20 REPORT OF THE FOREST COMMISSION. 



May on record" for this region. This condition, following 

 without break the drouth of the two months preceding, places 

 this as the worst month o>f the year and the worst individual 

 month for many years. From, Massachusetts comes this state- 

 ment : "Not in many years has Massachusetts been subjected 

 to so terrible a fire scourge as has fallen to her lot the past 

 spring. By the middle of May the losses were easily twice as 

 great as for the entire twelve months of 1910." Pennsylvania 

 was visited by a veritable scourge of spring forest fires. Maine 

 was so beset that the annual forest fire appropriation of $68,000 

 and a $10,000 Federal forest fire patrol fund were exhausted 

 by the middle of August in the effort to check the conflagration. 



TABLE; i. FOREST FIRES IN 1911 AND PREVIOUS YEARS. 



These general conditions are accurately reflected in the forest 

 fire record for this State, which shows that 84 per cent, of the 

 true forest fires, and over 75 per cent, of all fires reported, 



