272 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF NEW JERSEY. 



State ownership of roads. In fact these lanes may serve at any 

 time as roads, or may be converted into such on short notice at 

 almost any time. Fortunately gravel is almost always near at 

 Tiand, so that in the course of time the whole fire-lane system 

 may be converted into a great road system, which would add 

 much to the value of the land and increase the value of the 

 wood, owing to the ease with which it could be transported. 

 After visiting most of the forests on sandy soil in Europe, and 

 having lived a number of years in the pine-lands of South Jersey, 

 I am convinced that it is foolish to talk of forest culture and 

 silvicultural methods until fires are reduced in number. For 

 this purpose fire-lanes are essential, and this is the only scheme 

 I know of which seems practical and possible. Once institute a 

 perfect system of fire-lanes under combined State and local con- 

 trol and the number and severity of the fires will be reduced to 

 such an extent that the evil will, I am certain, gradually fade 

 away, and modern systems of silviculture will gradually creep in 

 as the value of wood and land increases. The people of the State 

 are perfectly familiar with the modus operandi of the road law, 

 and the same general principles applied to fire-lanes would be 

 no great and startling innovation, but would, I am certain, be 

 fraught with beneficial results. It is the only system which 

 appears to be perfectly adapted to the peculiar conditions 

 which exist in Southern New Jersey. 



Such an institution would have also a great educational effect. 

 Many people who had never thought of such things before 

 would be impressed by the object-lesson. The constant presence 

 of such reminders would impress upon certain classes of people 

 the facts that fires are not necessary, that the useless destruction 

 of wood is wasteful, and that the absence of wood in a country 

 which is fitted only for its production means a lack of work for 

 woodsmen, teams and sawmills. 



In addition to these fire-lanes let all the existing roads of the 

 southern part of the State become a part of this system by being 

 converted into fire-lanes, that is, widened and cleared of com- 

 bustible materials along their edges. The remotest portions of 

 these vast piney-lands will in this way become accessible, and the 

 large amount which is actually invested in woodland and 

 cranberry-bogs will be rendered safer, with surer yields. A 



