64 REPORT OF THE FOREST COMMISSION. 



FIRE. 



The year's record is again good. Only 100 acres burned on the 

 Penn Reserve the first fire that has touched it since the State 

 came into posession, and a fraction of an acre on the Stokes 

 Reserve. Lebanon escaped entirely for the first time in its his- 

 tory as a reserve at least. Bass River, Mays Landing and Mount 

 Laurel likewise have "not suffered. This satisfactory situation is 

 due only in part to favorable weather conditions. If either of the 

 two fires started had not been discovered quickly and handled 

 energetically it probably would have become serious. 



The properties are more secure than they ever have been be- 

 cause more and better fire lines are maintained (Fig. 3) be- 

 cause township wardens as well as reserve wardens are vigilant, 

 and, above all, because the strict enforcement of the forest fire law 

 (see p. 28) is making everybody more careful about fire. A few 

 more years of immunity will carry many of the young pine stands 

 beyond all ordinary danger, for it is the gr^at virtue of our common 

 pitch pine that after early youth it is highly fire-resistant. Fig. 2. 



TELEPHONES. 



A measure of protection which the reserves enjoy in common 

 with the forests that surround them is found in the Federal fire 

 patrol see p. 48, in the postal service patrol, and in the con- 

 stantly extending telephone service. So important and so valuable 

 is the latter that the Forest Commission felt justified in securing the 

 erection of a line from Chatsworth, Burlington County, to a private 

 cranberry bog on the East Branch of Wading River and contribut- 

 ing $300 toward the cost. This line, nine miles long, traverses 

 Penn Reserve and brings into communication a section of the State 

 having few inhabitants but much subject to forest fires. To this 

 construction all property owners except one gladly consented 

 and gave free right-of-way. It is worth observing that this 

 objector demanded $250 for the right to set poles on his land. Of 

 course he did not get it, one sufficient reason, though not the only 

 one, being that a strip of similar land 100 feet wide and as long 

 as the line across his property can be bought in fee simple for $50. 

 The telephone line was carried around the objector at an addi- 

 tional cost of less than $40. 



