362 Forestry Quarterly 



The forest fire statistics of Pennsylvania show that in 1915 the 

 losses total up to $850,000. Some 42,000 acres of State forest and 

 295,000 acres of private forest were burned over, and $32,000 was 

 spent in extinguishing fires. Railroads are still the largest single 

 cause — an almost entirely avoidable cause, as is being demon- 

 strated in Canada. 



The average fire covered 300 acres, did damage estimated at 

 $775, and cost $30 to finally extinguish. It is found that 77 of 

 the 1,101 fires burned over 1,000 acres each, or about 60 per cent 

 of the total burned area, showing that these larger fires need par- 

 ticular attention of the protective service, which has by the last 

 legislature been created into a Bureau of Forest Protection with 

 an appropriation, to be sure, of only $45,000. The total number 

 of wardens charged with fire protection is now 1800 ; but the 

 appropriation is too small to use this force effectually, and is 

 only just about one fortieth of the loss for 1915 in timber alone. 

 But as a newspaper editorial points out, the indirect loss caused 

 by keeping unproductive 5,000,000 acres of forest, every acre of 

 which is burned over once in ten years ; the loss of floods, water 

 famines and impure water supply ; the loss of taxes due to depre- 

 ciation amounting to about $300,000, and other such losses may 

 aggregate 15 to 25 million dollars. 



A striking tribute to the efftciency of the fire protection work 

 of the State Forest Service is conveyed in the reduction of the 

 insurance rate for Northern Minnesota by the State Insurance 

 Commissioner to that prevailing for Southern Minnesota. The 

 aggregate of the reductions far exceeds the total appropriation 

 for the whole forest service. 



The forestry work of New Jersey, which was first carried 

 on by the Geological Survey, then by a forest commission, has 

 grown into wider scope in 1915 under the Department of Con- 

 servation and Development, Alfred Gaskill Director, which is 

 charged by law with the "full control and direction of all State 

 conservation and development projects and of all work in any 

 way relating thereto, except such work as is conferred on other 

 boards." This Department works under a Governing Board of 

 eight appointees with two Divisions, namely that of Geology and 

 that of Forestry and Parks. A pamphlet lately issued de- 



