4 



extinguished before any loss occurred. Some of these started 

 last spring at times when, by reason of a few days of warm sun 

 and wind, the dry leaves on the forest floor were in a dangerous 

 condition; and had there been no organized force at hand they 

 would, as in previous years, have resulted in fierce flames that 

 swept rapidly through the woods until rain came. 



From the consolidated .reports of the town firewardens in the 

 Adirondack counties it appears that the total area of woodland 

 burned over in 1904, aggregated 1,635 acres, not including meadow 

 or waste land ; and that the total damages to standing timber, as 

 estimated by them, amounted to $930. That the loss is dispropor- 

 tionately small is due to the fact that most of the reports were 

 for surface fires that merely burned the dead leaves on the ground 

 without charring the bark on the trees or killing the timber. As 

 one firewarden described it in his report, "The fire just skimmed 

 over the leaves and did not do any damage to standing timber, as 

 the ground was so damp." 



In the Catskill counties, as shown by the tabulated reports of 

 the firewardens for 1904, there were 992 acres of woodlands that 

 were run over by fire. On this area the standing timber was 

 injured to an extent estimated at $570. 



The loss of timber on the Forest Preserve was very slight. Of 

 the 1,635 acres of woodland that were scorched or burned over in 

 the Adirondacks, only 51 acres belonged to the State; and of the 

 992 acres thus injured in the Catskills, only 45 acres were State 

 lands. The total damage to State timber in both sections, as 

 estimated on the various burned areas, amounted in all to $81. 

 There were only two fires of any note in the Adirondacks. One 

 occurred June 20th, on the lands of the Rich Lumber Company, 

 near Wanakena, Township 15, St. Lawrence County About 100 



