value of forest property were more advanced; 

 but with the existing apathy in regard to the sub- 

 ject, and the impossibility of securing now, with- 

 out a full discussion by the press and the people of 

 the forest question, the enforcement of any proper 

 law upon the subject, it seems better to present the 

 subject thus generally for your discussion and con- 

 sideration, without attempting to sketch even the 

 form of such a bill as seems necessary to afford 

 Massachusetts protection from forest fires. The 

 better understanding of the forest question as it ex- 

 ists in New England to-day, which must follow any 

 discussion of this subject, is the best guarantee that 

 our forests will in time be protected, and that they 

 will receive the care and attention which in their 

 present economic aspect, if in no other, they de- 

 serve at our hands. 



