REPORT ON FORESTS. 273 



large amount of money which is lost in fire-fighting will be 

 saved. 



Just as there was opposition in the beginning to the new road 

 law, so there will be opposition to such a scheme ; but let the 

 State inaugurate it in a trial district and soon others will follow. 

 It will not, of course, stop all forest fires, but it will certainly 

 reduce their size, stop their fury and save the loss of much 

 valuable material. The new State road from Atlantic City to 

 Camden is a fair sample of what is needed. It serves at the 

 same time the purpose of fire-lane and thoroughfare. Formerly 

 it was a bed of hot, dusty sand. Many new buildings have been 

 constructed along the road, and owing to the ease of communi- 

 cation and transportation it has brought the people along it 

 closer together and has instilled into the old residents a certain 

 amount of life and spirit which they never would otherwise 

 have obtained. If cleared of brush along their sides, many of 

 the gravel roads of South Jersey, which are often now the points 

 from which fires start, would serve as fire-lanes in preventing 

 the spread of fire and as vantage grounds in combatting it. The 

 local officials who have charge of these roads and lanes could, if 

 required, extinguish many fires in their incipient stages. 



The consideration of these fire-lanes as future roads leads to 

 the second important condition markets and transportation. 



This question needs but little consideration. A glance at the 

 map is sufficient to convince anyone that no region could be 

 more auspiciously located in this respect. With plenty of good 

 gravel with which to construct roads, with many railroads, with 

 many navigable rivers and with two of the largest cities of this 

 country near at hand, but little more in this respect could be 

 desired. At the same time, however, we must not fail to con- 

 sider the fact that other great wood-producing regions are near 

 at hand and that in Pennsylvania there are immense quantities 

 of coal. This state of affairs naturally suggests that the pro- 

 duction of wood for fuel, as is now generally the case, is the 

 least profitable of the forest industries which may be practised 

 in South Jersey. 



The third condition relates to land and labor. This question 

 also needs little consideration. There are thousands of acres 

 which may be had at a ridicuously low figure, considering the 



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