230 ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



northern Illinois are sufficiently isolated to confine fires 

 to relatively small areas. The tracts in southern Illi- 

 nois, however, are more continuous and public sentiment 

 against burning is not so well developed. Results com- 

 piled from the questionnaires show that out of 217 farm- 

 ers 80 per cent were against and 20 per cent in favor 

 of annual burning. Out of 296 answers, causes for fires 

 were assigned to the following: 



Campers and hunters 103 



Carelessness 54 



Burning to kill insects 37 



Brush and grass burning 32 



Railroads 26 



Smoking 25 



Lightning 6 



Incendiary r 3 



Total answering 296 



It can be seen from this list of causes that about 89 

 per cent of the fires are due to man and are preventable. 

 One fourth of this 89 per cent are set by farmers 

 themselves under the pretext of killing insects or 

 benefiting grazing. Burning over the entire woodland 

 to kill chinch bugs is inexcusable (Flint '22) since in- 

 vestigations on the edges of woods have shown that at a 

 distance of 50 feet about 90 per cent of the bugs are left 

 behind, as they seek the sunny edges of the woods, being 

 found mostly on the south and west sides. The burning 

 of a narrow strip around the timber would not only kill 

 the greater per cent of them but make a satisfactory fire 

 guard to prevent the entrance of fires. As to benefiting 

 grazing, the idea is prevalent that the ashes of the 

 burned grass act as a fertilizer, but this is probably 

 more than counterbalanced by damage to the roots of the 

 grass. Wherever there is a rail or "worm fence" around 

 the woods we usually find that fires are kept out, as 

 farmers do not like to rebuild their fences, and this is 

 true especially in southern Illinois. 



(c.) Taxes. In spite of answers from farmers in 

 certain sections showing that taxes were excessive on 



