from persons who were hanging around hotels, stores, or railroad 

 stations men who refused to work when ordered out, preferring to 

 spend their time in finding fault with those who were at work, and in 

 explaining to each other how the thing should be done. There are 

 132 town firewardens appointed by the Commission, each one of 

 whom appoints district firewardens in his town, making 66 1 in all. 

 In this large number there are, undoubtedly, some who are not as 

 competent, or as well adapted to the work as could be desired. But 

 so far as I can learn each one of them did the best he could. 



As the fires increased in number it became difficult to get men 

 enough to fight them. The railroad companies brought in large 

 gangs of laborers from outside the woods to work along their lines ; 

 but that did not relieve the situation at other places. A great many 

 who had turned out willingly and fought fire at the start, abandoned 

 the work after .a while, explaining that they could not afford to 

 labor any longer and wait on the town nine months for their pay. 

 I then made an arrangement with some of the lumber companies, 

 whose lands were in danger, to send in all the men they could spare 

 from their jobs and to advance the cash needed to pay them promptly, 

 the companies to wait for reimbursement until the towns could settle 

 the account. Under this agreement a large number of experienced 

 woodsmen were set to work. 



But this did not help materially in protecting the great areas of 

 State forest in which there was no resident population, and in which 

 no one had any individual interest. Everywhere, with few excep- 

 tions, men refused to fight fire on State land if they had to depend 

 on the town for their money. In this emergency I applied to Gov- 

 ernor Odell who promptly requested the Comptroller to place $15,000 

 at the disposal of the Commission. With this fund available we 

 were able, whenever a fire broke out in the Preserve, to hire quickly 



