36 Forestry Quarterly 



average years, to about 0.5 acre per 1,000 acres, or 1 acre per 

 10,000. If the cost of this quaHty of protection can be determined, 

 the desirability and the possibiHty of increasing the investment 

 in protection may be made obvious. 



Practically all of the permanent improvements constructed 

 vvrould be required for protection alone, were there no adminis- 

 trative needs for them. For correct book-keeping the cost should 

 be pro-rated between the different lines of Forest work, but 

 for present purposes they can all be charged against protection. 

 This comes to 0.2 cent per acre. 



For "administration and protection" a total of about 2.47 cents 

 per acre is reported. It has been assumed that about a fourth 

 of this reaches the Forests for protection work, or about 0.5 

 cent per acre. 



With an average, annual loss through damage of $116,000, 

 the average loss per acre is about .78 cents per acre. 



With an average annual bill for fire-fighting of about $62,000 

 the average costs per acre are about 0.004 cents. 



The totals for permanent improvements, protection force, losses 

 and emergency fire-fighting costs, according to these calculations, 

 reach less than 1.5 cents per acre. If the costs and losses of 

 1910 are included, the total averages about 2.6 cents per acre. 

 This figure does not represent any fair index as to the total cost 

 to the forest business caused by fire. That cost will be far 

 greater. It should, however, indicate the disproportionately small 

 amount which the Forest Service has been able to invest in 

 actual protection work, and it proves the tremendous effective- 

 ness of the organization. 



It would be highly profitable to know what the ratio between 

 cost and effectiveness in protection is. If the type and work of 

 the protective forces remain the same, what would be the effect 

 on losses of doubling the amount expended for protection? 

 Would this lower the losses by 50 per cent? If such a ratio 

 could be determined it might be possible to approximate the 

 cost of an organization which would reduce fire damage to a 

 satisfactorily nominal amount. It will be for a long time impos- 

 sible to determine any such ratio from the statistics. Weather 

 conditions, changes in effectiveness with the increase of experience 

 in the fire force, etc., must be discounted, and the statistics must 



