64 FORESTRY 



whenever the system is used. The State of Maine has 

 for several years maintained a system of state fire war- 

 dens in the unorganized wild lands of the northern por- 

 tion. These lands are divided into districts over which a 

 deputy fire warden presides, who can employ rangers. 

 As but $10,000 was appropriated for this purpose, the 

 land owners offered to pay the expense of rangers if the 

 state would appoint them and a great deal more was 

 spent by associations of owners in wages than the total 

 state fund. But as each warden has the authority of the 

 state behind him, the whole plan was satisfactory. A sys- 

 tem was developed of building watch towers on high hills 

 and establishing one of these wardens as a lookout with 

 telephone connections, to report the first sign of fire. 

 This plan was found to have great merits, as long as the 

 fires were kept down, but with a smoky atmosphere the 

 watch towers were no longer useful. The plan has been 

 adopted in the West using mountain tops as stations. 



The idea of allowing owners of land to pay for men to 

 patrol their lands, and secure state co-operation by having 

 these men appointed as state fire wardens, was adopted 

 on the Pacific Coast, in the states of California, Oregon, 

 Washington and Idaho. Timber holdings of immense 

 value were here constantly threatened by fire. Under 

 state laws, associations were formed which now employ 

 hundreds of rangers and at a cost of from 1 to 4 cents per 

 acre have reduced the losses from fire to a small fraction 

 of the former loss. This seems to be the fairest and sim- 

 plest way to secure patrol on private lands. But it is not 

 easy to bring it about except where lands are held by large 

 owners, as corporations. An instance in Pennsylvania 

 where the same principle is effective is the Pocono Pro- 

 tective Association, consisting of a large corporation in- 

 terested in protecting the head waters of streams for 

 water flow, and a number of proprietors of summer hotels 

 and parks. The law of Pennsylvania as it stands pro- 



