8 REPORT OF THE FOREST COMMISSION. 



used to burn for days. And the serious fires are concentrated in 

 dry periods when everything goes so quickly that even vigilant 

 wardens cannot always be in time. How efficient the present for- 

 est fire service is may be gathered from the following statements: 



Loss The number of fires which burned five acres or more was 

 reduced from 289 in 1911 to 214 in 1912, while of the last only 

 fifty-one covered over 100 acres and only three over 1,000 acres. 

 The total area burned in 1912 was 26,291 acres against 64,404 

 acres in 1911, The total loss in 1912 was $21,501. The loss in 

 1911 was $86,940. Comparisons with earlier years are made in 



Table I, p. 16. 



% 



CAUSES In respect to origin, the proportion of fires for which 

 no definite cause can be assigned has been reduced from about 

 fifty per cent, to twenty-six per cent. This means efficient war- 

 dens, for an invariable sign of a weak organization is a large pro- 

 portion of "cause unknown" fires. Fires from brush burning were 

 reduced to thirty-eight, only seven per cent, of the total, 

 though 4,100 permits were issued. Last year there were sixty- 

 five fires from burning brush. It is significant that as the 

 consequences of many brush burnings are made apparent and 

 emphasized by penalties enforced, people find that brush fires need 

 not be made at all. The railroads continue to be the chief source 

 of forest fires. Yet this statement can be made as information 

 rather than complaint since all the more important roads are work- 

 ing earnestly to lessen the hazard that their trains inevitably create. 

 Though 295 fires were started, the firewardens and railroad men 

 were so vigilant that only 25 of them burned as much as fifty 

 acres. 



RAILROAD FIRE LINE LAW The Commission deeply regrets 

 that this law, 2 Comp. Stat. p. 2,339, under which so much has 

 been done to guard the forests against fire from the railroads, has 

 been declared unconstitutional by the Court of Chancery. An ap- 

 peal has been taken to the Court of Errors and it is hoped that 

 the decision may be reversed. The value of these fire lines to the 

 railroads, as well as to property owners, is indicated by the instruc- 

 tions issued by superintendents in the Pennsylvania Railroad Sys- 

 tem. See p. 53. 



