42 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



branch of the State Government, co-ordinate with, and not 

 subordinate to, agriculture, geology, and other departments. 

 The advisory head of such a state forestry department is gener- 

 ally a commission or board appointed by the Governor. The 

 commission is non-salaried, and is composed of men of attain- 

 ment known to be interested in forestry. They appoint a state 

 forester, who manages all work of the department, appointing 

 and directing necessary subordinates. The commission meets 

 periodically to advise the state forester on questions of general 

 policy. The usual work carried on by such a department in a 

 state of considerable forest resources are forest protection, 

 afforestation of waste lands, acquisition and management of 

 state forests, besides public educational work in all these 

 branches. These will be discussed separately. 



Forest Protection. 



Most of the important timber states have now assumed as a 

 public duty the protection of both public and private forests 

 from fire, insects, and diseases. In nearly every region the 

 first support of forestry by the state itself has been directed 

 toward the prevention and extinguishing of forest fires. In 

 a country like Scotland, where destructive fires in woodlands 

 are rare, the importance of such work is difficult to realise. In 

 the United States, however, every forest region has suffered 

 heavily from fire. The damage has increased as cuttings 

 became more extensive, since lumbering slash is seldom re- 

 moved, and in most places constitutes a fire menace for from 

 five to ten years after cutting. The causes of fires vary some- 

 what in different regions. In New Hampshire about 30 per 

 cent, are due to mechanical agencies, such as railroad loco- 

 motives, steam saw-mills, and logging machinery ; 65 per cent, 

 are due to human agencies, such as brush burning, careless 

 smokers, camp fires of careless hunters and fishermen, etc- 

 (only 5 per cent, of these are incendiary) ; and 5 per cent, are 

 from lightning. Fires running through mature timber generally 

 leave considerable salvage, but in the young growing stands 

 the loss is often complete. During the past eight years in New 

 Hampshire the areas burned on different classes of land were 

 as follows: — cut-over land (slash), 33 per cent. ; unmerchantable 

 growing stands, 40 per cent. ; merchantable stands, 18 per cent, ; 

 grass and farm lands, 9 per cent. A considerable amount of 



